File Associations Problem - Older Installs Open PLNs

[Anonymous]

My office has used ArchiCAD since Version 7.0 and often I need to load and print older projects. I have versions 8.1 through 11 installed on my machine. Regardless of which order I install the different versions, windows seems to randomly pick a certain version to associate PLN files with and will always try to open them with that version.

Example: If I browse with Windows Explorer to a version 11 pln, and double click, ArchiCAD 9 opens and then gives me an incompatible version error. Right clicking and selecting 'open with' does not fix the problem (I assume because all versions are just named archicad.exe). Is there any way to make ArchCAD 11 the default application for opening PLNs while other versions are installed?

P4 3.0GH 2GB RAM
Win XP SP2
AC11US, AC10US, AC9US AC8.1US

[Anonymous]

It is recommended that you start Archicad first, then select the file you want to open.

[henrypootel]

It will generally use the last version of ArchiCAD that was installed. beyond that, i'm not sure why it would mess that up.

[Anonymous]

I generally do load ArchiCAD and then open a file, but there are enough times that people here in the office want to open from Windows Explorer that this is quite annoying. It seems that the latest install doesn't always grab the file association. If anybody else has thoughts, I'm still interested.

[Djordje]

No it does not. I have everything since 8.1 installed, including 8.1, and double click ALWAYS opens 8.1

Regardless of the last install.

So there ...

Software first, file later.

[Anonymous]

right-click on a PLN file -> open with... -> select the version of archicad you want to be the default to open -> check the checkbox with always use the selected program... -> click ok

and that's it

[Djordje]

zucoc wrote:
right-click on a PLN file -> open with... -> select the version of archicad you want to be the default to open -> check the checkbox with always use the selected program... -> click ok

and that's it

Hmmm ... if you say so

Maybe I am installing and uninstalling too much 😉

[Anonymous]

zucoc wrote:
right-click on a PLN file -> open with... -> select the version of archicad you want to be the default to open -> check the checkbox with always use the selected program... -> click ok

and that's it

That, may be the standard Windows procedure, but it doesn't work for me (note the original comment). When I try to select a different version in the 'Open With' dialog box, it still defaults to whatever version it wants. Looks like we're stuck with opening ArchiCAD and then browsing to the file, though if Graphisoft wants to fix that, I'd love to see it.

[Barry Kelly]

BasisArchitecture wrote:

zucoc wrote:
right-click on a PLN file -> open with... -> select the version of archicad you want to be the default to open -> check the checkbox with always use the selected program... -> click ok

and that's it

That, may be the standard Windows procedure, but it doesn't work for me (note the original comment). When I try to select a different version in the 'Open With' dialog box, it still defaults to whatever version it wants. Looks like we're stuck with opening ArchiCAD and then browsing to the file, though if Graphisoft wants to fix that, I'd love to see it.

You can always set up an Archicad shortcut on your desktop.
Then just drag and drop the file from Explorer onto the shortcut and it will open.
Barry.

[Srinivas]

Barry wrote:
You can always set up an Archicad shortcut on your desktop.
Then just drag and drop the file from Explorer onto the shortcut and it will open.
Barry.

Thanks for such a nice tip Barry.