Vanishing Details in AC9

[Anonymous]

Yesterday morning we ran across a serious problem with a TeamWork Model. I tried to find reference to this topic in ArchiCAD-Talk, but didn't. If this has been posted before, my apologies in advance. While I believe it is an unanticipated consequence on the part of the software, but it is also possible that our methods are incorrect. Please let me know.

Ultimately, we salvaged the project, but I would like to hear feedback from the forum on what occurred.

The Tale:

The team project is probably within a week of plotting final construction documents. There are four active sign-ins. The model weighs 38MB. One of the teammates is editing a few details in the model. Since there are 226 Detail items in this model, he uses "Show My Workspace Only". To complete the detail sheet in PlotMaker, we need to correct the definition of these few details in the ArchiCAD View Set (scale, etc.). The teammate goes through "Change My Workspace" to add the Team Leader authority required to redefine the views. When he gets back into the model and the Project Map, he finds that all but "his" Section/Elevation items and Detail items are deleted from the Project Map! The teammate with PlotMaker open checks the Layout Book and using "Import..." verifies that PlotMaker no longer sees all of those views in the ArchiCAD View Set we have been using for weeks!

We tested this later in the morning in copy of a model. Getting the same results, we believe this is an issue that Graphisoft may want to look at. Here are the steps to test:

1. Sign in as Team Leader taking a limited number of details at sign-in
2. Show My Workspace Only
Dialog Box = "To see the elements outside your Workspace again, you need to receive changes. Note: To do this, you must be in physical connection with the Team Project."
3. Receive changes

We were able to fully recover the 56 lost S/E items and the 226 lost Detail items using morning backup files. PlotMaker did not have to be re-educated to the views. But as you can imagine, nerves were running very, very high for an hour or two.

[Anonymous]

I had a similar episode a long time ago with AC6.5. At the time I wasn't sure if I had done something wrong or if there was a bug in the software, but from then on I've never used show my workspace only.

[Anonymous]

With as many items as are in the Project Map now that details are within the model, the benifits of using "My Workspace Only" are much greater. I think it is just an unforseen conflict between that enviroment and Team Leader status.

[Vitruvius]

I had a similar issue today with a detail.

Basically, I set up an independent Detail, cut & pasted some text from another AC file and it all looked great. Saved the project, launched Plotmaker to import the Detail View and got a message about nothing being in the view.

Lo & behold, when opening the AC view the detail was empty.

This has happened a few times and I initially thought I'd miskeyed something. But it's happened too many times now so either I'm working with oven mitts and welders goggles or its a bug. So, there's a bug in the program or I'm incredibly ham-fisted (I vote for the bug, but you're welcome to your own views).

Cheers

[TomWaltz]

We've had this problem a few times. A team will be working on a project, then I get the call that a detail window or two is now completely empty.

The first few times, you think the person made some kind of error and deleted their detail. When several people working on different projects started reporting this, then I realized it was a real problem.

BUT, since they only realize it is gone after it has already happened, I have had no luck at all in narrowing it down. I just blame the last person who left the company for deleting work (even if it was after he/she left!!) 🙂

[Anonymous]

The problem seems to be that the model loses its referenced views from the View Sets, but not the actual Detail or Section/Elevation window contents. We confirmed this over the last couple of days. We are continuing to look at the consequence to PlotMaker for this scenario. I will post more as I learn more.

[Anonymous]

Ted wrote:
The problem seems to be that the model loses its referenced views from the View Sets, but not the actual Detail or Section/Elevation window contents. We confirmed this over the last couple of days. We are continuing to look at the consequence to PlotMaker for this scenario. I will post more as I learn more.

I had this exact thing happen with some 3d camera viewsets about a week ago. It hasn't happened since, so I never pursued it further. I also recall checking the "show my workspace only" button about that time as well, which I haven't done since. If the two are related, perhaps I can experiment when I have some free time, but in my opinion, GS should definitely look into this one.

Wes

[Anonymous]

GSHQ is in hot pursuit. They've got it going in their technical support database. Until then they are suggest ing we not use “Show my Workspace Only” option, especially when signed in as Team Leader.

As I said in my initial post, we were able to recover relatively quickly. I will try to post some details on the steps we took then in case others happen to bump into this and look to the forums.