Installation & update
About program installation and update, hardware, operating systems, setup, etc.

AC11, AC9, AC7 on same machine

David Bearss
Booster
I had AC9 and AC11 on my machine for some time with no problems. I needed to re-open an old AC7 project and so re-installed AC7. All worked fine however now AC9 operates as default version. I.E. clicking on an archicad file should open up in AC11 but now file opens with AC9. AC11 works fine if I start from start menu however I would like AC11 to be default again.

I went to do a repair install for AC11 and stopped because did not want to have installation revert back to default state and lose all my preferences, shortcuts.

Can anyone recommend how to preserve my preferences?
David Bearss
Archicad 18/Windows 11
Alienware 17 R5
i7 2.4 GHz / 16 GB ram
17 REPLIES 17
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
To set the default program used to open a pln file on XP, right click the file, then select Open With and you'll get a dialog similar to the screenshot below.

(This is from a VM that does not have ArchiCAD installed, so just pretend.)

If you do not see ArchiCAD 11 (or whatever), click Browse... to find it, and then be sure you put a checkmark in the box for "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file".

Note too, that some times installing an older ArchiCAD version will also install an older WIBU driver. So sometimes you'll find that you'll need to go to the GS web site to download the current WIBU again if you find that newer versions will not run.

Cheers,
Karl

PS The process is identical on OS X ... the Open With leads to Choose Application ... and that dialog has a checkbox at the bottom for "Always Open With".
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sonoma 14.7.1, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
David Bearss
Booster
Hi Karl,
Forgot to mention that I tried that. File still opens with AC9.
David Bearss
Archicad 18/Windows 11
Alienware 17 R5
i7 2.4 GHz / 16 GB ram
Link
Graphisoft Partner
Graphisoft Partner
This may help.

Cheers,
Link.
David Bearss
Booster
Nope. Must have hit the change button 50 times.
Very interesting workaround attempt though.
David Bearss
Archicad 18/Windows 11
Alienware 17 R5
i7 2.4 GHz / 16 GB ram
vistasp
Advisor
David wrote:
Can anyone recommend how to preserve my preferences?
Don't know if reinstalling/repairing AC11 will solve your file association problem but if you want to back-up your preferences, have a look at this thread.

HTH.
= v i s t a s p =
bT Square Peg
https://archicadstuff.blogspot.com
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| AC 9-27 INT | Win11 | Ryzen 5700 | 32 GB | RTX 3050 |
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
vistasp wrote:
David wrote:
Can anyone recommend how to preserve my preferences?
Don't know if reinstalling/repairing AC11 will solve your file association problem but if you want to back-up your preferences, have a look at this thread.

HTH.
I think that uninstalling then reinstalling AC11 should again restore file associations to AC11.
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
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
I should add that I am a firm supporter of Djordje's sage advice over many years that one should not open an ArchiCAD file by double-clicking it anyway. Maybe your own machine does what you want, but then you do it on someone else's machine. What version of AC will open? Will the user notice? Will they accidentally save the file?

It is not so much harder - and much safer IMHO - to just open AC and choose the desired project from the recent projects list, Favorites, etc ... or to drag the project file onto the icon for the desired version of AC.

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sonoma 14.7.1, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
David Bearss
Booster
Thanks all. Did a repair install and it re-set AC11 back to default. Now just have to re-set my saved preferences. Not too difficult from there.

Probably good advice Karl. By the way I just noticed you are now in Bozeman. I used to have an office in Big Sky and got my masters from MSU. Be interesting to chat.
David Bearss
Archicad 18/Windows 11
Alienware 17 R5
i7 2.4 GHz / 16 GB ram
Aaron Bourgoin
Virtuoso
I add my name to the list of those who think opening any data file from the application is a good thing.

I have ArchiCAD 6.0 through 12 installed on my Windows machine (really just to see if I could). I would have installed older versions if I had some way of using floppies again. All versions work without messing each other up. I would love to look at ArchiCAD 4.55 again.
Think Like a Spec Writer
AC4.55 through 27 / USA AC27-6000 USA
Rhino 8 Mac
MacOS 14.6.1