Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

Prompt when Publisher Folder does not exist or file is going to be overridden

jakubc7
Advocate

Is there an option to receive a pop-up prompt when Publishing PDFs or other formats to a folder that does not exist or when Archicad is going to override existing files. I'm sure I'm not the only one that lost important files when someone clicks publish without checking the save location or end up creating a bunch of new folders because the file location no longer exists.

 

I do not see any options in WORK ENVIROMENT > DATA SAFETY.

 

If not possible, can GS please look into implementing this.

ArchiCAD 10 - 25 | Windows 10
ARCHIcreate | Perth, Western Australia
archicad solutions | content creation | training | software implementation
18 REPLIES 18
Barry Kelly
Moderator

There are no such options as far as I know so I have moved your post to the Wishes Forum.

 

If you are publishing over and already existing PDF, Archicad will just replace it as usually this is what you would want it to do (or at least I would).

I would hate for Archicad to ask me every time I want to update a file by re-publishing.

 

And I agree with you that if the publisher path does not exist, then it should ask if you want to create it rather than just creating it anyway.

But that could also be a good thing that is is automatically created.

 

As with many things in Archicad, the user should have a choice of how things are done so they can decide one way or the other.

 

Barry.

 

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

I agree, it is often that you just want to override the file. Folder creating is my main bug. I have the same folder I publish all my files and then move them which works great. however I have old PLN files that have a different path C:/(RenamedFolder/.../.../...) and if I forget to change it I end up with a 6 level deep folder structure in my C drive.

 

I'd like to be able to implement Autotext + System Info (date etc) into my filenames and file paths. Also an option absolute and relative folder location would help with the issue (as is the case with Hotlink file paths).

 

But I shouldn't be complaining, after all we can finally copy and stretch circles - what more could I ask for 😕 

ArchiCAD 10 - 25 | Windows 10
ARCHIcreate | Perth, Western Australia
archicad solutions | content creation | training | software implementation

In the publisher right click on a folder and choose rename items - you can change the published name of each file in lots of ways

Gary Ford
Self Employed - Modeling, Estimating, Construction
Archicad 12-26
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor
3701 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 24 Logical Processor(s)
(RAM) 128 GB
NVIDIA RTX A2000

Yes you can for individual file names which is great. However there is no such option for folder names or more importantly combined PDF files which is what I use 99% of times. I understand we can't have a revision in the combined PDF as each sheet may be different but most other properties should be available.

ArchiCAD 10 - 25 | Windows 10
ARCHIcreate | Perth, Western Australia
archicad solutions | content creation | training | software implementation

@jakubc7 Relative folders would resolve a lot of template frustration caused by files saved to old destinations. 

 

You can add the date to the individual pdf file names with Autotext which includes the system date. It stops you overwriting a file as it is a different name, unless you republish on the same date. I don’t think system date appears in the Autotext list, so you have to type it in manually. Do a search for Autotext in the online help to see the value names.

Apple iMac Intel i9 / macOS Sonoma / AC27UKI (most recent builds.. if they work)

@jakubc7 

For reference these are the values I use in AC26 UKI publisher folder & file names...

 

Multipage PDF (merge to one PDF file) folder names:

 

<PROJECTNUMBER> <PROJECTNAME> Issue <CURRENTISSUEID> <YEARLONG><MONTHNUMBER><DAYOFMONTH>

 

and for publishing individual layouts:

 

<PROJECTNUMBER>-<SourceID> <CURRENTREVISIONID> <SourceItemName> <YEARLONG><MONTHNUMBER><DAYOFMONTH>

Apple iMac Intel i9 / macOS Sonoma / AC27UKI (most recent builds.. if they work)

Thank you for pointing this out DGSketcher. I had no idea this was possible.

 

Unfortunately it is not possible to rename a folder which contains multiple SUBSETS. I have subset structure PLANS / ELEVATIONS / SECITIONS ... + TEMPORARY etc which keeps my drawings nice and neat but given this revelation I may have to work on how I set up my template.

 

This is massive game-changer for me!!! Thank you for bringing this up 🙂

ArchiCAD 10 - 25 | Windows 10
ARCHIcreate | Perth, Western Australia
archicad solutions | content creation | training | software implementation
gdford
Advisor

All good information - working with Archicad is a team effort!!!

Gary Ford
Self Employed - Modeling, Estimating, Construction
Archicad 12-26
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor
3701 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 24 Logical Processor(s)
(RAM) 128 GB
NVIDIA RTX A2000
jakubc7
Advocate

I was hoping someone could provide some feedback in regards to the automatic file naming through PUBLIUSHER that I got rather excited about but seems to be buggy (at least in v25 Build 6000 INT).

 

 

When I rename the folder using Autotext, it appears correctly in my navigator (See SCREENSHOT 1). However once it is published the filename is completely different. Uses an old date (maybe the date I first renamed the folder?), previous Project Status text and even the incorrect Project Code (not on this example but another PLN I worked off). See SCREENSHOT 2.

 

File name in navigator = correct / live = 2212_221103_DESIGN DEVELOPENT

File name when published = not correct = 2212_220928_Sketch Plans

 

This basically makes this "feature" completely useless. It is worth noting that including things such as revision and some others (which I no longer recall) would show them in the navigator but they would be completely ignored (as if they did not exist) once the file was published. Has anyone had luck using this correctly or have had the same experience as me?

 

Can GS look into this as it's clearly a bug given the navigator picks up the correct details.

 

Full folder name used:

<PROJECTNUMBER>_<YEARSHORT><MONTHNUMBER><DAYOFMONTH>_<PROJECTSTATUS>

 

Edit:@gdford @DGSketcher - given you provided some feedback, I thought it may be worth tagging you in case you can shed some light on the issue?


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ArchiCAD 10 - 25 | Windows 10
ARCHIcreate | Perth, Western Australia
archicad solutions | content creation | training | software implementation