Conversion to 10

[Anonymous]

I've spent alot of time creating various things specific to the types of projects we do including:

Wall composite types
Library parts
Fills
Materials
Interactive Schedules
Pens sets for various drawing types (plans elevations)

Will these have to be redone if we switch to 10

What about projects that we are half way though can we open them in 10 and use the libraries from 9?

[TomWaltz]

The migration process SEEMS to work so far, but I'm still waiting on a final release and a week or so to play around and make sure it actually does work COMPLETELY before I get too excited.

[Djordje]

TomWaltz wrote:
The migration process SEEMS to work so far, but I'm still waiting on a final release and a week or so to play around and make sure it actually does work COMPLETELY before I get too excited.

This is the right approach. While the lure of the new features is tempting, it should be weighed properly.

Half of my current stuff is in 9, half in 10, and I personally intend to keep it that way. Yes, there is an overhead in switching your fingers from 9 to 10, as well as trying to do something that can't be done, but the project data are safe and the outcome is predictable.

As Tom says, the final should be around the corner; let's see then.

[Anonymous]

TomWaltz wrote:

Rakela wrote:
every time i converted files to a higher version i ended up carrying old set of libraries or addon problems or something else for years..

i dont remember any ac version where i had a clean higher conversion !!
personally, i like new versions for new projects....maybe i agree with matthew a little bit

That's definitely my preference, but with 30 people and who-knows-how-many projects, it can be really hard to keep track of what project is in what version and almost impossible to deny people new features (sorry, you still have to type your sheet lists and color your own elevations manually while the good kids have all the fun....)

I have to admit that I have had plenty of painless upgrades, but then many (most?) of my projects use custom parts. I've been trying to use the SE library (with pretty good results) so I guess I'll see how that goes (so far so good by the way).

Related to Tom's point is the overall difficulty of supporting two versions of the software. Like handy new library parts that can't be used in older projects, or worse someone edits an old one in the new version and it no longer works in projects that need it. It is also a pain to keep both programs and remember which on to use and even how to open the files (no more double clicking on the old ones).

Generally it is best to make the transition as quickly as possible, keeping only projects that are (chronologically) close to completion in the older version. Sometimes it is possible to schedule the upgrade to match the workflow in the office. There are occasions when some old projects are wrapping up and some new ones are just starting but there are none or few in mid-production.

It is also a good idea to get a copy of the new version in the hands of the lead guinea pig, I mean CAD Manager (or perhaps the main canary or the chief taster), to give it a trial run before widespread deployment. I think this is the main advantage of beta testing. It gets this phase done early and even provides a means to ensure that the stuff will work. It really isn't just the huge sums of cash and extravagant beta-test parties in London, Paris, and Budapest.

[Andy Thomson]

Need I even weigh in here? 1/2-way projects (mid to late DD?) IMO should definitely stay in 9. Especially if you took extensive advantige of auto-referncing markes - there may be a hotfix in the works that will make the migration/transition process easier, but our dilemna is dealing with the double-whammy of migrating projects AND users. The former is at least mechanical and somewhat logical.

That having been said, all parts and atts load up fine, etc. I wouldn't even bother loading the 10 library in a file that was using 9-libs - there's no need.
Viewsets/PMKs and the like require a bit (a large bit) of prep in 9 for a smooth transition.

[Anonymous]

andyro wrote:
1/2-way projects (mid to late DD?) IMO should definitely stay in 9.

I agree with this as long as the completion date is near term. Some projects go on for quite some time (a project on which I completed DD in 2002 in ArchiCAD 7 just recently completed construction) and I wouldn't want to be maintaining ArchiCAD 9 work after version 11 is released.

[Rick Thompson]

With this in mind... I work on small projects (40 pmk or so). My lbks are pmk based, masters are pmk based. I do not use any section reference, but I do use auto text, and have a few white lines drawn on my lbk masters for printing alignment.

I have around 300 files I use over and over, therefore I am migrating all of them. WIth the final release I am having complete success converting. It is very important to follow GS's guidlines, including updating the newly saved lbk as a 10 file before you merge that into the project file, it makes a difference for autotext merging (for some reason). According to the manual, it will be fixed in the first update in AC19 (that's not my typo )

Each file is taking about 10 min to convert the pmk's to hotlinks, open in 10, save/close, open the project file and merge.

It is so simple, I am hiring my 18year old daughter to do them for me.

So, my opinion is migrate without worry, just have a backup of course.

[TomWaltz]

Rick wrote:
With this in mind... I work on small projects (40 pmk or so). My lbks are pmk based, masters are pmk based. I do not use any section reference, but I do use auto text, and have a few white lines drawn on my lbk masters for printing alignment.

I have around 300 files I use over and over, therefore I am migrating all of them. WIth the final release I am having complete success converting. It is very important to follow GS's guidlines, including updating the newly saved lbk as a 10 file before you merge that into the project file, it makes a difference for autotext merging (for some reason). According to the manual, it will be fixed in the first update in AC19 (that's not my typo )

Each file is taking about 10 min to convert the pmk's to hotlinks, open in 10, save/close, open the project file and merge.

It is so simple, I am hiring my 18year old daughter to do them for me.

So, my opinion is migrate without worry, just have a backup of course.

I was about to ask if you had a lot of free time or something until I saw you had a source of cheap labor....
http://despair.com/achievement.html

[Rakela Raul]

until I saw you had a source of cheap labor....

i dont think so....he will pay later !!!

[Anonymous]

So

Is the advice not to migrate AC9 libraries to the AC10 version? If the advice is to migrate then what are the benefits/disbenefits?

TIA

Adri

[Laszlo Nagy]

I think there should not be any problem using AC9 Libraries in an AC10 Project.
The better part is that if you save an AC10 Project that uses AC9 Library part later back into AC9 format, it will be usable, because it will be able to use those AC9 Library Parts (except for those AC9 Library Parts that you edited in AC10 and saved, effectively converting them into AC10 format). So you will have no data loss.