Cloud Storage Paths in AC

[James Murray]

At some point, likely the last macOS update, I was prompted to update ChronoSync, which is my habitual utility for keeping folders in sync. Among other uses, we use it to sync between local folders and Google Drive.

We have used Google Drive for several years; as long as we have used it, paths to GD resources have included the user ID somewhere in the path. E.g., Shared Drives / Jamesm’s google ID / Files / File.LCF.

So a PLN’s library, e.g., path refers to a specific user, which is fine until the file is opened by a different user. Though they are using the same resource, the path is different because of the username. Libraries, hotlinked modules, and external drawings will be inaccessible until they are relinked by the current user. Repeat for each new user working on the file.

Back to ChronoSync. The paths of the resources to be synced previously contained the usernames, just like with AC. After the recent update, the paths are greatly simplified and do not contain usernames. CS now uses a tech in macOS called File Provider Extensions, which makes this possible.

I would be beyond delighted to see this tech used in AC library, HLM, and drawing manager paths. It would streamline the transfer of projects between users within our firm.

[Geoff Briggs]

Thanks for posting this James. I was unaware of File Provider Extensions and agree this would be a huge upgrade for Archicad users who share resources like libraries in the cloud. I was just trapped in this exact scenario while collaborating with another Archicad user. We had shared libraries and linked PDFs in DropBox. While DropBox synced everything perfectly we were each forced to relink our shared libraries every time, and relink the PDFs when they were updated. I hope Graphisoft can make this important improvement.

[Barry Kelly]

This is a little messy but seems to work.

Once set up it is pretty much automatic.

I too use Dropbox to share my libraries - not so much files, but it should work for those as well.

So the Dropbox part works fine except the files will be located in a 'user' folder, unique to each user.

What I do is, use synchronisation software (there are a lot of them out there) to copy the files from the user folder to a folder on the local hard drive.

The files now reside in a 'non-user' file path.

So long as you set each machine to synchronise to the same local folders, you will find the paths in Archicad are the same no matter what machine you open the file on.

For job files you would need to copy them back (or synchronise them back) to the Dropbox user folder.

But this is a good thing as you should never work directly with files in a cloud synchronising folder.

Barry.