Project data & BIM
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Library location

Anonymous
Not applicable
I'm about to start putting together a custom library to be used alongside the standard archicad 9 library in my office (of 7 Archicad users).

Can this new library live on our server, or is it better (in terms of loading speeds + data protection) to have a copy on each machine?

And should I create a .PLA containing the new library parts, or is leaving it as a series of folders ok? I guess archiving it makes it harder for people to tamper with the parts.
5 REPLIES 5
TomWaltz
Participant
We have the Archicad Library (100+ MB PLA) on the local machines.

The office library (~10 MB of misc GSM files) is in the CAD_Standards folder on the network.

Each project library (~1 MB of misc GSM files) is in its own project drawings folder.
Tom Waltz
Anonymous
Not applicable
That's how we have it at the moment (except for the office library.)

So there are no issues with sharing a library (probably 10mb max) off a server?
Anonymous
Not applicable
Tom wrote:
That's how we have it at the moment (except for the office library.)

So there are no issues with sharing a library (probably 10mb max) off a server?
None so far as I have seen. Larger libraries can slow things down a bit but I know plenty of firms that put everything on the server without any trouble.
TomWaltz
Participant
Tom wrote:
That's how we have it at the moment (except for the office library.)

So there are no issues with sharing a library (probably 10mb max) off a server?
None that I have seen (over 3 years, with 30 people). I have all the GSM files write-protected so no one accidentally changes or deletes them.
Tom Waltz
Andy Thomson
Advisor
I think the 'tripartite' library scheme is pretty much accepted as the best way to do things:

1 - AC Library - PLA - , local HD, can be overwritten in entirety when updated
2 - Office Library - PLA - , located on the server (users can drag a copy locally if they find it slow, periodically updated with an email to notify users)
3 - Project-Specific Library - Loose Folders - we locate all of ours by project number in subfolders on our server under a folder called called 'Project Libraries'

The third one, as a server location makes it easier for me to police, and occasionally run 'no-clone' to make sure people are creating too many unnecessary duplicates/folders, etc.

Oh, and this one:

4 - Archived Libraries - 6, 7, etc...

We have many old projects, old custom libraries, etc. that occasionally need to get loaded. I turn all of these into PLA files, for example, I have a 'no-cloned' PLA of libraries 6 and 7, in case we open and need something of that vintage whose parts cannot be 'found' in our 9 Libs.
Andy Thomson, M.Arch, OAA, MRAIC
Director
Thomson Architecture, Inc.
Instructor/Lecturer, Toronto Metropolitan University Faculty of Engineering & Architectural Science
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