Backwards Compatibilty

[Anonymous]

Has anyone considered the limitations of only being able to open projects in V11 back to V8?? That takes us back to 2003, and yet we can open Autocad projects back to 1990?? Seems to me to be something missing here?

[KeesW]

I've just had an issue with needing to use an old (possibly v6.5 or 7) ArchiCad model. I was able to open it with version 10 which is still on my computer.

Graphisoft are going to have to think about this. They have said that they are going on a one year upgrade cycle, with major upgrades every two years. If this happens, issues such as library object naming and management will become critical.

[Anonymous]

I now have 4 computers one with V9, V 10 and V 11, one with V8, V 9 and V10 which doesn't run successfully on it on it, one with V 7 and V8, and the oldest with V 6.5 and V 7. I am well placed to cope with issues of backwards compatibility but at a cost. The first issue is that I can't cart them all around with me, and realistically I need to set some time aside sooner than later to upgrade years of projects and if GS continue as they have in the past then I will need to continue to do this to ensure access to these projects. On the whole everybody refers back to past work, I know that this has been a prevalent behaviour throughout my 20 years as an Architectural draughtsman and I don't see that changing. None of us live solely in the present and we all need to refer back to past bodies of work just as we all look forward toward our goals. My intention when I started this thread was to gauge how big an issue this was and already I can see that it is indeed an issue. What I would like to see from GS is a roadmap for the future handling of libraries ( I now have 6 versions I must keep in order to open all of the projects I have created in ArchiCAD) and also some way of handling older projects. I have been supporting GS for 7 years now and already have a large body of work to manage over 6 different versions of the same software and it worries me to think of having now to look forward to an annual cycle of change and all that that entails. I would welcome any thoughts and comments on this.

I should also add to this that I really enjoy using ArchiCAD especially once all of the glitches have been ironed out. I love the modelling side of the program along with the vsualization tools. I have yet to find another software solution which surpasses it. I am really interested in seeing it be the absolute best given the time and energy I have invested in learning first how to use it and then how to push it to the limits.

[AndorSzoke]

Hi,

These links might be helpful with conceiving a strategy for opening older files:

http://www.archicadwiki.com/ArchiCAD_versions
http://www.archicadwiki.com/TechNotes/Conversion_of_old_ArchiCAD_project_files_into_ArchiCAD_9
http://www.archicadwiki.com/TechNotes/Converting_old_ArchiCAD_project_files

As to future handling of libraries and backwards compatibility of ArchiCAD thank you for all the ideas. All these comments are really valuable. Currently we are thinking on the solutions but we cannot comment on them yet.

Best regards,

[March_ Bruce]

Actually updating past libraries (from 4.1) to work with the current version & creating archive templates would seem a possible help allowing older projects to at least be opened & exploded where needed...

Alternatively providing working versions of the older archicads would allow users to go back & migrate projects with older machines while they still run...