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How to migrate .lbk (plotmaker) files to later AC formats

Quirk
Contributor

According to Graphisoft help center the first step to migrating .lbk files is to open the .lbk file in the version to which you wish to migrate it and save the file. Every time I have tried this the Archicad program has crashed and sent a bug reporter. Is there a different method of converting plotmaker files to current Archicad .pln files? or is there a better way to open the plotmaker maker files, than File>open?

AC 23 USA
macOS 11.6.1
2.6GHz
3 REPLIES 3
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin

So I suppose these are very old files since the LBK format became obsolete when the PlotMaker functionality was merged into Archicad in Archicad 10.

There is an Archicad 10 file converter version which you can download. Try to open the LBK files with that versions, see if it works:

 

https://graphisoft.com/downloads/fileconverter

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

Thanks Laszlo, Yes they are old an old client has rehired me, and I want to see what we have already done. Downloading the Archicad 10 File Converter Package was simple, it contains 23 folders, one titled plotware doesn't seem to have much to do with plotmaker. How does one open LBK files with this version? It states "these are ready-to use packages. Just download and unpack them, then drop them in a folder inside your Program Files or Applications folder." The AC10-USA-1209-MAC.dmg is in my Archicad 23 folder but I'm having no luck in opening the LBK folder. There is obviously a step I'm missing. Do you have any further guidance? thanks

AC 23 USA
macOS 11.6.1
2.6GHz
mikas
Expert

You seem to have too new of an OS installed.

"For Archicad 10 File Converter, the last compatible OS is 10.14 Mojave.

For Archicad 7.0 and 9 File Converter, they cannot run on Mac OS X 10.7 or newer"

 

And you would still have to install or copy the software from inside the .dmg (dmg=disk image), and then run it.

Please find out what is required to open which file versions from the sheet in the link below:

Archicad file and protection compatibility 

AC25, Rhino6/7+Grasshopper, TwinMotionMac Pro 6,1 E5-1650v2-3,5GHz/128GB/eGPU:6800XT/11.6.5 • HP Z4/Xeon W-2195/256GB/RX6800XT/W10ProWS