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

[Djordje]

JP-Design wrote:
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.....

If I were you, I would write an article on this and post it on ArchiCAD Wiki. Too much research to go to waste.