topic Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts. in Documentation

PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

Stuart Smith — Fri, 26 May 2023 00:39:05 GMT

Here's the situation:

ArchiCAD 8.1v2/PlotMaker 3.1v2 (Mac)

.lbk file located on a server, with drawings imported from a .plp located in the same folder as the layout book.

My coworker opens up the layout book and updates the drawings. All library parts from the 'ArchiCad Library 8.1' (which is in the ArchiCAD application folder on her local drive) are missing. However, library parts from the project library (located on the server, in the same folder as the .lbk and .plp) are loaded.

My coworker saves and closes the .lbk and I open it up on my machine, and update the drawings. Everything is as it should be, all library parts are loaded. Hmm.

We try it again on her machine, and the parts are not loaded.

What would cause her copy of BGArchiCAD to not load the ArchiCAD library, while mine loads it just fine? We've tried trashing the PlotMaker preferences as well as all the Graphisoft preferences. We've tried deleting and reimporting the drawings.

The last thing I can think of is that my machine is on OS X 10.3 and hers is on OS X 10.2. Would that do it?

Any help would be appreciated.

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

Anonymous — Wed, 05 May 2004 00:20:33 GMT

Is each hard drive named exactly the same on both machines? I ask because I have heard that if the path is named the same on both machines this is not a problem. I have not relocated all of the libraries in our office yet, so I'm interested in the answer to this problem.

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

SeaGeoff — Wed, 05 May 2004 07:46:33 GMT

I experienced the basically same thing. So I exploded the 8.1 library and put it, as well as the office library, on the server. Shared projects and templates now point there and it has worked well. Load times are only slightly longer than with local .pla but we don't yet have a ton of office parts so that may change over time.

Clearly AC and BGAC should start their search paths from the directory where they (the applications themselves) are located. Then HD and user names wouldn't interfere.

Better yet, library parts should load into the file as they are added to the project, similar to the .pla. The process of loading libraries would become very fast as they would simply be pointers. Files would all act like archives and therefor be portable without having to sweat having everything perfect at the destination. And BGAC wouldn't have to load any libraries at all to do it's work.

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

__archiben — Wed, 05 May 2004 08:43:05 GMT

the issue of library paths and mac networking has been a thorn in my side since the release of archiCAD 8. i think we've got it sussed now, but not without a lot of trouble. there are several of my posts around this forum addressing BGarchiCAD library loading woes - do a search! in one post i did think that the issue was something to do with static and dynamic file paths. resolving this could help:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=6438&highlight=library+path#6438

or . . . :

Geoff wrote:
Better yet, library parts should load into the file as they are added to the project, similar to the .pla. The process of loading libraries would become very fast as they would simply be pointers. Files would all act like archives and therefor be portable without having to sweat having everything perfect at the destination. And BGAC wouldn't have to load any libraries at all to do it's work.

yes! the 'matthew lohden solution' as always is three steps ahead of GS!!!

~/archiben

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

Laszlo Nagy — Wed, 05 May 2004 09:17:16 GMT

The following ArchiGuide Tech Note is about this issue, I believe:

http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/archiguide/SearchMethodofBGAC.html

HTH, Laszlo

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

Anonymous — Wed, 05 May 2004 12:09:33 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
The following ArchiGuide Tech Note is about this issue, I believe:

http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/archiguide/SearchMethodofBGAC.html

HTH, Laszlo

I've never seen the error message, but have had missing library parts when updating in plotmaker. Is the message only in Windows systems?

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

Stuart Smith — Wed, 05 May 2004 14:43:11 GMT

Making the names of the respective local drives the same solved the problem, the local ArchiCAD Library was loaded.

However, this behaviour is not very intuitive, and very un-Mac-like. Saving a relative path to local libraries seems to make more sense to me.

Thank you all for the help.

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

Anonymous — Wed, 05 May 2004 17:12:41 GMT

working in teamwork will solve the problem, too, provided you do one thing...

when the library manager comes up and asks you to find the AC8.1 library located on another local drive, DO NOT "remove" that library from your list. Instead, just select your local library and add it to the list.

the next time you log in, AC will remember to look for your local library, and it will show up properly. The library on the other machine will still show up as missing, but its not a problem since you've already got one loading.

On a recent large teamwork file, my team had about 6 AC8.1 libraries in the "missing libraries" column - one for each teammate's local drive. Seems to work just fine, and I kinda like being asked to doublecheck which libraries I want to load when I open the project.

still a workaround though. GS needs to resolve the pathname problem for solo projects.

HTH
wes

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

tsturm — Thu, 06 May 2004 14:42:51 GMT

Weston,

Nice idea about attaching the AC 8.1 library for each user. We stopped using a remote 8.1 library some time back as the time it took to load this .pla was much longer than the time it took to attach a local one.

We will need to try the multiple idea. Currently, we only put the Office standard and any purchased libraries on the remote machine (server). This way as the Office standard gets new parts people can get the updates without the hassle of trying to determine which parts are current.

BGArchiCAD was a great idea. It allowed us to open more than one project to copy and paste items around. We liike using it for detail work between large wall section details and the wall sections/building sections.

We have chosen not to allow Plotmaker to launch AC to update the drawings. We like to have AC running at the same time. If a drawing needs to be updated, we jump to AC update the drawing and then go to PM to update the link.

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

Anonymous — Thu, 20 May 2004 11:27:42 GMT

BGArchiCAD still seems to struggle with libraries, especially with Teamwork. It appears that the library paths used by BGArchiCAD are read from the Teamwork draft preference file rather than the .plp file paths. Therefore if libraries don't load properly it is worth trashing the draft preference file and seeing if this works.

Somehow it also seems possible to have a library path name that is valid in the teamwork .plp but not valid in BGArchiCAD. This can be fixed by signing in with exclusive access, removing offending libraries and adding them again and then sending changes. Have done this today for a project we could not get to work any other way and finally got the objects to appear.

We stopped using a remote 8.1 library some time back as the time it took to load this .pla was much longer than the time it took to attach a local one.

We are still using a network ArchiCAD 8.1 library, but using cache libraries, this seems to work OK and speeds up loading of network libraries.

Suggestion. if BGArchiCAD can' find a library couldn't it display the library manager and get the user to find it?

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

Greg Kmethy — Thu, 20 May 2004 14:58:30 GMT

Library paths are stored in the plp file. The most important thing that has to be remembered when using TeamWork, is that the library paths stored in the plp are the ones saved by the team leader with exclusive access. The team leader with exclusive access is the ONLY person who can modify stored paths. (when you first share a project, then the paths loaded at the time of sharing will be saved naturally)

To have BGArchiCAD work properly with TeamWork, there are two possible ways to set up the libraries:

- paths saved by the team leader with exclusive access should be valid and working for all teammates,
OR
- ALL libraries should be placed locally in the ArchiCAD folder for each teammate.

You must use either of the above patterns, unfortunately you can't mix them. E.g. if one of the saved paths is valid, ArchiCAD will not search the ArchiCAD library for further libraries.

We are aware that this needs to be improved and we are working on the solution.

HTH,
Greg

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

__archiben — Thu, 20 May 2004 15:40:08 GMT

greg

yes: the libraries are initially stored in the PLP file when the project is shared or by the teamleader with exclusive access.

but if a teammate uses their library manager to change library paths, these new libraries get saved in the teammates draft preference file, for example:

~/Library/Preferences/Graphisoft/AC 8.1.0 v2/BEN FROST EXAMPLE PROJECT NAME

now: when BGarchiCAD loads the PLP it also reads the draft preferences in the same way that archiCAD does and should still work as normal, however, on occasion the path names saved in the draft prefs don't seem to want to work with BGarchiCAD in the same manner as the paths in the PLP . .

on a similar note (the archiCAD/BGarchiCAD crossover), it is also a real pain in that because BGarchiCAD opens PLP files and rather than signs-in to them, it means that PLP files will show in the "Open" 'recent files' startup dialogue of normal archiCAD. (see screenshot).

i appreciate that BGarchiCAD has to perform many (most) of the same functions as archiCAD does, however there doesn't seem to have been much thought about where the functionality of one begins and the other ends:

library paths (above)
'recent files' list (above)
teamwork file access privileges: BGarchiCAD doesn't place a LCK file; an archiCAD teammate sending changes conflicts with BGarchiCAD

alternatively . . . !
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=1132

~/archiben

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

tsturm — Fri, 28 May 2004 04:17:55 GMT

Andy wrote:
Suggestion. if BGArchiCAD can' find a library couldn't it display the library manager and get the user to find it?

Darn good suggestion. I would really recommend that you put this wish into GS.

I get tired of opening older files after some one "tweeked" the server only to sit around for ten minutes just to get the library manager window.

I know where the libraries are, get me the library manager pronto, and I can get working faster. Not really sure what the Library Manager is spending all that time doing.

Re: PlotMaker/BGArchiCAD is driving me nuts.

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 01:57:37 GMT

I had been having this problem on the original release of 8.1 and started reading the drawings from a pla instead of a pln. This method has also proven to be the most effective way of helping me to back up my project frequently and has saved my butt on a few occasions when the bpn didn't. If you use libraries with lots of external macros you have to save as a pla and make sure you aren't including all parts of loaded libraries the first time, if pieces are missing then open the pla load the macros and save as pla with all parts of loaded libraries, each subsequent save as should be done without all parts of loaded libraries as this should not be necessary and will also help keep the file size down. When the project is done you can be confident that it has been properly archived with all the appropriate parts according to the documents submitted. You save the pla and lbk which are already linked to each other and can discard the rest.

FWIW