ArchiCad Libraries on a Server

[Anonymous]

We're thinking of doing the following.

We run a Mac network with a dual G4 Power Mac running OS X Server 10.3.4 soon to be 10.2.9.

We run 4 stations of ArchiCad 9 on dual G5 Power Macs and one daul G4 Power Mac. These machines run OS X 10.3.7 soon to be OS X 10.4.2

Right now our network is 100base/T ethernet. I'm thinking that we should upgard to 1000base/T ethernet which all the machines and server can do and get a new 1000base/T ethernet switch.

In the past we tried a server based library under the 100base/T network but upload times were too long - 3 to 5 minutes instead of our current 15 seconds with decentralized libraries.

I am assuming that with network speeds upped substantially in a 1000base/T network, we should be able to have all the ArchiCad work stations obtain their librairy from a library on the server instead of our current situation of each station having its own library.

Does anyone know of something here that would make our proposal not work or be less feasible?

Glenn Lym
San Francisco

[Anonymous]

grlym

The advice that we received from our reseller when setting-up our multi-seat installation of ArchiCAD was to leave the Graphisoft-supplied libraries on the local machine, as part of the ArchiCAD installation process. This is the speediest method of retreiving the 'Main' library, but does mean that when an update is available, every workstation needs to have the upgraded libraries installed individually. Since the main Graphisoft library is not updated frequently, this is not onerous.

'Secondary' libraries are stored on the server. Objects specific to a project/model are stored with the model on the server.

This seems to work very well for us.

Mike

[__archiben]

MikeS wrote:
This seems to work very well for us.

my experience with mac networks is different: if the libraries aren't centralised you can cause all kinds of problems with teamworked files . . . if they are you get very slow library loading and painful PM updates. swings and roundabouts . . .

sorry i can't be more helpful than that.

~/archiben

[Anonymous]

Yes, on our mac network, we can have these problems you point to, so we have to be very careful about everyone's libraries. But sometimes descrepancies arise and then we find out about it, because some finds they are suddenly getting a slow upload time.

So Mike S, if you have your libraries centralized on the server, are you using 100base/T or 1000base/T ethernet? What's your server? Which Mac OS? If you have 1000base/t and used to have 100base/T, was there a big improvement when you switched?

[Aussie John]

We run an Xserve (G4) with client macs (G4s and G5s) and gigabit and a server based library works fine. Mind you the library has been custom built so you are not loading all the bells and whistles

[Anonymous]

grlym asked a few technical questions.
I don't have access to the tech. spec., but here is what I know: all machines running Windows XP, server is a dual-XEON processor running Microsoft Server 2003 (or whatever), with an array of Ultra Fast-and-Wide SCSI mirrored hard disks.
The network is 1000base and has been for some time.
What I do know is that after the switch to ArchiCAD (from AutoCAD) at the beginning of the year we have already run out of HD space on the server and are now about to install a further Network Attached array to increase the storage with a likely target of (gulp) one terabyte!
The second, similar, server was supposedly to be a dedicated Filemaker server running our practice database only, but due to pressures on the first file server we have had to transfer some of the clerical and 'archived' material to the second server.
We have 16 'seats' of ArchiCAD at this office, and have longer-term plans to convert to ArchiCAD at the second office, where there are about 8 further design staff.

[Anonymous]

we run about 15 stations of AC9 on a mac network, with both server and connection to machines over a gigabit network. At least on the g5's in the office, server vs. local library location makes ABSOLUTELY no difference in the load time. We load the out-of-the-box AC libraries, an office standard library and a project-specific library for each file. All of them are centrally located on the server. As has been mentioned by me and others in several threads, NOT loading from central locations does cause problems with teamwork files sometimes.

I had gotten the same advice as MikeS about using local libraries back when we started using v8, but this problem seemed to disappear when v9 came about. Since switching back to centrally located libraries, most problems with load time, PM updates and duplicate libraries have gone away (whew!)

hth
wes

[TomWaltz]

We have 30 Apple G5 workstations running on a Gigabit network, and decided to keep the Archicad libraries on the workstations just to simplify installation.

We have some custom add-ons that we add to the installation, but otherwise use a factory installation. Our company library is on the file server, allowing me to add/repair objects on the fly.

[Anonymous]

Very nice, useful information. Much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

I'm also really interested at this theme. We have a workgroup of two PC-s and 5 MACs. Teamwork crashes while loading libraries if the PLP file is not on a PC.
I frequently get files for continuing. There are alway problems with missing and duplicated library parts, because on each machine the libraries are in different subfolders. I don't think it is useful to have the default library in the ArchiCAD folder. It has to be removed when installing a newer version and uninstalling the older one. But having it in different folders in each machines...
We are also planning to have a server-based library system with swich1000 connections. I wish it solved all this annoying issues...
Zoltán