ARCHICAD File Types Saved by ARCHICAD

ARCHICAD Projects (.pln)

ARCHICAD supports unicode file names of essentially unlimited length.

Archive (.pla)

For details, see Archive Files.

ARCHICAD Project Template (.tpl)

Choose this option if you want to save the current project settings for future use as a template.

For details, see Template Files.

Archive Options

For details, see Archive Files.

Project (.pln) in an earlier ARCHICAD version format

ARCHICAD 22 can back-save project files in ARCHICAD 21 format only (among previous ARCHICAD file formats).

To back-save to version 21:

1.Use File > Save as...

2.In the Save dialog box, choose ARCHICAD 21 Project from the Save as type list.

You will get a warning that elements and information not supported by ARCHICAD 21 will be discarded.

Backward Compatibility Supported for Library Parts

When back-saving your ARCHICAD 22 project to version 21, any library parts that were revised for 22 will be automatically replaced by their original counterparts in version 21.

Note: If the object in ARCHICAD 22 has acquired additional parameters or functions compared to the version in ARCHICAD 21, those new features will be lost when you back-save the object to ARCHICAD 21.

In the Options of the Save as dialog box, you can uncheck the Convert library parts backward checkbox. This way, the library parts revised for the latest version will not be replaced by their original counterparts in the previous version, and will be shown as “missing”.

BIMx File Format/BIMx Hyper-model

For details, see GRAPHISOFT BIMx.

PlotMaker Drawing (.pmk)

Use the Publisher to save a model view in PMK file format.

For details, see Defining Publisher Output Format.

Module File; Module File from Clipboard (.mod)

For details, see Create Module (.mod) File.

GDL Script (.gdl)

This option will save your model in GDL script.

For details, see GDL Object Editor.

ARCHICAD 2D Lines (.2dl)

These files are vectorial drawings saved from ARCHICAD’s 3D Window (using the Vectorial 3D Engine). These drawings contain no model information and can be touched up in the Floor Plan with 2D tools.

Important note: In the 3D Window, this option is only available with the Vectorial 3D Engine - not available in OpenGL mode.