One hotlink MOD or Many??

[gdford]

From an overhead point of view in a Teamwork project, is it better to have one large hotlink.mod attached to a project or 5 little ones?

[Erik Bjornhage]

@gdford,

From our experience it depends on the complexity of the project and how many hotlink "steps" you need.

Things like SEO starts to bug out after a few hotlink-steps so depending on how and what you are modeling this also needs to be considered.

We do a lot of multi storey residential and often have several MOD-files and it doesn't seem to make a huge difference whether they are separated or individual.

What does make a difference is if you haven't hacked your registry to allow the MOD-file export to truncate the classification structure.

[gdford]

Erik - you just by-passed my pay grade about hacking my registry?
I did a quick google search and came up with nothing on this...
Could you give me a bit more detail on what this means?

FYI none of the hotlinks are bringing in a nested hotlink and none of the hotlinks have any classifications or custom properties.

Many of the hotlinks are MOD files composed of 3D dwg models.

[Erik Bjornhage]

LOL,

There is a bug since AC25 that exports the entire classification tree instead of just the classifications used in the project.

There is a registry edit that you can do that resets this to before the bug was born and it's not particularly difficult. Oh wait - it's not a bug - it's a feature.

Found a post (possibly the original) that talks about htis: https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Project-data-BIM/MOD-File-Sized-in-AC25/m-p/321701

Like Stuart we did extensive testing to see how it affected our works flow.

I think trainwreck would be a good way to describe it - before it got really bad.

There have been indications from GSHQ that this is one the "soon to be fixed"-list - so we'll see.

In our office all users are instructed to run a reg-file after each Archicad update. Takes a few second and no more issues.

[gdford]

Well I guess that explains the mixing of classifications I had a year ago coming in from hotlinks. I am not setting or using any classifications or custom properties from elements coming in from the hotlink modules... so I removed all of the classifications and properties in all of the pln files that are used to generate the MOD files that we hotlink in.  Do you suppose this is another way to fix the issue or do you think I am still getting some overhead from this problem?
I guess this prompts another possible issue - does having no classification tied to an object give archicad a fit?? 

[Erik Bjornhage]

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@gdford wrote:

Well I guess that explains the mixing of classifications I had a year ago coming in from hotlinks. I am not setting or using any classifications or custom properties from elements coming in from the hotlink modules... so I removed all of the classifications and properties in all of the pln files that are used to generate the MOD files that we hotlink in.  Do you suppose this is another way to fix the issue or do you think I am still getting some overhead from this problem?
I guess this prompts another possible issue - does having no classification tied to an object give archicad a fit?? 

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I will start from the bottom up:

Having no classifications won't give AC a fit - but it will mess up your IFC-exports. Also, depending on how tied you are to the tool compared to the function, classificatins are your best friend. If you model a grid ceiling with the Slab Tool - is it a slab - or is it a ceiling?

Secondly - having olde classifications systems coming in from MODs is annoying but reasonably quick to fix (and worth the time/effort) - and I woud always classify objects in their original location (original PLN) so that the Classification follows through and can export properly from your Main Model. I am of course basing this on how we work in our office, where correct IFC-exports are paramount for all our projects.

Even if you don't use IFC it can still be valuable to get e structured work flow around classifications as they are more powerful when it comes to scheduling and working out quantities.

As far as I know there is currently no other way to fix this MOD-size issue than a RegistryHack but I'm fairly certain there is work being done behind the scenes so it's a waiting game.

[Erwin Edel]

I wonder if perhaps you would be better off saving the 3D DWG files as library parts. I'm not sure what kind of model/information they hold.

[gdford]

Erwin - most of the my hotlinks are multi-element layer dependant items, but a few I could/and will give that a good testing.

Thanks!!

[gdford]

Erik,

In this project I am doing no IFC exports. I am using classifications in the Main Project, but nothing that comes in from my hotlink MODs in this project needs to be classified. I agree classifications are your best friend as well as custom properties. I am curious - does this registryhack  issue extend to apple equipment. I use windows, but some folks on this team are using apple.

Thanks!!

[Erik Bjornhage]

My only experience with apples is that they have worms in them.

I have no idea about the Registry issue - I would think that there is something similar but you would have to ask someone who uses Macs.