Objects in a .lcf file??

[JGoode]

Hello,

We are considering turning our libraries into a .lcf file. I was just wondering if the ability to modify objects is limited/removed after creating a .lcf file?

[Erwin Edel]

You can open them and use Save As, this will change the GUID though.

The LCF format is like a ZIP-archive of sorts, as I understand it. If you wish to change an object that is part of the LCF you need to either extract the LCF to a folder, edit the part and save the folder again to LCF.

If you wish to stop people from accidentally messing with your objects, LCF is handy for that. For large libraries they load a lot faster too, I think.

[JGoode]

Erwin wrote:
You can open them and use Save As, this will change the GUID though.

The LCF format is like a ZIP-archive of sorts, as I understand it. If you wish to change an object that is part of the LCF you need to either extract the LCF to a folder, edit the part and save the folder again to LCF.

If you wish to stop people from accidentally messing with your objects, LCF is handy for that. For large libraries they load a lot faster too, I think.

So once they are turned into a .lcf file the objects cannot be edited directly back to the .lcf? After a .lcf is created, are you able to add to it or do you need to create a new file for every change?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

The .lcf file is a compressed archive. It is done with the help of XML Converter or in the Archcad itself. Directly in lcf nothing can be done. To change any file, you need to first unpack your container, and then back-pack it - until you get tired. In addition to faster loading of libraries, there is no advantage in lcf. Some problems.

[JGoode]

SL_GDL wrote:
The .lcf file is a compressed archive. It is done with the help of XML Converter or in the Archcad itself. Directly in lcf nothing can be done. To change any file, you need to first unpack your container, and then back-pack it - until you get tired. In addition to faster loading of libraries, there is no advantage in lcf. Some problems.

Thanks for this! Very helpful. So I've taken from these posts that compressing into a .lcf file is good if you're not planning on adding/changing any objects inside and besides the speed of loading the libraries there aren't any benefits to creating a .lcf? Is this correct?

[Erwin Edel]

I think you need a lot of objects there to notice any speed difference.

Our typical office libraries and project specific libraries do not seem to slow things down much and they're even being loaded from server.

The ArchiCAD library is more than 500 MB.

The largest office library I load, are some custom textures for surfaces, this weighs in at 15 MB.

Our library of installation symbols (2D objects) is 500 kb.

[Anonymous]

Erwin wrote:
I think you need a lot of objects there to notice any speed difference.

Our typical office libraries and project specific libraries do not seem to slow things down much and they're even being loaded from server.

The ArchiCAD library is more than 500 MB.

The largest office library I load, are some custom textures for surfaces, this weighs in at 15 MB.

Our library of installation symbols (2D objects) is 500 kb.

Well, it's natural that on one object there will not be any difference. To do this, you need more or less large library. In addition, as a plus, no macros, objects, or pictures will be lost from the LCF. But the rest is some inconvenience.
Personally, I have very few packed libraries in a container.

[Barry Kelly]

JGoode wrote:
Thanks for this! Very helpful. So I've taken from these posts that compressing into a .lcf file is good if you're not planning on adding/changing any objects inside and besides the speed of loading the libraries there aren't any benefits to creating a .lcf? Is this correct?

Spot on.
If you intend to do any editing often then forget the LCF.
Slightly faster to load but the few seconds you save are hardly noticed.
Once loaded there is no difference to a LCF or non-LCF library.

An LCF file can be handy to distribute to other users but if anything changes you have to replace the whole LCF file rather than just one or two individual objects or macros.

Barry.