Library and layer management with .mod-files

[PVBergkrantz]

Hello. I am having some difficulty understanding the .mod-file format. It is handy to create small files for floorplans etc, but seems to have some inconsistencies I can't wrap my head around.

For instance, the layer list seem to be connected somehow to previous files opened, with it showing a different layer list at different times, which makes modelling in the file difficult if it suddenly shows a similar but different layer list from some old template file. The same with model view options, layer combinations etc.

Also sometimes it loads libraries, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the archicad standard library and sometimes project specific ones.

Is it all random or is there a thought and process behind it? I understand the point of not keeping libraries, layer lists etc in the file to save space and complexity but it would be useful to fully understand how it works, and I find the documentation on this very lacking.

[PVBergkrantz]

Oh I see. That makes a lot of sense.

[Erwin Edel]

Once we have something that repeats and should be a module, we just drag a copy of those elements to the side and designate that area of the project as the module workspace (it helps if you keep this at a fixed easy distance like 20,000 mm or such, depending on the size of the building).

If you want to hide those elements, you can duplicate one of the renovation filters (I'd recommend the 'new' filter) and rename that to something like 'modules'. Just select the elements and pin them to this filter.

The rest of the procedure I've described above.

It's not as complicated as it sounds.

Just draw marquee around the elements and save as module (just make sure you've 'unpinned' them when saving).

I find editing files in a seperate session with no direct relation to you model to be more complicated.

[Marc H]

Would there be any value (if working with older plan files as I was considering as well) to first save them out as .pla files and then either link those or then create a .mod file? It seems it would not solve the mismatch in attributes as completely as the 'Erwin model', but might help in utilizing legacy files?

[Erwin Edel]

A .PLA file can serve as a library for objects, but so can a folder on your server. The attributes are not loaded from library, but are part of the file. A module file by itself can't contain attributes, it will just open with whatever attributes were there from the previous session.

The workaround we used to have was: open your project, open it again 'read only', close that read only project (don't quit ArchiCAD, just close the project), open the module file in that session of archicad. This should give you the correct libraries and attributes.

For some strange reason (at least to me) a module file CAN contain embedded library parts which can lead to a lot of duplicates in your main file embedded library. For this reason we don't used the embedded library, just project libraries and office libraries loaded from our server along with the ArchiCAD libraries loaded from the ArchiCAD system folder.

[Marc H]

Thank you, Erwin, very valuable information!

Though the Embedded library has its convenience, increasingly it seems having a server configuration yields more consistency.

I also plan to use your approach of generating mod files from one master file. Very helpful. Thanks again.