What version is my old .pln file?

[R Muller]

Is there any way to determine which ArchiCAD version was used to save an old .pln file? I'm on a Mac. Get Info doesn't give me the AC version that created the file. I think it used to tell me, but no longer.

I guess I could open it with AC21 and see which library it uses...

[mikas]

The metadata for file creator/program/ownership might have gone for now. I am not absolutely sure about the current situation of mac files and metadata.

If you try to open it with ArchiCAD or with an ArchiCAD translator program, does it tell you something like: "Could not open the file. It was created with ArchiCAD 5.1"

That's a dialog info that I encountered couple of weeks ago trying to open a little too old versions of my pln. -files with a little too new version of ArchiCAD. Can't remember the version differences anymore.

[Karl Ottenstein]

See attached screenshot. Simply use the Open dialog in AC 21 (or any version) to browse to the file of interest. In the lower right corner, the version and build number for the AC that last saved the file will be displayed.

A little awkward, but works. Then you can decide if you want to open in the current version or use an old conversion version of AC to move the project forward. E.g., if the file is earlier than AC 10 and so has layouts and PlotMaker files that you want to keep, it may be best to integrate the model and layout in AC 10 and then move to the present.

[R Muller]

Thank you, Karl and Mikas. An old, dead project just showed signs of coming back to life, so I want to see what i've got.

Karl, using your process, I can quickly go through a folder of about 20 old .pln files, and I can see that they are AC12 through AC17. It's actually faster than the old "get info".

[Barry Kelly]

In Windows we can just hover the mouse over the file name in Exporer.
Doesn't always work though for some reason - seems a bit temperamental.

I also change the file preview icon when I save the file.
Just copy and paste a screen-snap of some text with the version number.
Again this works but only if the user updates the preview icon to suit the saved version.

Karl's option of using the Open dialogue is a fail safe option.

Barry.