topic Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29) in Documentation

Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

iggiv — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 23:45:43 GMT

Hello everyone,

I'm experiencing a strange Publisher issue in Archicad 29 INT (macOS) that only affects one specific PLN file.

When publishing a Layout Book:

Publisher completes successfully.
Every layout shows Status: Saved.
The destination folder is created.
The Xrefed ARCHICAD Views folder is created.
PNG reference images are exported.
However, no DWG or PDF files are actually created.

I've already tried the following:

Created a new Publisher Set.
Published only one layout.
Changed the output folder.
Used the standard Graphisoft DWG translator.
Opened the project with Repair.
Saved as PLA and reopened.
Verified macOS permissions.
Searched the entire computer for the exported files.

The important part is that:

File → Save As → DWG from the same layout works perfectly.
The same Publisher settings and translator work correctly in another project.

This makes me believe the problem is specific to this PLN file.

Has anyone experienced this before or knows how to repair the Publisher or project database without rebuilding the project?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

Barry Kelly — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 13:46:54 GMT

Are you saving to a cloud folder or drive?

If so, try saving to you local hard drive or a network drive.

Barry.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

iggiv — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 04:21:47 GMT

Thank you, Barry.

I appreciate the suggestion. I have already tested publishing to a local folder on my Mac's internal drive (Desktop/Documents), so the issue does not appear to be related to a cloud location or network drive.

Here is what I have confirmed so far:

File → Save As → PDF works correctly.
File → Save As → DWG also works correctly.
Publisher → PDF creates the destination folder but no PDF files.
Publisher → DWG creates the destination folder, the "Xrefed ARCHICAD Views" folder, and the PNG reference files, but no DWG files.
The Publisher reports that every item was "Saved", with no errors.
I created a completely new Publisher Set and also tested with a single layout.
I opened the project using the Repair option and also tested a PLA copy.
I reset Archicad preferences.
The same Publisher settings and translators work correctly in another project.

At this point, it appears to be something specific to this PLN file or its Publisher database rather than the output location.

Has anyone encountered a similar issue where the Publisher reports success but never writes the final PDF or DWG files?

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

Barry Kelly — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:28:28 GMT

Can you alter the names of what you are saving?

I see there is a dot (.) before each name.

I find it is good practice not to use dots in file names as that is the file extension delimiter.

Barry.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

Karl Ottenstein — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 02:21:21 GMT

…and more than that… macOS is a Unix based operating system and file names beginning with a period are invisible in Finder.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

Barry Kelly — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 02:52:50 GMT

That would explain why they say they are saved but iggiv can't see them.

Thanks Karl.

Barry.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

ryejuan — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 04:43:36 GMT

have you tried selecting this option in the publishing set properties?

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

iggiv — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 10:53:20 GMT

Good morning everyone. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me solve this!

Regarding changing the file name with the prefix number, I could definitely look into that. However, AC automatically saves the file, so it seems to be working as expected. It seems to be related to the floor level. But since AC28, this hasn’t been an issue, so I’m guessing it’s not the problem.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

iggiv — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 10:58:19 GMT

Good morning Karl, thanks for getting back to me. As I mentioned to Barry, I believe this is not the issue. The prefix number only appears when saving files, but not when naming the save files it self.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

iggiv — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:00:18 GMT

Barry:

I’m not sure if this is the problem, but I’ll give it a shot to see if it is.

However, I need to run another test first. I think I’ve come up with a new theory that I haven’t tried yet. I’ll post it at the end.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

iggiv — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:02:37 GMT

Good morning Ryejuan:

Thank you for your help; I appreciate your response. I believe I did, but there was no result either. I am going to post a new theory that I need to test to confirm. I will explain my working procedure, but I have hope this could be the issue. Please bear with me as I explain in the next post.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

iggiv — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:34:38 GMT

Update

First of all, thank you, Barry, Karl, RyeJuan, and everyone else for taking the time to help. I truly appreciate all of your suggestions.

After all the testing I've done, I no longer believe this is related to the output folder, file permissions, the DWG translator, or the Publisher Set itself. File → Save As works correctly for both PDF and DWG. The issue only occurs when using the Publisher, regardless of whether I publish to PDF or DWG.

I now have another theory that I would like to test, and I think it's worth explaining my project workflow because it may be related.

Originally, this project was developed as a single PLN. It included the complete site, both towers, and several DWG references while I was developing the model. As the project grew, the file became very large (over 6 GB), and performance slowed considerably.

To improve performance, I divided the project into three separate files:

A file for the apartment units.
A file for the North and South Towers.
A Site file, which became the main coordination project.

The Site file contains the terrain and both tower models as Hotlinked Modules. It also contains the complete Layout Book used to produce the final drawing set.

While working on the sloping site (approximately 3 meters of elevation difference), I encountered a display issue. The Hotlinked tower modules did not display correctly on the Site floor plans. As a workaround, I turned off the tower Hotlinks on the Site floor plans and instead overlaid the floor plan views imported from the Tower file. The Hotlinked tower models are still used for the elevations and sections so the terrain and building relationships are represented correctly.

Interestingly, I use the same workflow for my apartment unit modules, and their layouts publish without any problems. The issue only affects the tower layouts that are brought into the Site project.

At this point, I'm wondering whether this workflow could somehow be affecting the Publisher in the Site PLN.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to fully investigate this right now because I have an important project presentation deadline. For the moment, I am manually exporting the PDFs and DWGs using File → Save As, which works correctly.

As soon as I have time to test this theory, I will report back with the results. Hopefully, this information may also help someone else who encounters a similar issue in the future.

Thank you again to everyone for your time, suggestions, and willingness to help.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

iggiv — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 13:37:39 GMT

Solved! 🎉

First of all, thank you to Barry, Karl, RyeJuan, and everyone who helped me troubleshoot this issue. I really appreciate all of your suggestions.

After hours of testing, the solution turned out to be surprisingly simple.

The problem was that my Publisher Subset did not have a Custom ID assigned (first image).

All I did was add "CRD" as the Custom ID (second image), and everything immediately started working. Publisher now exports both PDF and DWG files correctly.

What made this so confusing was that Publisher always reported "Saved", created the folders and Xref images, but never generated the final PDF or DWG files.

I honestly thought my project had become corrupted and was already planning to rebuild it. What a relief!

Hopefully this helps someone else in the future.

Thank you all again! 🍻

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

Barry Kelly — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:32:55 GMT

So, as Karl said, any file beginning with a period will be invisible on a MAC system.

I am sure there will be a way to show hidden files, but I know nothing about MACs.

The files are there, just hidden.

By you adding the custom ID, the saved file name no longer starts with a period, so the files will not be invisible.

Still that is not the problem exactly.

You don't need the prefix if you don't want it.

Just turn off the "Add prefix for this subset" option or don't use the period as the prefix, use something else.

Barry.

Re: Publisher reports "Saved" but no DWG or PDF files are created (Archicad 29)

iggiv — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 11:17:36 GMT

Thank you again, Barry:

Yes, I understand now and I’m glad to know it wasn’t a corrupted file. Rebuilding would have taken a lot of time and there’s still a chance they might make the same mistake. Thanks to everyone, this has been solved. It was a bit scary.