Archicad Project Compare & Project Migration

[Francois Swanepoel]

Hi Graphisoft Team & all,

I'm trying to learn more about the new "Archicad Project Compare" app & add-on.

I ran some projects through the tool after worked through the Help Guide, the Getting Started article on Knowledge Base and the Tech Preview article (all I could find on the topic). I could not find related material on Graphisoft Learn.

In all these pages it puts a lot of focus on identifying changes made through the Project Migration process of project to a new version... which is a good thing, and the main reason for wanting to properly test this new app. Migrating Archicad 27 & older projects will still be part of our processes for some more years since the major changes in how project migration works since Archicad 28.

The new "Archicad Project Compare" app & add-on does an excellent job of:

1. Identifying & highlighting differences on Layouts of various types:

Some types that I could identify are:

• differences in text strings, dimension values.
• 2D & 3D elements present in one version of the project, but missing from another version.
• position & sized of Drawing views on the layout.
• differences in title block info.
• differences in values & column / row sizes in Drawing views of placed Schedules.
• and I'm sure there are more I'm not listing...

2. After loading the .pmax files, viewing the selected Layout are intuitive & useful:

• Zooming into the Layout to look closely at details.
• Controlling the overlay colour of the highlighted differences.
• The split view slider to focus on the one version or the other also helps to understand the identified differences.
• The "inspection" frame following the cursor and display of the 2 versions in the 2 x side windows is IMO probably the best feature in the app.

3. Then the "change status icon" & messages display in the Layout Book List, indicating the degree of changes after comparison is also valuable information in assessment of the identified differences, that helps with decision making.

Beyond this, I have a few questions though:

1. The help guide suggest us to make a "backup copy" of the .PLN project file.
   Why is this advised? Does any part of viewing and interacting with the .pmax files link back to or have an influence on any of the actual .PLN project files?
2. The app gives us the options to "Ignore Change" or change the "Status" of the detected change on a Layout.
   When closing the App with loaded .pmax files, the popup only asks confirmation to close, not "save changes".
   Are these adjusted "Statuses" / "Ignore" settings saved back into the the .pmax files?
   If yes, then we should take real care how we manage these .pmax files for auditing, tracking & reporting records for any BIM Manager across the full life of a project.
3. None of the reference pages make mention of Teamwork Project files.
   Does this app also work with Teamwork projects? If yes, are there any other considerations to consider when working with these teamwork files? And can comparisons be run between .PLN solo project files & teamwork files?
4. I do not see any feature to output a report (Excell / BCF) of these identified changes.
   Is this on the roadmap for the "Archicad Project Compare" app & add-on?
   This is a critical missing piece of this innovative & potentially very valuable tool for any BIM Manager.

Next I'm wondering how this App & Add-on can & will work in combination with Archicad's "Model Comparison" & "Issue Management" workflow in the Project Migration process (introduced +/-5 years ago), Template management & setting up / improving generally robust BIM Manager workflows aligned with the evolution of the Archicad ecosystem.

[Zoltan Vale]

Hi @Francois Swanepoel ,

thanks for sharing your experience and questions about Archicad Project Compare. It is really helpful to see how you are already testing the tool in a structured way on real projects.​

Project Compare is positioned mainly as a layout‑level QA tool during migration: you export .pmax from the “before” and “after” project versions, then visually and numerically review differences in placed drawings, missing content, and unexpected changes.

The "backup copy" suggestion in the Help Guide comes mostly from following the general Project Migration guidelines, but you are correct in your assumption that working with pmax does not influence your original .PLN file.

The status changes in the currently available version are mostly for your own "runtime" structuring, they are not saved into the pmax, hence the warning that comparison information will be lost on closing.

Reporting was the next top priority direction in the tool after release in the form of well structured, visually rich PDFs, but also Excel and finally proper BCFs as well, so later anyone can link back to the differences in their actual project using Archicad's native issue management and solve it in-place.
On the teamwork question I am not quite sure I understand it. The tool can work in any running Archicad, so its use case can be stretched to many different directions. This is why we explicitly allowed comparison of states even within the same version even though our driving factor was assistance of migration.

I am not personally responsible for this product anymore, but I will definitely make sure your feedback reaches where it should and hopefully you will see a continuation in the life of this small but extremely useful tool. 

[Francois Swanepoel]

Hi @Zoltan Vale thanks for your reply. It does help me understand your motivation & use cases for the tool.

Project Migration have always worked seamlessly for ever since I can remember v6.5, which is (was) a good thing as it made Archicad a predictable & trustworthy participant in our studios & workflows. Though I fully understand the motivation behind the changes since Archicad 28, it is still a reality on the ground that the Project Migration capability has effectively been totally removed from the software. And the need to migrate projects will always be there.

It's because of this sudden lack in Archicad, that the Archicad Project Compare tool is now so valuable. It gives us the ability at least to actually check what Archicad did do, and did not do, during the version migration of a project file (not because we want to, because we now have to). The same goes for the JSON & Python workflow suggested & given to us during Archicad 28 Beta in an attempt to compensate for Archicad's sudden inability to run Project Migration at all. The JSON & Python workflow is just too advanced for 90+% of users, so projects get stuck behind tedious & continuously fixing of file issues. Or stay stuck in old versions (and no access to new features) to avoid this n painful migration. 

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all efforts of the whole Graphisoft team to give us these tools whenever we need them in this ever changing industry and I don't expect Archicad to just stay the same for ever. I know your job is not easy at all, holding a balance between what we have and what we will need in  the future. I trust my & other's honest feedback like this contributes in some way to help you too.

Back to the tool:

Let me rephrase my teamwork question this way: are there any differences between solo .PLN & teamwork in the workflow with the Archicad Project Compare tool that we need to be aware of?

I really hope to see the PDFs, BCF reporting as priority come sooner than later. I suggest skipping the Excel as we can easily pull issues into a Schedule in Archicad and export the Excell directly inside Archicad, closer to our main workflow (or I assume... truly hope we can. I'll have to check that now). 

Since the tool does not currently save interactions & status changes to the .pmax file, I can see a real need for it to have this capability.

It is common in a studio (especially BIM Managers) to have to start a task, pause for a meeting or other priorities, and come back to a task like file Migration later again. This may not always be the same day, especially on large projects. So closing files & shutting computers down will cause us to start from scratch again, which is very counter productive within our already pressured environment.

I would hate to see the Archicad Project Compare tool go to waste like we had with Param-O. I still believe in Param-O's potential to improve our workflows, but investing time to integrate it in our workflows is just not worth it if it is never going to be completed. 
What can we do to help you guys with continuing with development on this tool?