We value your input!
Please participate in Archicad 28 Home Screen and Tooltips/Quick Tutorials survey

Libraries & objects
About Archicad and BIMcloud libraries, their management and migration, objects and other library parts, etc.

old GDL file conversions?

Anonymous
Not applicable
Greetings

I have some older downloaded GDL objects that won't open in Archicad 12 (or even 10) that I'd like to recover. I've found the "file converters" that GraphiSoft has posted at:
http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/downloads/Fileconverter.html
and downloaded the 7.0 and 9.0 USA packages. The page says (for 9.0 at least) that it should run with the green WibuKey, which I do have attached (and it's working for 12).

Both 7.0 & 9.0 start in demo mode?

Can anyone suggest what I may be overlooking. It must work somehow.

I've sniffed around the forum but have found this topic yet. Sorry if it's been covered.

Running OS-X 10.5.8 on a dual 2 GHz PPC G5.

Thanks in advance.

Doug
7 REPLIES 7
Barry Kelly
Moderator
I don't know anything about the file converters sorry.

When you say the objects won't open do you get an error message or do they appear as red dots in the plan?
Do they report as missing in the library loading report?

Can you open the script of the library part in 14 and resave it.
This will set a GUID to the object which would be missing if it is an older version.
This might solve the problem.
I have many parts from version 6.5 that I use in 14 that have simply been resaved in the newer version.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Barry

I put the object files in a folder that's loaded as part of the Libraries. There are many, but an example would be a folder with a couple dozen chair objects. Less than half of them appear in the object browser. I am assuming those are old and incompatible with the new versions of Archicad. Also, my assumption has been, as you suggest, that if they are loaded in an older (but not too old) version of ArchiCAD (9.0 seems to be the critical transition) and re-saved they will get a new life.

So, it's not a question of an object in a project not working, that may be true, but likely it would have been refreshed at the time it was being used. These are objects I downloaded, but did not use for years. (I never really learned GDL, so when I need something unique I go prowling through this old stuff to find something to approximate what I need.)

When I try to open these library parts directly in 12, I get an error message, "Unknown document version. Cannot read library part: <name> Certainly they were never opened in a newer version.

I expect that if I could open and re-save them, they would work. But, they won't open. Graphisoft appears to acknowledge that this is a necessity based on the evolving code structure? I thinks that's why they have posted the converters, but those won't save cause they're in demo mode.

Thanks.

Doug
Anonymous
Not applicable
Doug wrote:
Greetings

I have some older downloaded GDL objects that won't open in Archicad 12 (or even 10) that I'd like to recover. I've found the "file converters" that GraphiSoft has posted at:
http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/downloads/Fileconverter.html
and downloaded the 7.0 and 9.0 USA packages. The page says (for 9.0 at least) that it should run with the green WibuKey, which I do have attached (and it's working for 12).

Both 7.0 & 9.0 start in demo mode?

Can anyone suggest what I may be overlooking. It must work somehow.

I've sniffed around the forum but have found this topic yet. Sorry if it's been covered.

Running OS-X 10.5.8 on a dual 2 GHz PPC G5.

Thanks in advance.

Doug
It maybe that as your dongle's software has been upgraded AC 7 etc no longer recognizes them?
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Doug wrote:
When I try to open these library parts directly in 12, I get an error message, "Unknown document version. Cannot read library part: <name> Certainly they were never opened in a newer version.
I'm not sure what is going on here.
Unknown document version usually means you are trying to open a newer file in an older Archicad.
Older files should open just fine in newer Archicads.

I am not sure with Macs but in Windows I can select the object file and see it's version number.
This may give some clues.

Barry.
version.jpg
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
yes when you select on a mac as well (in open screen) it will show you a version number.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Barry

I put the object files in a folder that's loaded as part of the Libraries. There are many, but an example would be a folder with a couple dozen chair objects. Less than half of them appear in the object browser. I am assuming those are old and incompatible with the new versions of Archicad. Also, my assumption has been, as you suggest, that if they are loaded in an older (but not too old) version of ArchiCAD (9.0 seems to be the critical transition) and re-saved they will get a new life.

So, it's not a question of an object in a project not working, that may be true, but likely it would have been refreshed at the time it was being used. These are objects I downloaded, but did not use for years. (I never really learned GDL, so when I need something unique I go prowling through this old stuff to find something to approximate what I need.)

When I try to open these library parts directly in 12, I get an error message, "Unknown document version. Cannot read library part: <name> Certainly they were never opened in a newer version.

I expect that if I could open and re-save them, they would work. But, they won't open. Graphisoft appears to acknowledge that this is a necessity based on the evolving code structure? I thinks that's why they have posted the converters, but those won't save cause they're in demo mode.

Thanks.

Doug
Anonymous
Not applicable
Doug are you able to post/upload a couple of the library parts so we can have a play with them? and maybe able to help you.