12 replies to this topic

[Troy Lachcik]

Has anyone else had issues opening a project thru windows explorer? On some of our projects when you double click the project icon it will open softplan but not the project.  We have been having this issue now for some time and need a fix for it.

[Steve Haarmann]

I would recommend launching Softplan first and then use File > Open from the Softplan start window.

Especially if you have multiple installs of SoftPlan (like V2016 and V2018)

[Dennis Hilborn]

Yes I have occasionally have the same issue.  I just open it up after launching SP the proper way.  I have about 100 projects at some stage of completion so I'm opening up lots of different drawings in a day and it's easier to just open from the file.  Too bad that it doesn't work perfectly.

[Troy Lachcik]

I understand that this isnt the recommended way of doing things. With that why is it happening only to some projects and not others. Every other program can do this why is it an issue here. 

[Brian Berzinskis]

I have had this problem in the past also and intermittently over time. I used to find that deleting the main SoftPlan Project FIle (SPP) and then opening one of the SoftPlan Drawing Files (SPD) would force it to create a new SPP file and then the problem would sometimes go away. The down side is that obviously there is information stored in the SPP file that would be lost if you delete it. For me the convenience of opening directly from Windows Explorer was worth the time of re-creating the SPP file.

 

I am not sure what actually would cause the error and why it would get fixed by doing that but it worked for me and it was only very few projects over time so it did not matter to figure it out.

[Brad Graber]

I do not believe softplan has ever worked by double clicking the .spp file.  it opens softplan, but not the project as you have discovered.  This has always baffled me, as any other software I have ever used was able to do that.  

[Dennis Hilborn]

I do not believe softplan has ever worked by double clicking the .spp file.  it opens softplan, but not the project as you have discovered.  This has always baffled me, as any other software I have ever used was able to do that.  

 

I open projects quite often by doing just that.  The only time it has gotten me into trouble is forgetting that I already have that project open and opening another session of it.  Then I have edits in both versions and can only save one of them.

I am trying to get into the habit of opening SP thru the main page, but it's just so much more convenient to open from the project file.

[Brian Berzinskis]

I do not believe softplan has ever worked by double clicking the .spp file.  it opens softplan, but not the project as you have discovered.  This has always baffled me, as any other software I have ever used was able to do that.  

 

I often open the SoftPlan file directly from the SPP file and have not had any issue with it. I also open the specific SoftPlan Drawing files without an issue straight from Windows Explorer.

[Amelia Zabel]

Hi Brendon,

 

Maybe this will help, because I always open softplan files form windows explorer, If you have a dash in the the name with a space before and after it won't open from explorer, our projects have 'NV' numbers,  if I name the folder, for example, NV00019-Johnson residence, it will open fine, if I name the folder NV00019 - Johnson residence, with spaces next to the dash it will just open softplan, it took me more than a year to finally figure this out, since version 7 we always had the spaces, then with version 2012 I think I had a heck of a time opening softplan files from windows explorer, I just tested this and it still does it so hopefully that is the issue.

[Brian Berzinskis]

Hi Brendon,

 

Maybe this will help, because I always open softplan files form windows explorer, If you have a dash in the the name with a space before and after it won't open from explorer, our projects have 'NV' numbers,  if I name the folder, for example, NV00019-Johnson residence, it will open fine, if I name the folder NV00019 - Johnson residence, with spaces next to the dash it will just open softplan, it took me more than a year to finally figure this out, since version 7 we always had the spaces, then with version 2012 I think I had a heck of a time opening softplan files from windows explorer, I just tested this and it still does it so hopefully that is the issue.

 

That is good to know. I name all my files with dashes but only spaces after the dash sometimes. We also use an enumerating system based on the job proposal year month and number.

 

[CN#019-01-031] JOHNSON- 123 MAIN STREET- TOWNSHIP- B12 L5.03

 

So all my dashes are only followed by spaces and I do not have a problem typically opening my files straight from Windows Explorer because that is the main way that we do it.

[Amelia Zabel]

No problem, I discovered it completely by accident, I can't remember which version it was we updated to, but boy was it annoying, haha, it seems one space after the dash is ok, but for some reason it doesn't like a space before the dash, so I wonder if it's a softplan issue or a windows issue.

[Keith Almond]

Thanks Wes, I hadn't realized that was the case. I've never been able to open either projects or drawings through Explorer

 

99.9% of all my projects WON'T open from Windows Explorer, they can only be opened from the Softplan menu's. Windows Explorer ONLY ever opens Softplan for me. However, since you mentioned it, I tried opening an drawing called Test in a directory called Test and it opened fine.

 

I think that I'll stick to opening projects through Softplan to be on the safe side.

[Troy Lachcik]

Thank you so much Wes. That totally fixed our problem.  Didnt even think about the name of the project being the problem.