Importing views from Archicad to Plotmaker

[Anonymous]

Is it just me (and everyone else in our office), or did anyone else realise that now you don't have to save .PMK files of views before you can import them into Plotmaker. Importing direct from the model establishes a 'hot link' guaranteeing that the layout always reflect the latest changes in the model.

Not only does this save a huge amount of time (saving, and resaving .PMK's), but a huge amount of hard drive space as well.

Did Graphisoft have it hidden away somewhere in their 'New Features' information? (I eventually noticed in on a 'help' page.)

[TomWaltz]

That came out in Archicad 8, about 2 1/2 years ago.

Don't jump too high for joy, though, it has its problems.....

[Anonymous]

Tom -

What problems? I was hoping this was the answer to my prayers.

Would you recommend that we as a practice continue to save views as .PMK files?

[__archiben]

Keith wrote:
Would you recommend that we as a practice continue to save views as .PMK files?

from my point of view: no. using the 'model --> view --> layout' process has advantages that far outweigh the disadvantages. it sounds as though you have a lot of catching up to do and it may even be worth a day of training and discussing how you can best fit your office's process into the archiCAD to plotmaker process.

don't forget (if you've got that far into the 'new features' guide!) that you can also publish any exportable file format from the publisher: not just your layout views. this makes consultant collaboration and the like far more efficient too . . .

there are also plenty of threads in the 'Construction Documentation' forum that discuss the pros and cons of the many ways of using the viewsets. check there for tips, tricks, advice and workarounds as well.

~/archiben

ps - as a matter of interest, who are you working for there in glascow?

[Anonymous]

Ben -

Thanks for that: I'm still curious as to what the disadvantages are, but will take your advice and scan the threads in the forum.

I work with Jewitt Arschavir & Wilkie - a young vibrant practice with interesting city-centre projects. Please see www.jaandw.co.uk

[TomWaltz]

The live-linking system still uses PMKs. The difference is that Plotmaker launches a session of Archicad called BGArchicad (for background), and publishes on its own.

The biggest problem is performance. Remeber, that there are no PMKs floating around to reference.

In Plotmaker, you have one of two options: cache views in Plotmaker or not. If you chose "yes," every single view (PMK) is embedded in the Layout Book. On larger jobs, we have seen 300-400 MB layout books. If you chose "No," Plotmaker is completely empty when you open it. You just see the outlines of your views, with "Not yet Read" labels on them.

The fun continues.....
With Publishing yourself, you could pretty easily publish one or two items. If you saw an error publishing, you already had Archicad open. With BGArchicad, it hangs/crashes a lot, and you may or may not even know which view caused the problem.

We made the decision to stay with PMKs. As much as people hate them, every time we have tried the live link/update methods, it has caused even more problems and worse performance.