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Locating pln file for published Module

Anonymous
Not applicable
Does anyone know how to find the details of the pln file from which the hotlinked module comes from?
(e.g. I am working on a legacy project that has a module hotlinked into the file which needs changes but have no idea which pln file it comes from). Is there a way of finding out?
6 REPLIES 6
Anonymous
Not applicable
File > External Content > Hotlink Manager
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Enovate wrote:
Does anyone know how to find the details of the pln file from which the hotlinked module comes from?
(e.g. I am working on a legacy project that has a module hotlinked into the file which needs changes but have no idea which pln file it comes from). Is there a way of finding out?
If the hotlinked module is actually a PLN, then the command that Matthew gave will tell you where it is.

You used the phrase 'published module' though. I we are talking about MOD files that have been published from a PLN (e.g., detail MOD published from a master detail PLN) - then, no, there is no way to find out where it came from AFAIK. The only idea I can think of at the moment is to do a system search based on the time stamp of the MOD file and find any PLN's with nearby date/time.

MOD files don't have additional meta-data (like Project Info) attached to them that I know of. But, this seems like a good wish... to store within a MOD the info on the file (if any) that it originated from.

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Anonymous
Not applicable
That clarifies it all, thanks Karl really appreciate it, and a sound suggestion =]
Barry Kelly
Moderator
If it is a published MOD file then you might not be able to easily find the source PLN file but you should be able to open the MOD file and make changes to it and then resave back as the MOD file.
This will update all hotlinks in every job to this file.

Or if you just want to update it in the file you are working on then you can break the hotlink.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Have just done exactly that and it seems to do the trick=) Hopefully working on the MOD file won't cause any unforseen complication down the track. Thanks Barry, thats a great suggestion!
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Enovate wrote:
Hopefully working on the MOD file won't cause any unforseen complication down the track.
So long as nobody finds the original PLN and re-publishes the MOD file - effectively re-setting it back to the old file.

Any file or selection of elements can be saved as a MOD file so maybe it was never actually published as a MOD in the first place - it may have just been saved.
A MOD file is just like a PLN except it only contains the attributes (layers, pen colours, etc.) that are associated with the elements in the file.
It can be opened and edited just like any other file.
There is no need to use the MOD file format - you can do the same with PLN files (i.e. hotlinking) it is just they contain all the attributes regardless of if they have been used or not and these will be brought into your new file when you insert it.
Not a problem if you base all your jobs on the same template.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
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