• Archicad 10
• Project Migration
• AC and PM files into two separate AC 10 file

Create Two Separate Files in ArchiCAD 10

The ArchiCAD 9 Project file should be placed into its own Project File in ArchiCAD 10 (this file would contain only Model Views, plus the default Layout Book), and the PlotMaker 9 Layout Book should be placed into a second, separate Project File in ArchiCAD 10 (this file would contain all Layouts with no Model information).

1. To migrate the ArchiCAD 9 Project File, simply open the PLN file in ArchiCAD 10 and save it. Although there are several settings which can affect how elements are displayed on the Floor Plan, these are all automatically set during the conversion so that the same look is preserved in ArchiCAD as far as possible. Because of new settings in ArchiCAD 10, it is possible that some elements will look slightly different than they did in ArchiCAD 9.

2. To migrate the PlotMaker 9 Layout Book, use the File > Open command. In the Dialog, select PlotMaker Layout Book (*.lbk) as File Type and select the desired LBK file. Click the Open button to start opening it.
   

3. Since Title Types of PlotMaker 9 have become GDL Objects in ArchiCAD 10, the program will convert all Title Types defined in the Layout Book File into Library Objects (GSM Files). ArchiCAD will prompt you to select a Folder into which these created Library Parts should be placed.
   
   Please note that these generated Title Types will become non-parametric GDL Objects in ArchiCAD 10, displaying the same information as the source Title Type in PlotMaker 9. However, if you used default Title Types in PlotMaker 9, you will find the counterparts of these in the ArchiCAD 10 Library and you may change the generated Title Types into parametric ones shipped with ArchiCAD 10.

4. While these GSM files are being generated, the program will alert you if a GSM file with the same name already exists in the specified folder. At this point, you can choose to Skip the file and not save it (retaining the one already in the folder); you can Skip All, so all files with a name that already exists in the folder will be skipped; you can choose Create New, in which case the existing file will be kept and another one with a similar name will be generated (e.g. if you had an existing file named ‘Simple Title.gsm’, the name of the newly created Title will become ‘Simple Title~001.gsm’); or you can instruct the program to Create New All, which will automatically do the same for every such Title Type file.
   
   In ArchiCAD 10, the file names of a Title Object must be 27 characters or less. If a Title Type imported from PlotMaker 9 has a file name larger than 27 characters, the file name will be automatically truncated by the program.

5. When ArchiCAD is finished converting the Layout Book data, an Information Dialog will alert you to data that could not be converted because of essential differences between the features of ArchiCAD 10 and PlotMaker 9. For more detailed information, press Show Detailed Report in Browser to launch your default web browser containing a fuller explanation of what could not be converted and why, plus what you can do about it.
   
   For example, in PlotMaker 9, you could define custom line weights for each individual drawing element (e.g. Lines, Fills, etc.). In ArchiCAD 10, you can define line weights only for Pens, and all elements using a certain Pen will be drawn using the line weight defined for that Pen. line weights defined in PlotMaker 9 will be converted back to their line weights as specified in the Pens & Colors Dialog of ArchiCAD 10. Please see Conversion Warnings for a detailed list of possible conversion warnings.

6. Now your new ArchiCAD 10 Documentation Project File (a file containing only Layout Book information) is ready for use. One Story will be created as default, but no model data will exist in any Model Views. All Layouts will be displayed in the Navigator’s Layout Book.

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