2013 compatibility with 2011 issues

[davinwt]

Hello All,

I am new to the forum and also a student using a 2013 educational version so I greatly appreciate any insights or support anyone can provide. I am working with someone who had a registered 2011 version and so I know I need to save to their version so they can open/view/plot the files. The first time I attempted to save something I was working on with the 2013 EDU edition, I saved it to the 2010 version and I got a dialog box that said this:

For those of you who can't see the image, it says: THE DRAWING CONTAINS CUSTOM OBJECTS THAT ARE NOT SUPPORTED IN PREVIOUS VERSIONS...

My question is, what are these custom objects AUTOCAD is referring to and how can I avoid them so their is seamless congruence between the two versions? It says my options are to: 

a) Save drawing to AUTOCAD-only objects, which I don't know how to do.

or

b) Save drawing to previous version with Proxy Graphics, which I also don't know how to do.

Can anyone help me resolve this?

Thanks so much!

Davin

[jggerth1]

First off, if you've got an educational version, then you cannot use it for commercial work (implied by the statement 'working with').

you'll need to use a commercial, registered version of the software.   If you don't feel you can afford it, there are several free dwg compatible cad programs, - look at Draftsight or NanoCAD.

[davinwt]

Hello,

Actually, I am a student working with another student who has a registered version and I have the downloaded educational version. Is there a way I can use it and be fully compatible with the 2011 registered version or not?

Thanks,

Davin

[jggerth1]

No, since he's a student also, there's no reason not to expect him to upgrade to current.  for that matter, you really ought to as well.  there's little/no point in using 2013 for educational purposes when 2014 has been out for nearly a year.

2013 and 2014 versions should be compatible with each other though.

Let me expand a bit on that "No".... no software vendor puts a huge amount of effort into backwards compatability.  After all, they make money selling nw stuff, not old.  Adesk does a better job than most with basic ACAD entities, but when dealing with AECC 'smart' objects, that has never worked well.  You can do an ExporttoAutoCAD, which will drop all the intelligence of the AEC objects and result in dumb linework, but what he gets may not be what you expect him to see, and what you get back from the lower version after exporting and running though the lower version may not be what you expect.  It might be good enough, it might not.

And, inasmuch as yu are both students, there's no point to it.

[davinwt]

Hello,

I appreciate your responses and thoughts. It's not exactly the solution I'm looking for. I have a autocad product, and my classmate has another autocad product. We'd like to figure out how to make them compatible before having to change or upgrade either of our versions. While I understand that might be the best and logical solution for the long run. We have a deadline we're trying to complete this week and it would be great to work with the software already on our respective computers. Do you (or anyone else) have an idea that will work within those constraints?

Thanks,

Davin

[dgorsman]

Let me ask you this: when you say "AutoCAD' do you really mean that or AutoCAD Mechanical, AutoCAD Architectural, AutoCAD Electrical, or AutoCAD _____?  AEC content isn't created by vanilla (plain) AutoCAD, but *is* created by the various verticals based on AutoCAD.

[davinwt]

Hello,


I am using a plain AutoCAD version, no additional distinctions. My classmate is using a 2011 plain version as well. The file I am manipulating is a floor plan that was given to me by another classmate and that might have been made on specific type of AutoCAD, but not to my knowledge. Does that help?

Davin

[pendean]

2013 is a newer format DWG file: no matter what you set save to or how far down to save in 2013, certain objects will remain out of reach to 2011. Just like the error message said: it wasn't written in a secret code, it's in plain English 🙂

You have no choice except to live with it or constantly use AECTOACAD command to save down to r14 format or both of you be on the same version of AutoCAD.

Go focus on your deadline: good luck.

[davinwt · Accepted solution]

thank you! that was what I was afraid of...just wanted to be certain of it!

davin