Is there a limit to the size of an LCF library container?

[Abdvlxaziz]

I’m trying to have my new 50GB surface library turned into a container. It shows the process is complete but when I go to the saved location, the file comes out as a Scratch file. Please what should I do? 

[Barry Kelly]

I do not know of a file size limit, but that would be a very big surface catalogue.

The additional surface catalogue for 26 is only just over 1.1GB.

Are you saving to a local hard drive that has plenty of space?

Make sure you are not saving to a folder in a cloud drive.

Barry.

[Abdvlxaziz]

Thanks for your response. 

Yes it’s a big catalog, I want to be saving time from sourcing out textures for renders. I’m trying to create a standard template that I’ll be using for my projects. I have about 250GB free space at the moment which is huge. So I don’t know why it’s showing the LCF as a scratch file. And what I understand about scratch files is that it only indicates the process of saving a file isn’t complete. However Archicad 26 shows me the process is complete. 

[Barry Kelly · Accepted solution]

Maybe try saving more but smaller LCF's.

There is nothing stopping you breaking the textures into smaller groups and loading 5 or 10 LCF's instead of just one.

This will possibly make it easier to edit should there be new or amended surface at a later date.

Or don't convert to an LCF at all.

You can just load the main folder containing the textures as a library.

Then you never have to extract or compile the LCF if there are changes.

Barry.

[scottjm]

50gb sounds crazy big? The biggest I would comfortably go for a library or lcf is 1-2gb and even that is pushing it.

How big is each texture in your library? Are they jpegs or tiffs? If they are tiff I would consider changing them to jpegs. The texture quality will be indistinguishable and the size of library would drop significantly. 

Are you packaging to an lcf through archicad? You could try the LPXML converter. It has a an lcf container packaging arguments and you can adjust the compression level. 
https://gdl.graphisoft.com/tips-and-tricks/how-to-use-the-lp_xmlconverter-tool

But it sounds like you are reaching a limit if it’s only giving a scratch file. 

If you absolutely need everything in the format and super high resolution, split it up as Barry’s suggestion. 

[Abdvlxaziz]

Thanks for the solutions. I have 10 folders of different kind of surfaces. I turned each into a container, which worked. I loaded the containers and tried to turn all of them to a single container, however it still produced a scratch file. Like you guys suggested, there's probably a limit. I just want to use quality surfaces from beginning so I don't waste time when doing renders in different rending engines. I think I'll stick to what Barry said by loading the surface folder and work with it like that. I wanted LCF at first because I saw somewhere that Archicad loads LCF files faster. 

Thank you so much. 🙏 

[Barry Kelly]

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@Abdvlxaziz  wrote:

I wanted LCF at first because I saw somewhere that Archicad loads LCF files faster. 

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I think they do load a little faster, but they are a pain when you need to edit anything inside them.

You have to extract, make the change and then re-compile.

Then replace the entire larger LCF rather than just a smaller single file.

Of course then re-load the library.

Barry.