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PlotMaker 9 -> ArchiCAD 8.1

Anonymous
Not applicable
I have a team who created a model in 8.1, but used PlotMaker 9 for the layout book. One of their members had his computer upgraded to XP and PlotMaker now insists on opening the model in 9 -- which fails. I played with the file associations, but nothing worked. I'm stumped as to why it opened AC8.1 the first time around. How do I get it to open AC8.1 in the background on this project?
3 REPLIES 3
TomWaltz
Participant
I think Plotmaker looks for the Archicad executable in its own installation directory. I don't believe there is a way to re-point it to look back at 8.1
Tom Waltz
Anonymous
Not applicable
Back when I was using AC 8.1 and AC 9 concurrently, Whichever AC version was updated or installed last became the "Default" Program for the opening up of a Double Clicked PLN file. With AC 9 installed last I had to reinstall AC 8.1 or just open the application first and then use the File Open from within the Software.

I do not know if Re-installing AC 8.1 on that Machine will work to "re-assign" Background AC to AC 8.1. And if it does what will it do with the PM files that want to open the Version 9?
Anonymous
Not applicable
We continued testing yesterday and no good solutions were found, but I did run into some very strange behavior. I used PlotMaker 9 and it launched ArchiCAD 9 in the background.

I saved the PLP as a PLN and relinked all model views to the PLN. Then I attempted to update all 378 views. Note that the background version of ArchiCAD was already launched because I tried one view to see what would happen. Also, BG ArchiCAD shows up on my computer, so I can see what it's doing.

The following is what happened when I updated all 378 views:

First 15 minutes -- BG ArchiCAD had CPU pegged at 100%, no change on PlotMaker progress bar or screen.
Next 5 minutes -- PlotMaker closed BG ArchiCAD, then started a new one.
Next 20 minutes -- BG ArchiCAD had CPU pegged at 100%, no change on PlotMaker progress bar or screen.
Next 2 hours -- Updated all 378 views. Took from 20 to 120 seconds for each view.

I had the Task Manager open so I could monitor what the system was doing. During the 15 and 20 minute intervals the total amount of used RAM never varied more that 0.01Meg.

I'll post more if I learn anything today.