How long do you wait before changing to the latest version of Archicad

[Frillex]

Hello everyone, 

I'm curious about how other people think when it's time for a new version of Archicad.

Do you install it directly and live with the problems that comes with each new version?

Or do you wait? For how long?

When I was new to Archicad, (v. 13) someone told me to always wait at least 90 days.

We installed and migrated our smaller projects quite quickly when AC26 came out. In hindsight it wasn't a smart move. 

So I wonder how other people think in this matter.

Regards

Felix 

[Barry Kelly · Accepted solution]

It all depends on the type of work you do and whether any particular problems will affect you or not.

Many jump in straight away and deal with any issues.

I like to wait for at least the 1st or maybe 2nd update and see what problems arise.

Some years I just don't update at all - jumped from 22 to 25 only recently.

I didn't think there was much value in 23 & 24 to warrant the pain of updating nearly 50 users.

However with 26 there is a rather serious problem where the text moves when you open an older file version in 26.

It depends on the font you use, some are worse than others.

Starting a new job in 26 is fine.

Just not opening old file.

So until that is fixed I probably won't be upgrading at all.

Barry.

[Djordje · Accepted solution]

As Barry said, since we work a lot on okder files, plus - you have to spend time to make a new template. Changes in properties and libraries… it all has to click. Not to mention classifications…

[Nathan Hildebrandt · Accepted solution]

To get around the classification issue, I have my own custom set, which is all mapped to IFC with my IFC translators that I have set up. 

Back to when I begin working on the latest release. It varies for each release, if you have a chance to test in during the beta phase you learn about whether there are issues that you will have as a practice on the latest release, then if there are no killer bugs for your practice, you move onto it. Otherwise I wait till the killer bugs have been addressed in the update bug list that is provided with each update. It is important to monitor, as there is always some benefit to upgrading as soon as you can, mainly around better performance.

[LFBIMMAN · Accepted solution]

we tend to skip versions and install every other. We will be looking to change from 24 to 26 soon.  we normally wait until the first patch or 2 have been released to upgrade. seeing as most of our projects will need to be opened & upgraded to 26, the text issue mentioned below worries me.

[Erwin Edel · Accepted solution]

We generally finish project in the version it was started on, unless migrating early offers very big benefits.

We are generally a month or two behind, due to localisation of our version, but I also wait out the 'ussual' bugs of a version at release.

I'm actually just now reworking our template to AC25, we skipped 24 alltogether and as pointed out AC26 seems too buggy.

[Frillex]

Thank you everybody,

We jumped from 22 to 25, but because of the text bug in 25 we couldn't really stay in 25. that's why we jumped right in this new versions. 

But basically what everybody is saying is: Skip one or two versions, when you update, keep an eye out on the forum for major bugs. And wait until they are solved. 

Again, thanks, now im ready for Archicad 28. 

/Felix 

[Frillex]

Just one more question:

I guess that Graphisoft doesn't provide information about when its "safe" to upgrade to a new version?

/F

[Nathan Hildebrandt]

It is safe for different people at different times. Hence why Graphisoft won’t advise when it is safe to use. Personally I have never skipped a release. I always will be on the latest release. The time in which I roll over depends on the bugs at the time and how it affects my business or project types. It isn’t that hard to upgrade releases in most instances, and on most projects I will roll them up to the latest release as well depending on where the project is in its delivery. 

[Erwin Edel]

It's all about productivity. Unless there is a huge benefit for a particular project to be migrated to a new version, there ussually aren't any issues to just finish an existing project on an older version. Versions like 15 with shell tool or 16 with morph tool offered very tempting reasons to migrate. ArchiCAD26 with radial offset for 2D circles, didn't tick that many boxes (I know it has more features!).

We have a pretty elaborate template and we have a reseller that is great for adding extra functionality with each update on top off what GS offers, which ussually ties heavily into their supplied template. As such, our template is based of theirs, but we also add a lot of office stuff.

I would say it is probably 2-3 days of work for us to re-work the retailers' template to our office standard. I've experienced the strangest bugs over the years with migrated projects, so migrating our template (and having those bugs in every single project we start with the template) is not very tempting.