Alignment Data Shortcuts from 2014 in 2013 are auto-promoted

[toddnoch]

I was wondering if someone could help me verify if this is the intended forward/backward compatibility between C3D 2014 & 2013.

My project was previously using Data Shortcuts in C3D 2013.  I opened the reference (not the source) drawing that uses a bunch of Alignments.  During the initial drawing upgrade from 2013 into 2014 I get a message for each Alignment that, "{Alignment Name} was modified in a previous version of the software. Changes in the current were overwritten when the data reference was synchronized.".  At this point everything seems fine.

The issue I'm having is that when I re-open that upgraded drawing using 2013 all of those same Alignments become promoted.  They are no longer referenced!

Regards,

Todd Nochomson

CAD Manager / Senior Designer

CHEN MOORE AND ASSOCIATES

www.chenmoore.com

[Jay_B]

Data Shortcut behavior has changed for 2014 and the backward compatibility has many caveats. This thread may help explain some of the differences. Also see this BeingCivil post.

[troma]

Upshot of Jay's post being: if you open it in 2014 again, it will still be a d-ref. (Or should, anyway.)

[toddnoch]

Hi troma & Jay,

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond to my post.  I had read the Being Civil blog post, but it didn't go into detail on this issue.  I hadn't seen that discussion group thread, although I researched heavily before posting.  It basically confirmed my experience.  Unfortunately, it's a less than desired result and is a deal-breaker to be able to use 2014 with 2013 users in a mixed environment.  Yes, when I re-open it in 2014 it shows the DRef fine but I can't have my 2013 users DRef's not updating.  It kind of defeats the purpose of it being promoted as "round-tripping" if it fundamentally changes it's abilities in the process.

I completely understand the reason why certain features become proxy that exist in 2014 but not in 2013.  I also understand the change to the programming of DRef's in order to make them more flexible and more independent of their source in 2014, but the by-product result in 2013 makes the "round-tripping" not an option in a real world working mixed environment.

[Jay_B]

Well it's nice to see that AutoDesk is taking baby steps toward backward compatibility but at this point that's what they are.

This has been a wish of mine but I also realize (coming from a non- programmer perspective) that there are numerous other things, we as users may not think about such as the constantly changing .Net versions & the move away from Vba etc.

That has to be part of the reason it's taken so long to look into making Cvil 3d backward compatible

[Lisa_Pohlmeyer]

This is yet another reason there was a utility that allowed Windows Explorer to list the Software (C3D)version of the file, not just the drawing version.  Perhaps a utility that could look in the header of the file and use an associated icon.

Rant over, for now.