Migrating your own custom plan and layout templates

[Designers_Edge]

I have modified and created my own custom plans for my kitchen & bath projects-traditional, transitional,& contemporary, selecting door styles, crown etc.

 

In Chief's migration guides, they always seem to discourage migrating your custom plan and layout templates.

 

"For best results, it is recommended that your either:

Use the installed templates as the basis for creating new plan and layout files in Chief Architect X ......"

Use the installed templates as the basis for creating new custom templates"

 

I certainly DO NOT want to have to set up a new custom layout file every year.

 

I understand that if you are still using stuff from X1 that may be a problem and I just redid things in X6. Has anyone encountered problems migrating their custom templates forward from year to year?  Just wondering if one is asking for trouble with file corruptions etc?

 

Thanks for your insight!

 

 

[Kiwideziner]

I have had no problem, however I tend to do a start from scratch every 3 or so years to get rid of legacy stuff from old versions.

[justmejerry]

Could just open it in X8 and the save as template. this would leave the original untouched I believe. 

[HumbleChief]

I have modified and created my own custom plans for my kitchen & bath projects-traditional, transitional,& contemporary, selecting door styles, crown etc.

 

In Chief's migration guides, they always seem to discourage migrating your custom plan and layout templates.

 

"For best results, it is recommended that your either:

Use the installed templates as the basis for creating new plan and layout files in Chief Architect X ......"

Use the installed templates as the basis for creating new custom templates"

 

I certainly DO NOT want to have to set up a new custom layout file every year.

 

I understand that if you are still using stuff from X1 that may be a problem and I just redid things in X6. Has anyone encountered problems migrating their custom templates forward from year to year?  Just wondering if one is asking for trouble with file corruptions etc?

 

Thanks for your insight!

Chief is probably being very conservative with their guidelines to prevent any data loss etc. but having typed that, I've never had a problem migrating older templates and haven't heard of any problems but I think Graeme's advice is probably the best, every couple or 3 years one should probably create a new template(s) from Chief's installed templates. Personally I've never done that but I can be pretty lazy sometimes.

[joey_martin]

I carried the same template from X1 to X7. Finally made a new one for X8.

[DRAWZILLA]

You can always open the X7 template in X7, then open the X8 profile layout in X8 and just copy the data on those pages over to X8.

[Joe_Carrick]

You can always open the X7 template in X7, then open the X8 profile layout in X8 and just copy the data on those pages over to X8.

That won't load all macros, wall types, layer sets, annosets, etc.

 

To get all of that you would need to do the export/import dance.  I just always open my prior version templates in the new version and save them in the new version template folders.  I've been doing it this way for over 10 years and have never had a problem.

[DRAWZILLA]

Joe, I didn't see anything about macro's, but yes you can import those along with layersets and anno-sets

[MarkMc]

At the UGM they indicated the issue was with file size growing. We had just done a bunch of plan templates for various cabinet brands in X7. I imported the defaults and made a few adjustments for X8. I just moved the layout templates over, maybe next time.

[Designers_Edge]

I so appreciate everyone who took the time to answer my question.  I am so grateful for the generous and helpful people in this forum.