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

Trace referencing from another opened file

Anonymous
Not applicable
We made the decision on a few big projects to separate the 3D model from the 2D details drawings to help reduce fil size and to maintain order (more than 15 people working simultaneously on a very big project with hundreds of 2D details to produce).

One feature that we dreamed many times of having during this project is the ability to show a trace reference from another open file. It would be amazing, even if it needs a few seconds more to load.
Right now, we use PMK files and they work quite well but it is not as good as trace references.

Cheers

Johan
4 REPLIES 4
Hello Johan Cosandey,
Johan wrote:
We made the decision on a few big projects to separate the 3D model from the 2D details drawings
Since 2011 I never needed to work like this. I think the main aim about BIM/Archicad deals with linking 3D and 2D.
Johan wrote:
... to help reduce fil size and to maintain order...
To reduce file size...
Did you optimise your libraries ?
Do you use module ?
Do you use high polygon objects ?
Do you delete unused layouts ? unused attributes ?
Johan wrote:
... (more than 15 people working simultaneously on a very big project with hundreds of 2D details to produce). ...
Do you use BIMCloud ?
Did you try to download a PLN about your teamwork project to clean it before share it again ?

Finaly how do you draw your details ?
For example using Patches above building elevations and sections is a great way to keep your project lighter and faster.
If you draw most of your building elevations and sections in 2D worksheets, it is right that your project will be quickly too heavy.

However, I also want to be able to use trace referencing from another opened file.
Christophe - FRANCE
Archicad Designer and Teacher
Archicad 15 to 27 FRA FULL

OS 11.6 Big Sur - MacBook Pro 2017 - 16Go RAM
"Quality is never an accident ; it's always the result of an intelligent effort" John Ruskin
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Christophe,

I think your file performance questions/tips are great, but let me disagree with you slightly on the one file/several files part.
There are cases when the project is just too large and splitting it into several files is the sensible solution. For example, Graphisoft itself recommends a workflow where you create your Layout Book in a separate file and link your Views from the model file.

I support this wish, I think it would be useful.

In this specific case, I could recommend the following workaround until this feature arrives:
Place your Views from the external files onto a Layout, and display the Layout as a Trace Reference under your detail. That should work nicely as the files are linked live so it is very easy to update the source of the Trace Reference.

Based on this, I would like to amend this wish:
When selecting a Trace Reference source, make it possible to select an external PLN file or even a BIMcloud Project File.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
runxel
Legend
Very important wish!

Also not mentionedalready is the case where you just have a bigger site with many buildings on it, where you always want to have every building in its own file.
Lucas Becker | AC 27 on Mac | Author of Runxel's Archicad Wiki | Editor at SelfGDL | Developer of the GDL plugin for Sublime Text |
«Furthermore, I consider that Carth... yearly releases must be destroyed»
Minh Nguyen
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Hi All,

Thank you for sharing your wish and creating the poll!

I'm happy to say that this is a known wish in our WishList database (please refer to it as #11365). I hope that our Product Management team will consider implement it in the near future!

Thank you once again, and I wish you all a great day!

Best regards,
Minh

Minh Nguyen
Technical Support Engineer
GRAPHISOFT