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]

They'd have to pay me.


Seriously though.... It's something that sometimes bothers me too- having various AC versions. It OUGHT to be easier.

So I did some more research, esp as I've just started working with some peers who are back on AC 7 *gulp* (isn't that like Win98? the land of BSOD's?)....

I came up with this procedure and a link so far..
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257592

This ought to work with everything, even perhaps vista, though some of the menus are slightly different in Vista (for sure)

1) go to "control panel"
2) Select "Folder Options"
3) Click the "File Types" tab
and now you have some choices.

I made an extension for AC-10 called "09s" for AC 9 and "10s" -for my AC 10 solo projects, respectively. So I clicked "New" and then changed and associated it with AC 9 and AC10 vs AC 12 by browsing and having windows always open these with AC 9 and AC 10.

YOU can simply keep your naming method, and select a different default AC version here by clicking the "Browse" button. You can even skip all this and simply find your ArchiCAD Solo Project, along with all the other ArchiCAD file formats, and change the default "handler" app here (I.E. the default program version to associate it with, AC 7 or AC 12, 3d studio max, wordpad, etc etc- have fun!)....

Close and open the files. The FIRST TIME it will need to BROWSE for the file, but after that, it will auto open them in the PROPER/CORRECT version of AC!!!!


That...
Ought to work.

GS, with some registry editing for installation, could re-associate file types based on document versions to first look for the associated app version that made it, and open with that as the default handler before trying the latest default. A little bit of smarts and it could be done- but it might create some bigger issues... I guess we'll see!

GS, send me a check please.

[Anonymous]

Naw... doesn't work correctly. The renaming isn't convenient for most of us, of course, but it was an experiment.

So archiCAD itself needs to get on the ball with this one and choose an option for association versions without changing the file types.

But at least using the above version you can correct which VERSION of AC is the default one when you click on a file for AC!

[Anonymous]

I just added and edited my whole registry for *.09s and *.10s file types, and edited the file type to the windows archicad plnfile type association, and it STILL asks when I click it, to browse for the file, though it NOW loads the various versions of AC depending on the file type (so I click on a *.09s file and it opens AC-9, click on a *.10s file type, and it opens AC-10... and back and forth...).

This isn't the solution for sure. Sharing would be a real pain, with registry patches (you want to install one I send you? Yeah, EXACTLY) needed for sharing files, and more editing for having AC itself recognize a file format as pertaining to different executables. Maybe more than I know how to do right now, least without a lot of thought and installing AC in some virtual machines to emulate the start up and see what is going on. Too much work...

So let's poll and get GS on this one- so many of us have upgraded and we keep our older versions of AC (it's like a fine wine that doesn't spoil with opening, yeah? LOL)... so let's see if GS will write this patch up for us, yeah???

[vistasp]

Just to add my two bits here:

Windows allows multiple programs to be associated with a single file-type, so why can't one just do an "Open With..."?

As has been mentioned above, selecting the file by hovering (single click on some systems) shows you what version the file was made in, so you simply right-click and "Open With..." the relevant version of AC.

[Karl Ottenstein]

JP-Design,

Both Mac and Windows permit multiple 'Open With', as well as drag-onto-app-icon, as well as open the program first and then open the file.

Also, it requires no registry editing nor property list editing to change the default application associated with a file type. Both Windows and Mac provide a user-level interface to change this.

I see from your poll - which was in the wrong forum and has been moved here:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=24509

that what you would like is something automatic - so that the correct version opens the file based on the file's internal version code. I think that is something quite different.

Cheers,
Karl

[David Maudlin]

vistasp wrote:
As has been mentioned above, selecting the file by hovering (single click on some systems) shows you what version the file was made in, so you simply right-click and "Open With..." the relevant version of AC.

Perhaps on Windows, but only up through version 9 on the Mac (as I mentioned above).

David

[Anonymous]

Hey thanks
Well it was a fun experiment.

I did learn how to quickly change the default file type association.
But no luck on having different, for instance *.pln's open with the version of the program that last saved or created the file.

I've run into this so many times in various software that it was worth it to begin to look into how it's done. I'm too inexperienced at this stuff though to figure it out.... And since I use usually just one version of AC (the latest) I rarely run into issues anymore.

Is it possible to have AC recognize the version that created/saved a file, and open the file WITH that version of AC, if it resides on the machine in question?

Hmmmm.....

[vistasp]

Windows finally does something that a Mac won't ? Woohoo!

😉

[Anonymous]

Actually, No.
you can load windows on a mac and in a mac you can access windows apps.
(Macintel anyway)
-But you can't load a mac OS in windows---no way!

So you can do this if you run your AC on a mac using a windows port (virtualization). Even you can do this with any variation of Linux OS's.

So windows is still ...behind on the ladder.

[Djordje]

JP-Design wrote:
08412E01.09.pln
year, project number, Existing/Remodel, Version. AC-version*.pln

Excellent advice!

However, I would replace the dot in the file name with an underscore. As I said, my DOS habit die hard ... and DOS is STILL lurking deep down beneath XPs or whathaveyou.