This version of PlansPlus is certified to be compatible as announced on the front page of this help document. For TKE PowerTools, there are currently three levels of compatibility: version 8, version 10, and version 12 (currently, all PowerTool-enabled versions of Punch!). "Compatible" means that the PowerTool works with all the available features of a particular version of Punch! relevant to its own functionality.
In general, PowerTools are designed to always work with whatever version of Punch! they are used on. Punch! has arranged it so, and it does this by only sending out a description of the current plan to a PowerTool at the level that that PowerTool expects to see. If you run a version 8 PowerTool with a version 10 Punch!, then Punch! will send a version 8 description of the plan to the PowerTool, with which it should be happy. This approach works well except in one case, which I will discuss in a moment. Some PowerTools require nothing more; for example, Punch!'s Surveyor (Site Planner) only requires to see and manipulate property line objects, which have been in Punch! from the very early days. Thus the Surveyor can run at version level 5 (the earliest PowerTool Punch! version) in a completely compatible way, as it neither uses nor affects later innovations in Punch!. We can therefore speak of the Site Planner as completely compatible with all versions of Punch!.
However, that is not the case for all PowerTools. Punch!'s Framer, for example, must take into account version 8 features such as custom doors and windows, and version 10 features like roof holes, if it is to frame a house properly. Therefore, it is not compatible unless it can handle full version 10 descriptions, and it must be explicitly programmed to do so. So, the compatibility level of a PowerTool is important, and should be investigated fully before purchase. For this reason, Punch! always lists the compatibilities of PowerTools on the web pages where they are sold.
Due to the way that Punch! handles older versions of PowerTools, neither Punch! nor the PowerTool should ever crash when used outside the compatibility, because Punch! will send an appropriate version of the plan as described above. Sometimes that will suffice. Even if a PowerTool like the Framer doesn't know about roof holes, that makes no difference if you don't use roof holes in your plan. If you do, Punch! still will not crash, but you may loose those new objects added to your design. For example, if you have a design in AS4000-10 that contains a roof hole (a feature in AS4000 at the version 10 level, but not previously), and you use the version 8 Framer to redimension the roof containing a hole, the Framer will happily modify the roof as desired, but the roof hole in the roof will disappear from your design when it is sent back to Punch!, and have to be re-added (if you notice it has gone - there is no warning that this is happening). To avoid that, always check for and apply a new version of any PowerTool that is declared compatible with a new version of Punch! when upgrading, or avoid using the PowerTool to make changes to an item that contains a feature new to your new version of Punch!. Currently, the new version features which can cause this loss problem include:
Visit TKE's Punch! product descriptions to see what's new for any particular version if you need to be aware of this.
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