Networkign mac & PC

[Karl Barker]

we have a standard Mac setup with a Panther server running on AFP to share our archicad files. my issue is that we also have a PC on our network. If the opens a layout book and saves it, the next time a mac opens that file, it is continually searching for the server based on the way the PC looks for it, and as a PC looks in a different way, we have to keep hitting the cancel button when it looks up the server. Once this phase has passed, it will work ok, but you have to get throughout cancelling looking for the server a good 50 times or more.
Does anyone else have amy experience with this?

[Greg Kmethy]

Is 'save in multiplatform format' checked in preferences/Misc?

[Anonymous]

Karl's issue appears to be the problem we had, ...HAVE,...with our network too. I now shall pursue the 'save as multiplatform' aspect.

Please follow-up Karl.

[__archiben]

isn't it a little trickier than just saving in multiplatform format? this might work for the project file itself, but doesn't work for the way the network path is stored within the file: it's different for a mac and a pc.

are you talking about the mac finder being asked to find and open a file that has been saved last from a PC (in which case the finder should have no trouble connecting via SMB rather than AFP - you obviously have both file services turned on on your server), or: is it archiCAD/plotmaker trying to resolve path names to SMB/AFP server locations? either from the 'recently opened' list, or trying to resolve links to xrefs/modules/libraries/etc/etc . . .

this is where one of archiCAD's hidden preferences kicks in:
DisableCrossPlatformMountingFeatures

when a file has been last saved by a PC, a mac archiCAD's PC file path resolution isn't as robust or efficient as it should/could be. by disabling the CrossPlatformMountingFeatures, you stop archiCAD from even trying to find and resolve the SMB paths embedded within the file and instead you get the dialogue for you to manually find them yourself. this effectively cuts out the server-pinging loop that you experience, although is perversly the reverse of what needs to happen.

see here for the low-down.

does this make sense? i hope it helps . . .
HTH
~/archiben

[Karl Barker]

Thanks a heap Ben, the scripting in terminal, although playing with god was scary, did the trick.javascript:emoticon(':D')

now I have the dilemma, when saving files, we keep getting Scratch files from plotmaker, and orig files from ArchiCAD. to get rid of them I believe i need to turn off our continual virus protection software on the server. if there are any other suggestions out there, I would appreciate them.

[__archiben]

Karl wrote:
Thanks a heap Ben

you're welcome!

now I have the dilemma, when saving files, we keep getting Scratch files from plotmaker, and orig files from ArchiCAD. to get rid of them I believe i need to turn off our continual virus protection software on the server. if there are any other suggestions out there, I would appreciate them.

i thought that the most recent releases of 8.1 had both archiCAD and plotmaker creating 'orig' files rather than 'scratch' files? because the first three letters of the 'scratch' extension were "*.scr" the virus checkers were deleting them thinking they were actually virus files - this led to all sorts of archiCAD problems and was eventually the reason GS changed the working files designation to "*.orig"

you're actually meant to have the 'orig' files whilst archiCAD/plotmaker are at work - this is where they store all of the stuff that's already been calculated. some of the earlier versions of 8.0/8.1 were pretty rubbish at cleaning up after themselves when you quit - and led to a whole heap of these files. as far as i recall, this was sorted out with the latest release though . . .

if you have an archiCAD version that's creating 'orig' files, you should also have the plotmaker version that goes with it? are you experiencing any problems with plotmaker if you have your virus checker continually monitoring file activity?

so. what's the job situation like in the land of the long white cloud? i'm heading that way to look for work early next year . . .

cheers!
~/archiben