PLN size & lots of hotlinked modules

[Anonymous]

We just completed a project in ArchiCAD 13 and we found that by the end of working on the file that the file was very slow. (approx. 5 min or more to save the file) There was probably approximately 30 hotlink modules some with more than one instances (7 to 102). We broke up our file for team members and then hotlinked everything back into one master file. We worked on an even larger project in ArchiCAD 12 and our work flow was basically the same and never had any issues with the speed. Is there a problem having so many hotlinks in a file? The file size is 139.4 MB.

[Anonymous]

Lots of hotlinking can be troublesome, but I've worked on some very large projects without significant issues. One example used unit plans linked into seven large buildings which were in turn linked into a site plan. This was a few years ago with much slower machines than we have now.

Performance issues with hotlinks most likely have more to do with the specifics of how they are set up rather than the size of the project.

File size is not a reliable measure of complexity. It is driven mostly by the number of drawings and layouts, linked PDFs and so on.

[Eric Bobrow]

You mentioned breaking up the file for team members, then hotlinking everything back in. This brings up a question for me about your workflow. Were you doing much work in the compiled PLN, or most of it in the separate files that were hotlinked into the big PLN? How frequently did you need to Save from the big PLN file?

While Hotlinks are absolutely essential for repetitive elements such as unit plans, and very useful for isolating separate buildings, you may find that in ArchiCAD 13 that the Teamwork 2 process allows more flexible and speedy collaborative work than ever before. In many cases, sending in changes to the BIM Server is significantly faster than saving the file locally.

How much did you use Teamwork on this project?