Creating Hotlinks...right in the same TW file?

[rob2218]

ok, so I've started this new office.
They are gearing up with Archicad and have "some" users who know there way round the program.

But...I've run across some initial issues:
1. they have a tendancy to "hotlink" pieces of the same apartment unit into other floors? is this a common practice? it's very strange for me to hotlink "something" that is already in the TW file itself.
2. grouping- they have a tendacy to "group" similar units (which are those hotlinks by the way) all over the entire time work file..makes for very confusing organization.
3. they create "story levels" below the last "grade/or ground" story level" and use those as hotlinks?...again..I just find that a peculiar way of organizing a TW file.
4. the MOD's are ALSO coming from INSIDE the same TW file...WTF?

So, with that/this said....folks...have any of you ever run across this type of file organization setup?? Please, enlighten me if you have.

[Noemi Balogh]

davidstonearchicad21 wrote:

LaszloNagy wrote:
Actually it does seem to work.
I have only tried it with a single story Hotlink.
I created Story -1 and created a geometry there.
Then in the same file I placed Story -1 as a Hotlinked Module. And it seems to work.
The one limitation I see now is that you have to create each hotlinked module on a separate Story.

Can you tell me the step by step of how to place an underground story as a module. I'm at a loss! Can't get my head around not using a .mod

Or better yet, could you explain how to get hotlink modules accessible from a remote office in a TW project?

When I attempt to place a module from a teamwork file, it inserts the ENTIRE 2.6Gb hotel into where the room once was funny, but frustration as we have a few people that need access to the hotlinks module files at once. So far I have set up mapped network drives that all point at one PC on the local network at one of the offices. Would i need a VPN to link both offices so that we can access the .mod modules from both locations using Teamwork ?

I've read literally all the documentation on this and it would seem that it should just work

Hi,

If it is important to provide access to hotlink modules for remote offices / people, I would suggest to use Teamwork projects as hotlinks. It makes easier to access the files for external users and more people can work on it at the same time.

If you wish to link the original Teamwork file into itself, then of course, you will get the whole model - unless you choose to hotlink only a dedicated storey. In this case you should model the future modules under your building.

What Barry mentioned you works pretty similar in Teamwork - you just don't save it out as a .mod, but directly link it from the project.

So steps again:

1. Create storeys under your building for future modules.
2. Model here.
3. Send & Receive
4. Go to File / External Content / Place Hotlink...
5. Select Module / New Module / from Teamwork project
6. Choose project then Single storey / choose the storey where you wish to have the hotlink module
7. Place it wherever you wish

Hope it helps for you.

Kind regards,
Noemi

[davidstonearchicad21]

Thank you both!

Edited//

I'm not sure i like the idea of having them exist underground. Does this method force you to change a bunch of little things? I would feel more confident placing them in a separate .pln and sharing that as a Teamwork project, and sharing it to the same Teamwork project folder. That way i have access to all of a project's modules at once, in a lightweight responsive file, which is still accessible across Teamwork (multi offices). And plus i could keep that file open for fast editing of attributes, objects, modelling, etc.

So, as a studio that work on multiple residential projects, which need their own modules, our folder structure from File > Open > Open/Join Teamworks Project would look like:

---Projects
------ProjectA
---------ProjectA.pln
---------ProjectAModules.pln
------ProjectB
---------ProjectB.pln
---------ProjectBModules.pln
------ProjectC
---------ProjectC.pln
---------ProjectCModules.pln

Any pros or cons that anyone can think of with this method before I implement this?

[davidstonearchicad21]

And another quick question on the individual file method.

If everyone stores the .mod's locally in the same location, would they update on every workstation when a change is sent?

[Noemi Balogh]

It works absolutely fine if you share a new Teamwork project as a hotlink if you wish to do this. There are many ways to use hotlinks, it's up to you to decide which one fits you the best.

About the .mod files: if it is linked to a Teamwork project it will say that you can update it. Let's say, User A updated the hotlink in the Hotlink Manager. User B and User C will get the changes as soon as User A sent them to the Server and B & C received data from the Server. If it is important for you to each of your team members should be able to reach the hotlink, then I would suggest to go with the Teamwork version instead.

But from the update side of view it doesn't matter whether if you use .mods or Teamwork projects. : )

[davidstonearchicad21]

We had some .mods as part of a teamwork project, inserted by User A and stored on his C drive. He was the only one able to alter the .mods.. The rest of us would receive a message on opening the TW project that 'hotlinks would be visible but their sources unavailable etc' and see "Hotlink Missing" in our module managers.

The only way we could make those editable by all members of the team was to go down an alternate route. Currently we use two teamwork projects for a single hotel: host.pln and all_modules_of_host_on_stories.pln and as we all know that works well.

Thanks for the info