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?

[Link]

What, that AutoDesk hasn't significantly changed their feature set?

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

We can open AutoCAD files from within ArchiCAD V11 back to those produced pre 1990, but not native ArchiCAD files back beyond 2003?
How many different versions of the software do you intend to have installed in 10 years time? Never mind the different library versions we will now have to collect on an annual basis? I guess most people are not bothered by this but what of the hassle of revisiting old projects say something done in 2000 V6.5. Try opening that with only V11 installed on your machine and tell me you don't have a problem.

[TomWaltz]

You can't open a 6.5 at all? (I've only been on since 8, so I don't even have any to test)

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
Try opening that with only V11 installed on your machine and tell me you don't have a problem.

Every so often there are changes in the program dramatic enough to make it very difficult if not impossible to maintain backward compatibility. This happened with the transition from 3 to 4 as I recall. Even library parts had to be converted to run on the new version, and AC5 would not open AC3 files.

We have just been through two such major transitions. The layout book introduced in AC8/PM3 and then the AC/PM consolidation in 10. Since these issues relate to layouts (and PlotMaker) it does seem that GS could have retained the ability to at least open the ArchiCAD building model files back to 6 or 7, but I don't know what other complexities may be involved.

In any case you won't need to keep every new version around forever. GS won't be making such dramatic changes in the program every year.

It does seem that we should all plan to keep AC/PM 9 installed on some old spare computer for the odd conversion (or take the time to bring all the old files up to date - not likely for me). As I recall AC/PM 9 will open files back to AC6.5 (PM2.?) - as did versions 8 & 8.1. For pre-6.5 files I believe AC7 will open back to AC5.0 (PM 1.6?).

[Karl Ottenstein]

Karl wrote:
We can open AutoCAD files from within ArchiCAD V11 back to those produced pre 1990, but not native ArchiCAD files back beyond 2003?
How many different versions of the software do you intend to have installed in 10 years time? Never mind the different library versions we will now have to collect on an annual basis? I guess most people are not bothered by this but what of the hassle of revisiting old projects say something done in 2000 V6.5. Try opening that with only V11 installed on your machine and tell me you don't have a problem.

I sympathize with this one, but like so many things, would rather see GS spend their limited resources on other matters (bug fixes and beyond).

As Link said, what has changed from AutoCAD 1990 to now? The file format is pretty simple, and GS uses open software to handle the file import process, so doesn't have to write that code themselves anyway.

Even so: have you tried opening an AutoCAD file that uses ObjectARX elements? Doesn't work...have to convert/explose in the actual AutoCAD product first. So, we're not really able to open anything that AutoDesk produces.

I agree that it is somewhat unfortunate that we have to use 'bridge' technology - keeping several old versions of AC installed in order to open or move old projects upwards. But, GS will provide these old versions to any new users, if required, and any of us who have old projects should have the old versions installed on our computer, or on CD for installation onto a new computer. So, we're really only talking about disk space and some small expenditure of time for most of us.

The kinds of people that this really hurts are people like Rick who have huge portfolios of 'stock' homes that are continually available for sale and modification. Rick has to either move all of these upwards with each version, or be able to go back and move projects up through the intervening versions. Must be painful.

Cheers,
Karl

PS As Matthew says, 9 is a good version to keep around, as it can save back to version 6.0.

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
PS As Matthew says, 9 is a good version to keep around, as it can save back to version 6.0.

...and keep at least one old computer & OS around (G4-G5 + OSX Tiger, P4-PentiumD-Xeon etc. + XP-SP2 or such) that runs AC/PM 9 properly. It runs OK on Intel Macs, but I wouldn't count on that remaining true, and I don't think it is Vista compatible.

[Anonymous]

Just out of curiosity - does the updated-to-11 protection key work on ArchiCAD versions older than v8?

[Anonymous]

I did not install AC11 yet but the documentation says you can use the dongle back to 7.0 installation.
Actually, we have kept a 6.5 "open source" version, which allows us to get our oldest projects (5). I think GS could distribute a free AC 6.5 CD, so we do not have to use the dark side way…Who's going to professionally use a 6 years old soft?

[Piotr Dobrowolski]

Philippe wrote:
I did not install AC11 yet but the documentation says you can use the dongle back to 7.0 installation.
Actually, we have kept a 6.5 "open source" version, which allows us to get our oldest projects (5). I think GS could distribute a free AC 6.5 CD, so we do not have to use the dark side way…Who's going to professionally use a 6 years old soft?

If You have the 7.0 CD You could actuallly find a 6.5 working with WIBU there...so no need to be on the dark side 😉

Best Regards,
Piotr