I have a program by IMSI software called FloorPlan 3D. It is for designing houses -- floor plan, interior, exterior, furnishings, the whole bit.

I recently upgraded from version 8 to version 10.

I have the program installed on my computer at home, and also my computer at work. No doubt this is in violation of the license agreement. Sue me.

I am editing the same files at home and at work.

At work, everything operates properly.

At home, if I open one of the floor plans by first opening the program, and then going file/open, browse to the file I want, and open it, everything works. But if I try double-clicking on one of the .bmf files (that's the file extension that FloorPlan uses) I get the error message:

Windows cannot find 'C:\FloorPlan\SmallHouse22.bmf'. Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button and then click Search.

The .bmf file type is indeed assigned to the FloorPlan program. I know this is true because if I double-click on any older .bmf file created with version 8 of the program, it opens and edits properly. However, if I then save that older file with version 10, it will no longer open by double-clicking on the filename, but will give me the above listed error message.

If I transfer a .bmf file from my work computer to my home computer using VNC, I can double-click the transferred file and it will open normally. Once If I close the file (not even editing/saving it, just close it), then if I try to open it again by double-clicking the filename, I get the above error message. It seems like FloorPlan version 10 somehow "poisons" the file as soon as it touches it -- but only on my home computer.

I can open and edit any .bmf file if I open the file from within the FloorPlan program, but I cannot open it through file association by double-clicking the filename in Windows Explorer. The FloorPlan program itself does open, but without an active file to edit.

I have no such difficulties at work. I have deleted and re-installed the program at home several times, nothing changes. Both my home computer and my work computer are running Windows XP, with (I believe) all the latest updates. No other users of the program have reported similar problems. (There is a bbs devoted to FloorPlan users that is quite comparable to the empeg bbs in civility and signal to noise ratio.)

Even though no other program on my home computer exhibits this behavior, it appears to be a Windows problem, not a FloorPlan problem.

Can anyone offer me insight as to what is going on here?

tanstaafl.