Old Data Files

[ericepv]

I have several old Chef Data Files (going back to X8) on my C drive which are taking up a good amount of space, do I need to keep them?

[Joe_Carrick]

Only if you are using any of the prior versions of Chief.

.

Personally I only keep a couple of versions back.

[BenPalmer]

I keep X8 (for converting really old files), the most recent version and previous version and uninstall all others.  I have a backup folder for each version's libraries, templates etc. that I can call upon if needed.  My way of doing it.  Hope that helps.

[CharlesVolz]

Here are my notes from previous posts, the manual, etc:

 

Older Chief Architect Versions:  X9 does not support reading in plans with the .pl# or .la# extension (files from any versions older then Version 10 (2005). CA 10 (2005) creates *.plan files.).  To open these older plans in X9+, first open these files in X8 (or use the free client viewer for Chief X8) and save them which will be in the newer format as a .plan or .layout file. X8 will open plans back to Chief Architect 97 (released August 1997). Version 9 is required to open pre-August 1997 .pln files. Keep X8 (or X8 Desktop Viewer) until all old plans are updated.             

Chief Architect Viewer (free) allows you to actually view files from any version of Chief Architect from X9 back to Version 10. You won't be able to modify the model but you could at least create camera views.

 

Notes:
1.    If you no longer have access to Chief Architect X8, Home Designer 2017, or an earlier version, the X8 Desktop Viewer can be downloaded and used for this process. Once installed, continue with Step 2 below.
2.    Plans created in versions prior to Chief Architect '97 (version 5) or 3D Home Architect Deluxe 3.0 will not open successfully in Chief Architect X8 or Home Designer 2017 and earlier versions.
3.    Chief Architect never could open drawings from 3D Home Architect® 5.0 or later, as these programs were not created by the same company.

 

Notes from Help: 
    1.    After an older version file has been opened in the newer program, the plan may not appear exactly as it did when it was initially created. For example, textures and 3D symbol objects from the discontinued version may not be recognized. There may be missing electrical and other object defaults, and warning messages may display on opening the file, as well as taking 3D camera views, in regards to these objects. While you could try to replace all of the missing textures, objects, and defaults using materials and symbols from your current Home Designer Library Browser, the real advantage of being able to view the older file is to reference dimensions and object placement. In order to have all of the capabilities available in a current version plan, such as Wall Types and other features, recreating the plan in the current version of Chief Architect may be necessary and is recommended.
    2.    Plans created in versions prior to Chief Architect '97 (version 5) or 3D Home Architect Deluxe 3.0 will not open successfully in Chief Architect X8 or Home Designer 2017 and earlier versions. Chief Architect never could open drawings from 3D Home Architect® 5.0 or later, as these programs were not created by the same company.

 

More information can be found in the X9 Reference Manual or the X10 Reference Manual on Page 54, "Compatibility with Previous Versions", and on Page 1338 and Page 1369, respectively, "New and Improved Features by Chapter - File Management".
 

[ericepv]

Thank you all for your input.

[DBCooper]

Technically, you only need to have X16 since it will read all of your old plans (since your signature says you started in X6).  I keep a bunch of old versions installed though because I have lots of hard disk space and I sometimes go back and run the older versions to make quick updates to old plans. 

 

One way of freeing up some space is getting rid of the stuff in the archives folder for the old versions.  Could be a little risky though if you go to open up an old plan and find it was somehow corrupted.  You could always open your old plans and make backups of them using the "backup entire plan" tool and then you would be safer deleting the archives.

 

[Heather_Anderson]

I have a similar problem.  Do I need to keep old versions data.  I have X6 Data,X14 Data .  Can I delete these and not loose anything?  I use X15 now.

 

[Kbird1]

20 hours ago, Heather_Anderson said:

I have a similar problem.  Do I need to keep old versions data.  I have X6 Data,X14 Data .  Can I delete these and not loose anything?  I use X15 now.

 

 

If you migrated Chief forward Version to Version , it has likely already moved your Toolbars, Textures and Templates etc to X15 so it should be fairly safe to remove them, personally I would keep a backup on an External USB Harddrive (HDD) , I use a 4TB for the Laptop and 8TB for the Desktop, which I also run full backups too of the Whole system, "just in case".

 

As DB mentions above The Archives Folder can become Huge over Time , I backup the Data folder , so I clean the one out on C:\  drive every few months as it can easily be 25GB - 90GB, per Version...... in X15 mine currently has 51GB in it , so time for a cleanup apparently. Depending on where you Store Textures? that folder may be large as well.

 

[Heather_Anderson]

Thank you Kbird1.  Can you answer another question for me.  All of a sudden my User catalog is gone.  I know this has happened before.  I got out of Chief and went back in and it is still gone.  It is on my laptop still.