HELP I can fail the year bcuz .pln file won't open!

[Anonymous]

My .pln file suddenly won't open... I do not have any backups, so I am pretty much hopeless. Any help or ideas would be appreciated. Please reply asap, it's for a school project, I might fail the year without the project!
ArchiCad works perfectly, and I can open all my other files but his 1. I haven't moved the file or anything, when I open it, ArchiCad launches but the file won't open

[Barry Kelly]

Any particular messages when you try to open it?
Does the progress bar get stuck at a certain point or does it not even get that far?

Years ago I experienced a problem where a file wouldn't open and I think it was getting stuck while loading the "header" stage.
I found if I opend a similar file, left this file open and then go to the FILE menu and OPEN the bad file (do not tick launch new instance of Archicad), then the file seems to read some of the old information from the other file and opened.

If this doesn't work you could try MERGING it in to another (similar) file.

Archicad usually makes its own backup file with a BPN extension.
Have you tried opening this?

Barry.

[Anonymous]

I cannot find a .bpn file, scanned both my HDDs. The file worked fine, and suddenly I couldn't open it anymore, it only launches ArchiCad but the file doesn't open. If you want I can send the file to you so you see for yourself. Thanks in advance

[Karl Ottenstein]

Try Barry's suggestion for Merging the file into another. Open a fresh file, ideally a one with the same layer structure/etc as your non-working file (to avoid extra clutter). Then File > File Special > Merge to merge in your problem file.

If that doesn't work, no idea what else to try.

[Anonymous]

I tried that before, won't work... if any of you is willing to see the file for urself I'd be grateful. No viruses or anything, I really need help. Thank you for the replies though

[Anonymous]

If none of the suggestions are working for you it seems very unlikely that the file will open for other users. GS might be able to help but it's the weekend. It's also hard to understand how you have no backups at all. ArchiCAD makes the .bpn file by default, and I assume you did not turn this function off, so the only thing I can imagine is that you only saved the file once (the second save creates the .bpn)

It looks like your best plan is to stock up on coffee and prepare for some sleepless nights while you rebuild from scratch. You don't mention how much work is lost, but I have found it typically takes only 1/4 to 1/5 the time to redo lost work since so much of the original time is spent on deciding, designing and figuring stuff out.

One other thing. I'm guessing you are using the edu version which would mean that none of us with commercial licenses could help you anyway.

[Barry Kelly]

The BPN file will be located in the same location as the PLN file.
Same file name but different file extension.
Unless as Matthew said you only saved the file once or you turned the backup feature of in the Work Environment.

If you are using the Educational version is there someone else there that can try opening the file for you.
Or contact your local Graphisoft office and they might be able to help.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

Nothing I tried will open it, whatever I try only launches ArchiCad and does nothing more... I deleted the backup, would anyone know a good file recovery software bcuz Pandora File Recovery (free) won't find it

[Barry Kelly]

Is it still in your recycle bin?
Barry.

[Anonymous]

no, it is not in my recycle bin. last question... does any of you guys use ArchiCad on Mac? cuz when I move the pointer over that file I get "Version 0.0 Platform: Macintosh" and on all the other files when I move the mouse over it's "Version 15.0 Platform: Windows" maybe it will only open on mac?