using 8 and 9 at same time?

[Anonymous]

I am looking into upgrading my office from 8 to 9, but thinking of doing it slowly, mainly because of costs. We have (4) licenses. Can a .pln file or a .plp file be used by users of different versions? i.e. can a .pln file created in 9 be opened a used by a user in 8? can a plp file be shared by users regardless if they are using 8 or 9?

Also, if anyone has in general recommendations as to whether 9 is a significant improvement over 8 (both in features and speed), particularly on the mac side.

I appreciate any help. Thanks.

[Ralph Wessel]

jhutchison wrote:
Can a .pln file or a .plp file be used by users of different versions? i.e. can a .pln file created in 9 be opened a used by a user in 8? can a plp file be shared by users regardless if they are using 8 or 9?

AC9 will open PLN files from AC8, but not the other way around. It is possible to take projects back to AC8 from AC9 (using 'Save As..'), but you can't share the same file between them. There are the usual issues with sharing library parts between versions too.

jhutchison wrote:
Also, if anyone has in general recommendations as to whether 9 is a significant improvement over 8 (both in features and speed), particularly on the mac side.

ArchiCAD 9 is a great release for Mac users. Speed is appreciably better, especially launch time. This is also one of the most polished (stable) releases of ArchiCAD. Very worthwhile in my opinion.