switch from hotlinked .pln to .mod in the middle of a project?

[Mats_Knutsson]

Hi,

I have a large hospital project with lots of .pln hotlinks and I'd like to change them to .mod. Is it safe or should I avoid?

/Mats

[Erwin Edel · Accepted solution]

I think hotlinking PLN will bring in all layers from the file. Saving or publishing to a module will give you some control over what you save. You could allways relink back to pln if you noticed a bug, but I can't think of a bug happening.

Still if your workflow is to keep those PLN and just save MOD from that after changes, you are just adding an extra step to slow things down.

Personally I keep all my module 'workspaces' in my main project. I just hide them from printing by pinning them to a renovation filter after I've saved the MOD file. I 'unpin' the selection when making changes and saving again.

This keeps everything in one place, no hassle with drawing attributes. Also easy to make changes in relation to other parts of the model with trace and reference.

Still, best to set these things up as early as possible.

[Barry Kelly]

If you are re-linking your hotlinks, then you may lose any associated dimensions if you have added any to your main file.

Barry.

[Erwin Edel]

Barry wrote:
If you are re-linking your hotlinks, then you may lose any associated dimensions if you have added any to your main file.

Barry.

Would this happen if you save the module file from the originally hotlinked PLN though? I would assume the internal ID would stay the same. Still, fair warning, that might happen.

[Mats_Knutsson]

Barry wrote:
If you are re-linking your hotlinks, then you may lose any associated dimensions if you have added any to your main file.

Barry.

Ouch. No go then. Dot't dare to chance. We'll do the .mod next project.

[Barry Kelly]

Mats_Knutsson wrote:

Barry wrote:
If you are re-linking your hotlinks, then you may lose any associated dimensions if you have added any to your main file.

Barry.

Ouch. No go then. Dot't dare to chance. We'll do the .mod next project.

The only way you will know for sure is to try it and see.
You don't have to save your main file if it doesn't work.
Or try it on a small test file.

I have not tried it but I am assuming because you are replacing one hotlink with another and that they could be totally different, there is no way that associated dimensions could stay.
Even if the MOD file is based from the original PLN that was hotlinked so they are essentially the same, I am guessing that associated dims will be lost.

Barry.

[Mats_Knutsson]

Barry wrote:

Mats_Knutsson wrote:

Barry wrote:
If you are re-linking your hotlinks, then you may lose any associated dimensions if you have added any to your main file.

Barry.

Ouch. No go then. Dot't dare to chance. We'll do the .mod next project.

The only way you will know for sure is to try it and see.
You don't have to save your main file if it doesn't work.
Or try it on a small test file.

I have not tried it but I am assuming because you are replacing one hotlink with another and that they could be totally different, there is no way that associated dimensions could stay.
Even if the MOD file is based from the original PLN that was hotlinked so they are essentially the same, I am guessing that associated dims will be lost.

Barry.

It sounds very logical

[Anonymous]

No worries If you try on a separate copy of the project

It is always tricky to handle dimensioning out of hotlinks. We usually put as much dimensioning in hotlinks. And limit dimensioning is the main file since they just vanish from time to time when you reload hotlinks.

You need to keep in mind that mod dosent contain sections, elevations, maps, layouts, etc only pure 3d model and information on plans. This might influence the workflow. For example, where are you drawing Sections and Elevations. Since mods are way smaller than pln It's usually better to use them on bigger projects since the opening time of each mod I much smaller than .pln with the same model.

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

kzaremba wrote:
It is always tricky to handle dimensioning out of hotlinks. We usually put as much dimensioning in hotlinks. And limit dimensioning is the main file since they just vanish from time to time when you reload hotlinks.

Next project: the way around that is to place room-equipment-etc. dimensions in the module and only overall dimensions in the main file (just as you are doing), but when those overall dimensions refer to a module or hotlinked pln element associate them instead to an ad hoc local shocking pink hotspot —which will not disappear when things change in the module or the module itself changes, and you can still move around without losing dimensions strings when things move around.

[Eduardo Rolon]

Also you can try using GOs with a rule for Dims=Static to highlight that the dimension was not to the "pink" spot.