Graphisoft Products

First of all check the hardware requirements. Check if the downloaded installer is complete or the physical installer disc is not damaged. If installation fails, usually additional system components might have errors, please check the troubleshooting guide here.
On Mac platform the installer itself might crash, in this case open the DMG file and scroll down to the Archicad 20 folder. Launch the Archicad Installer located in this folder.

Most likely the installation folder is not accessible due to a change in the user rights. Please check this article for the solution.

Activation is free and can be done using one single ID per company. The ID is your account to all GRAPHISOFT-related websites, such as MyArchicad.com, BIMcomponents.com and the BIMx Transfer Site. It will not be used for the BIM server during Teamwork.

If you start a new project, choose the MEP Modeler template. For ongoing projects, activate the MEP Modeler Work Environment and load the MEP Library in the Library Manager.

Archicad creates autosave and backup files for both solo and Teamwork projects. Autosave files are temporary ones and are constantly overwritten, but can be used to recover data in case of a crash. Backup files ensure the option of rolling back to an earlier state of the file. In case of troubleshooting you may need to check different folders – find a comprehensive list of troubleshooting options and folder locations here.

The Navigator lists all aspects of the project and contains the four major sections for the different work phases:

• Project Map – the structure of the model, items here called ‘viewpoints’ and marked with grey colour.
• View Map – views of the model, filtered for different purposes, items here called ‘views’ and marked with blue colour.
• Layout Book – the filtered views collected to ‘layouts’ as ‘drawings’.
• Publisher Sets – the different layouts collected for different publishing methods.

In other words, the Project Map is the model itself, the View Map is the collection of the different representations of the model.

The Project Map viewpoints use the default View Settings of the View Map/Floor Plans folder. When opening a view from the View Map, the last opened representation will be inherited among the Project Map elements. The Native Submission Template contains a preset default working view for the users’ convenience to always be able to return to.

Download the free Library Part Maker add-on from the GRAPHISOFT UK site and create any custom objects. The UKI version can be used with the INT version of Archicad. The Library Part Maker allows you to create custom 2D and 3D representation for objects for 3 levels of detail that can be controlled by Model View Option settings and be saved with the views.

Check the relevant section in the MEP Modeler Reference Guide to learn how you can create custom MEP objects. Model any 3D, add MEP connections and save the objects as MEP elements. The 3D model can also be acquired via IFC, SketchUp models or any 3D formats compatible with Archicad.

Check the hardware requirements at the Graphisoft Help Center. In most cases average computers can run BIM Server without any issues, however it is always recommended to have a dedicated server computer to run the BIM Server.

The BIM Server Manager is managing your BIM Server, handling users, projects, access rights, libraries, backups, etc. It has its own Data folder.
The BIM Server Module (folder named BIMcloud Server) contains the project-related data, such as libraries (Attachments folder) and project data (Projects folder).

Most likely the BIM Server Manager and the BIM Server folders were specified on separate servers. GRAPHISOFT does not recommend putting BIM Server/BIMcloud project folders on network shares when using generic Windows file servers and/or non-enterprise-level network storage. The reason is that the performance of BIM Server/BIMcloud is very heavily dependent on I/O, not just the transfer speed, but also on latency.
Also, BIM Server/BIMcloud services run in the name of the local system account. If you are using a proper Microsoft domain with Active Directory, it is possible to assign access rights to a computer, but without proper domains it is practically impossible. In case of a dedicated server you can install the BIM Server Manager and the Server Module on a single server.

Teamwork is generating database files for projects compared to the regular PLN or PLA files of solo projects. Since these databases cannot be opened directly with Archicad (such as selecting the file, right-clicking and open), they are a bit hidden and cannot be located in the file system a user may have from earlier BIM solutions. Instead, the user always has to start Archicad and login to the BIM Server and join the project from there. The database files are located in the ‘Projects’ folder defined during the installation of BIM Server.

Most likely the Manager database got corrupted due to an unclean shutdown (such as OS update or manual restart) or the hard drive ran out of space. Follow the steps at the Graphisoft Help Center to restore the Manager database.