Archiving project

[Jhope]

What are some best practices for archiving a Teamwork project?  I am working on redoing my firm's BIM manual, and I am trying to figure out the best way to do this. I am thinking that we will want a.PLA and IFC file for each project.

[Barry Kelly]

Make sure the options for the PLA are set to include everything - included loaded libraries - unless you are archiving those separately.

I am not sure about the merits for the option of breaking hotlinks and xrefs - I assume if you are using those, you will archive those as well.

So it should be just a matter of re-establishing the links when you later open the PLA if you don't break the hotlinks (file paths might change).

Of course if you have the PLA, you can technically create the IFC, PDF plans, DWG/DXF files any time in the future.

But if you think you will need them, there is probably no harm (apart from storage space) in saving those out as well to save you having to  re-open the PLA.

Barry.

[kim]

Hi Jhope

I remember back to Archicad 5 when I was at uni, which someone can correct me if im wrong but i think that was when teamwork started.

The problem with archiving is that certain versions of AC are tied to limited data storage, set hardware, hardware locks, operating systems etc. In addition to Archicad the same applies to PDF, DWG, etc. So in other words you should consider archiving as a problem that will evolve as the years roll by. Your manual will have to based on what the current thinking is and revisit after a few years for relevancy.

My current office keeps a few old imacs with the relevant AC versions running because if there is a big enough step between versions you will not be able to open them again as easily. We rely on the final contract documents in DWG and PDF format (some people may still print a set). Old teamwork projects after contract completion get saved as per Barry's recommendation but you must understand the limitations of that process. Big projects get kept on the teamwork server and rolled across to new versions which has its own headaches and bugs (migration libraries used to be an issue). Im unclear around the long term use of IFC for archiving, that area is a much faster evolving beast, interoperability may be questionable in the long term.

Small projects get referred to every now and again but a good template will keep your often used items such as details or similar data ready at hand on new projects.

Just my two cents on the bigger picture of archiving.