Hotlinked Modules in Teamwork

Greg Kmethy
Graphisoft
Graphisoft

Place Module from a Teamwork Project

You can place a hotlinked module from a Teamwork project on a BIM Server into your host project (whether the host project is a shared Teamwork project or a solo project). From the “New Hotlink” popup in the Choose Hotlink dialog box, choose “From Teamwork Project.” Then you can access a BIM Server and the Teamwork projects that it houses. (To do this, you must have a user name and password for that server.) Once you select the Teamwork project, you place the hotlinked module as usual. When you place a hotlinked module, the source file’s entire Embedded library is added to your host file’s Embedded library. The newly added Embedded library can be seen in your Library Manager, inside the automatically created “Hotlinks” folder of your Embedded library. In this folder, each hotlink source file is listed separately along with all of their embedded objects.
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It is not recommended to place any of these objects into your project separately. These objects will be updated in your host project if they are updated in the source project. These objects will be deleted if the hotlinked module is deleted from the project, or if all placed instances of the module are deleted. (You will notice the deletions after you re-open the host file.)

Expanded Options for Nested Modules

The option to “Skip Nested Modules” can now be set separately, in the Module Settings dialog box of each placed instance of a hotlinked module. This is a little bit like being able to set a “show/hide” display option for the nested content of any hotlinked module instance. You can also skip or include nested modules for all instances of a module, using the general control in Hotlink Manager. (In Teamwork, this affects only those instances reserved by you.)

Single-Story Mode

The “Open in single-story mode” checkbox appears when you first place a multi-story module file.

Missing “Other Objects” from Earlier Versions

If you place a hotlinked module from a project in an earlier version format, any objects placed from the source file’s “Other Objects” folder will be missing in the Teamwork project. The solution is to embed these objects in your host Teamwork project, using Library Manager, or to place those objects in a library on the BIM Server, and add that library to the project.
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It is recommended to update all your hotlinked files to the current Teamwork format

Teamwork-Specific Information on Hotlinks

Users must have the access right of “Hotlinks-Manage” to create a new Hotlinked Module in the project. Once the hotlinked module is part of the project, any user can place instances of that module.

Update Hotlink: All Instances Modified

Any user in a Teamwork project with the access right “Hotlinks-Manage” can update the project’s hotlinks from the Hotlink Manager. This will update all module instances, regardless of who owns them. If the source project is a Teamwork project, the user must have a valid user name and password for the BIM Server on which the source project is located.

Change/Break/Delete Hotlink: Only Your Reserved Instances are Modified

If you Change, Break or Delete a hotlinked module in the Hotlink Manager, this action will affect only those instances of the hotlinked module which you have reserved. If some of the module’s instances are reserved by other users, those instances will not be affected by your action.

Reserve All Instances of Hotlinked Module

The best way to reserve all instances of a hotlinked module is to use the Hotlink Manager. If you choose an indvidual Hotlink to modify and it is not yet reserved by you the Hotlink Manager will present you with the below dialog. After choosing to reserve all instances you will be dropped out of the hotlink manager dialog. You must reopen it and at this point the individual hotlink you had previously chosen is now reserved. You may now proceed to change it. Choose the source file from the lower half of the Hotlink dialog to modify many hotlinks that originate from the source file. This too will present to you the below dialog. Once you have chosen to reserve all instances you will be droupped out of the hotlink manager dialog. The next time you open the Hotlink manager the source file and all of its links will be reserved.
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  • If you select "Continue anyway", then only instances that you own will be relinked to the new source. This means that the source will be split in two: Instances reserved by you will be relinked to the new source, instances not in your workspace will still be linked to the original source
  • If you select "Reserve all instances", then reservation will start, which mean that the Hotlink Manager window will be closed, and hotlink instances will be reserved. After this process is finished, then you need to open the Hotlink Manager again, and start relinking again.

Relocate from Teamwork Project

The “Relocate” command in the bottom section of the Hotlink Manager is available if you multi-select Hotlink sources from the list. However, if your multi-selection includes one or more pln source files, the Relocate command will not work for the “From a Teamwork file” option. (The reason is that the program tries to locate new source files of the same name and extension as the ones you selected, but Teamwork projects do not have a file extension.) The solution is to relink each source file to a Teamwork file individually.

Save Selection as Module: “Replace Selection” Checkbox Not Available in Teamwork

In a Teamwork project, If you select several elements on the Floor Plan and use the “Save Selection as Module”, the checkbox option to “Replace selection with this hotlinked module file” is NOT available. The option is available in solo projects only. External Hotlink modules are handled as single "intact" entities in the current version of ARCHICAD. This means any change in a Hotlink module makes it out of date. Multi-story Hotlink modules can be updated story by story even so updating full building stories on the BIM server may take significantly longer than the more frequent synchronizing of single elements. In the case your BIM Server project contains external Hotlink modules and with many users scattered over multiple networks, the best way to manage these hotlinks is to dedicate one project team-member / workstation that exclusively updates hotlink modules. In an optimal case this workstation should be on the same high speed LAN (100 MBit/s or better) as the BIM Server. Furthermore to assist those who work remotely this workstation should be remotely accessible so that those users on slower networks can effectively use it as a cpu server completing the virtualization of the process. In order for this workflow to remain efficient all team-members should set the Hotlink Update method in the Work environment under Data Safety & Integrity to “Ignore Hotlinks”. In this way notifications that might prompt users to accidentally update hotlinks remotely can be avoided. Additionally, remote users should not explicitly use the “Update” button in File/External Content/Hotlink Manager but rather keep their local data fresh through the much faster process of frequent sends and receives.

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