Linking and Managing Office Custom Libraries

[srdavids]

Hi everyone,

I’m curious what best practice is for managing/storing a library of custom objects. I'm in a residential office with 10-15 people using Archicad from laptops, which means connection to our office server isn't always a given. 

The 3 options I've come up with (and please correct me if there are better alternatives):

1 - BimCloud Library

• We currently just have BimCloud Basic - Is it worth it to upgrade to be able to host on BimCloud?
• What happens when youre not connected to the internet? Are you SOL trying to place new objects?

2 - Link to server folder 

• Connection to server isn't always a given, meaning this link can break quite easily

3 - Manually copy/update the library to each user's machine

Thanks in advance for any tips/advice

[Barry Kelly]

I can't comment on BIMcloud libraries as I don't use BIMcloud.

Post I have read say it can be slow trying to update them.

Libraries stored on the network will work and you can access them directly, but you always need network access.

The are slower to load than libraries on your local drive.

I would simply copy the network library to your local drive manually.

Your network library is the master and this is the one you keep up to date.

If you are not making many changes then copying it across to your local drive is not too bad.

However, you can use syncronising software to sync the network library to your local drive, to save you doing this manually.

Barry.

[Lingwisyer · Accepted solution]

You could probably store them on a cloud synced drive on your computer. AC does not continuously access them after the initial load so it should not cause any sync issues. In this way all of your libraries are consistent between users without extra input. Just make sure you path the cloud drive locally to a shared location rather than the default user drive so that the path is identical between users. If due to hardware limitations this is not possible, if you guys are on Windows, you could try to create Symbolic Linked folders to dupe the pathing.

D:\Dropbox\ArchiCad Libraries

rather than

C:\Users\[Username]\Dropbox\ArchiCad Libraries

Ling.

[MitchD]

Bimcloud basic is sufficient for libraries and would be my recommended solution.

I migrated the office to bimcloud libraries when covid hit, it's much better than a network location in my opinion.

the first use of the library, it will download a local copy and then checks it against the bimcloud server each time a file is opened.

if you have no internet connection, it will just use the latest local copy of the library you have available.

it's also much easier to update/add objects, as you can do it whilst users are actively using the library.

[Lingwisyer]

Updating or adding objects, still requires the user to reload their libraries, the same as if they were local or networked, with the downside that BIMcloud libraries are slower to load as it compares everything against the server every time you open the file... given, it is the most integrated method...

@srdavids, regarding your point #1, BIMCloud works by downloading a copy of the libraries and project files to a local location, then from there on compares the local copy to the server and only downloads what has changed. So if you lose connection, it just means you cannot compare your local data to that on the server. For integrity's sake, this means that you cannot edit anything attached to the BIMCloud that you have not Reserved.

[MitchD]

Of course, but you don't require everyone to close archicad/unload the library especially if it contains an LCF library.

There is no speed difference opening a local libarary file vs a bimcloud library file if the library hasn't changed. it simply checks the library change date. if the library has updated, then yes it will check the entire library.

Unless you're updating libraries often, the speed to update is a non-issue for the flexibility to work in/out of the office.

i vaguley remember Graphisoft not recommending using onedrive/dropbox, etc. for some reason as well.

[Lingwisyer]

Slow libpacks on BIMCloud: https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Libraries-objects/Libpacks-in-BIMcloud-take-long-time-to-load/td...

The recommendation against using a cloud drive is for .pln and to a lesser extent .bpn files as AC continuously accesses them which can cause conflicts during sync operations, or if your cloud service supports versions, a million and one versions. This should not be an issue with libraries as as far as I know, they are only accessed when initially opening AC or when you reload the libraries. You can edit objects and image files within loaded libraries and they will not changed until you reload the relevant libraries.

Ling.

[srdavids]

Thanks! I think using OneDrive for this is a clever idea. Bonus points for being able to use a product subscription we already have and pay for vs adding another expense via upgrading BimCloud subscription

[Lingwisyer]

The BIMCloud route suggested was just using Basic and syncing libraries when ever the user has access to the office BIMServer

Do note that OneDrive by default paths to a user folder which will cause issues with missing libraries between different users. I do believe that if you sign out of OneDrive, move the folder, then sign back in setting the storage location to the existing folder that you moved, it will just rediscover and index rather than needing to redownload everything. Also ensure that on the user end, the libraries are set to be available offline.

Ling.