bservial

I am not sure if the above comments are directed to me or not.  If so, I do NOT have any X versions of Chiefarc.  My Chief 8 full was an upgrade from 7 full and was purchased on Feb 2, 2003.  The point is almost moot at this time.  Working on a packet for permit and construction purposes.  Part of that is a structural cross section which is time consuming to draw.  I am almost done with that layer now so my immediate need has disappeared.  I am still curious as to why it appears my older files may be opened using a version at least 10 newer, yet I can't open files that are 2 versions back.  IE use Chief 8 to open chief 7 or 97. 

History:  My purchased versions starting in 1994 with 1.2, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0. Those were all shipped on 3 1/2 floppies.  There were MANY  updates to all those prior releases.  Then 1997 was released 8/7/97, 6.0 on 7/18/99, 7 unknown, 8 bought on 2/2/2003.  Those were all on CD.  That was the extent of my purchases. 

Dermot, thanks for the reply.  I seem to remember when upgrading that the instructions of the day mentioned you should open prior version files and save them in the newer version.  I was explained that there may be needed cleanup, but not that you wouldn't be able to open them.  I have may files created in Chief 97 and Chief 7 that won't open in Chief 8.  My dongle for 97 got fried by an improperly wired USB port.  My Chief 7 dongle works.  I am maintaining a Windows 7 32 bit computer to run Chief 8 because the dongle driver is only available in 32 bit format.  I just tried installing Chief 7 on the same drive as Chief 8 and the driver installation balked at having dongle drivers so I backed out because I am in the middle of a design using 8.  I don't think the files are corrupted because the message is simply that "this version can't open that file" or something similar.

Version 8, not X8.  I have it cureently running on a Windows 7 32 bit computer.  Works fine but I wanted to access some old files and no can do.

I am an old CA user that started with the very first version.  My last version is version 8.  I read on the old forum that old files can be opened by versions up to version 8.  That doesn't work for me.  I can't seem to open anything created with any version before 7.  Should I be able to?