Hi,
My colleague Greg Kmethy has just wrote a technote on how to manage network libraries in ArchiCAD 9. I hope this helps:
"If you are TeamWorking, or storing files and libraries on a network server, you have to set up a system to ensure that all the necessary libraries are available to all the users that use the files. This is all the more important, when you link ArchiCAD projects stored on a server into PlotMaker files, since you cannot control the library management of the background ArchiCAD. This technote describes what are the best practices to manage network libraries.
Using Network libraries only
The full paths of the used libraries are always saved into the ArchiCAD project files. In case of TeamWork files, those libraries are saved into the file, that were loaded when the file was shared. However, the Team Leader can change this by signing in the project with exclusive access, loading/unloading libraries, and sending the changes into the plp.
If all the referenced libraries are accessible for the user in the network, ArchiCAD will automatically load them, and the library manager will not appear when opening the file. On MAC, ArchiCAD will try to auto-mount the necessary locations. BGArchiCAD will load the libraries automatically too.
Using Network and local libraries
If you are using both local and network libraries, then a local path, only available for the user that last saved the file, will be stored in the file. This local path may not work for the other users accessing the file. In this case ArchiCAD will not be able to load the libraries from the stored locations, therefore it will ignore these paths, and will auto-search for the libraries. ArchiCAD will search for libraries in the following order:
- In the folder where the Project file is located
- In the folder where the ArchiCAD executable is installed
- At the locations defined in the Projectname.xml file (where projectname is the actual name of the loaded project file)
If ArchiCAD is able to collect all the necessary libraries from these locations, then ArchiCAD will open the file without presenting the Library manager. BGArchiCAD will also successfully find all the necessary library parts. Note, that if not all of the libraries are found using this algorithm, then ArchiCAD will discard the result of the auto-search, and will present you the Library Manager. BGArchiCAD will not load any libraries and will warn you about that.
Also note, that the auto-search will also fail, if there are paths stored in ‘Projectname.xml’ that are not accessible for the user.
To create a ‘Projectname.xml’, use ‘Default Libraries.xml’ as a template. This file is located at:
Windows: Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Graphisoft\ArchiCAD 9.0.0 XXX R1
MAC: Userhome/Library/Preferences/Graphisoft/AC 9.0.0 XXX v1
Example: We have two company-default libraries, Library1 on Server1 and Library2 on Server2 on the network. The XML will look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
- < <LibraryLocationsFile>
- < <LibraryLocationsList>
< <LibraryLocations>lan.flat://Server1/Folder1/Library1</LibraryLocations>
< <LibraryLocations>lan.flat://Server2/Folder2/Libray2</LibraryLocations>
</LibraryLocationsList>
</LibraryLocationsFile>
So, the best standard to manage libraries is to:
- store standard libraries - that you do not modify, like the ArchiCAD 9 library - locally next to the ArchiCAD executable file
- store company standard libraries - that you frequently modify - on a server, and include their path in an XML file
- store project specific libraries next to the project file."
Best Regards,
