Inventor 2014 Back Save???

[starkey92]

Hi,

I am currently in a bit of a pickle.

I use Inventor 2014 at work and that is fine. However, when I am in college, any college work I do at work cannot be opened because the college use Inventor 2011.

Does anybody know how I may be able to back save or even save the part & assemblies in a way which is compatible with both versions.

I understand that there is a part tree for each assembly but I'm not particularly bothered if I have to re-assign all of the separate parts every time I open the assembly.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

[JDMather]

Save Copy as type *.stp

Feature tree will be lost.

Out of luck for idw.

[starkey92]

Hi JDMather,

Thank you for the quick reply.

I have tried to save under a new file type but the only options available are ".ipt" & ".iam" respectively or "all files". I have tried all files but I will have to wait until I'm in college on Thursday to see if it will let me open them.

I will let you know if the problem persists or not,

Thanks.

[JDMather]

Not Save.

Not Save As.

You must do a Save Copy As

[JoAnn_Hogan]

Inventor doesn't have a downsave like in AutoCAD. Reason for it being, each year new features gets added in the software. For example Equation Curve that came in in 2013... 2011 wont have a clue wat to do and what to replace it with.

You can try what JD suggested, save copy as. But dont put your hopes up though. When it comes to Inventor you can not downsave.

[JoAnn_Hogan]

You can open 2011 files in 2014 but you wont be able to open 2014 files in 2011.

"This in not just an Autodesk thing this is true for ALL parametric modelers (for now...). AutoCAD does not keep a feature history so when all is said and done the file is just lines. You can save an older version and it will strip out anything that can't be read. 

With Inventor, there is a model tree that stores information about each process. New tools added to the program are not recognizable in older versions, this could cause rebuild errors when you tried to edit a feature that was based on something that doesn't exist in that version. You might ask why can't you open files that only use tools available in the previous version. This is because when new tools are added to the program the code for the existing features needs to change to support them, so technically the "old" tools are nothing of the sort as far as the old versions of the program are concerned."

[starkey92]

I have just done this JDMather, but in a pseprate location so as to not mix up the copies.

As said above, I will find out on Thursday if this has solved the problem or not.

Thank you also JoAnn_Hogan. I was thinking here would be no way to backsave but I thought I would ask just incase someone found a loop hole or something of the sort.

If this doesn't help I feel I will just have to re-create the assembly. Definitely lesson learnt however, college work done in college and the same for work.

I will post when I am back in work to let you all know if it has worked or not. You never know, we may all learn something!

Thank you.

[wilkhui]

Hi Starkey,

A longer-term solution might be to get your college to upgrade to 2014 under the Free Student Downloads program.

Hope this helps,

Indy

[JoAnn_Hogan]

I think Indy has a good idea. Tell them something like, technology has moved on and by the time you get a job then you might not know what to do because the company is on a new version and they only had 2011 so that means you need a refresher course. Im sure you can think of something. Besides its free* 

[starkey92]

Hi wilkhui,

I think the college has considered that but it would mean they have to upgrade the PCs also. Bit of a pain really but I think they see it as a bit of a waste of money to only go from 2011 to 2014.

[starkey92]

I can't really argue with that one because I obtained a copy of 2014 because I am a student, however if I knew this would have been a problem I would have just went with 2011.

Also I learnt CAD on AutoCAD 2002 and then transitioned myself over to 2010 and then 2012 afterwards.

The main problem with this software nowadays is that, because it is such high spec anyways, there are only small changes to make between 2011 & 2012, then 2012 to 2013 and so on.

I think the college would look at upgrading when there would be a considerable benefit for students when using the latest copy over the latter. Bloody government funding!!

[JoAnn_Hogan]

Something you can tell you college is, Autodesk only supports the current version and 3 versions back (Meaning currently they are supporting 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011) So when the new version gets released (Which is soon) then Autodesk will only support 2015 - 2012. Which means the service packs will no longer be available for download and if you need their help they will simply tell you to upgrade

[Cadmanto]

As I was reading through this thread I was thinking in the first couple of postings what Indy said.  I can understand why companies at times do not keep up to date with versions, but colleges I do not.  They are supposed to be preparing us for the latest and greatest.  If they are on 2011 they are cheating you out of an education and not preparing you properly with the proper tools needed to make it in this industry.  I know JD can speak to this better, but this is my opinion having graduated from a college that cheated me out of an education with similar tactics.

Just my thoughts.  I know this does not help you in the immediate.  Like it has been stated there is not easy way to go backwards in Inventor without jumping through some hoops.

If this solved your issue please mark this posting "Accept as Solution".

Or if you like something that was said and it was helpful, Kudos are appreciated. Thanks!!!! 

     

[mrattray]

It's actually a breach of the terms of service (or whatever they call the legal stuff) to use an unsupported version. Remember, you don't buy AutoDesk software, you license it.
There's another thread about this somewhere in this forum.

[JoAnn_Hogan]

Thats true. So basically you have a few months left before 2015 gets released and 2011 is not supported anymore. 

You can follow this link to see the "Legal Stuff": http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=10235425&siteID=123112

Here is just a piece out of it "Autodesk® software is not sold. Rather, we license it to the end user under the terms of a software license agreement. The terms of Autodesk's software license agreements may vary depending upon the specific software product and version that you licensed from Autodesk as well as the specific geographical region in which you obtained your software license."

This is what you agree to when you install the software. You know you choose your country and select "I AGREE". So you might just want to have a chat to them

[JDMather]

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@wilkhui wrote:

A longer-term solution might be to get your college to upgrade to 2014 under the Free Student Downloads program.

Hope this helps,

Indy

---

Indy,
Can you explain to me how that works?  How can colleges, "upgrade to 2014 under the Free Student Downloads program"?

I thought that was for student/faculty license on personal computers only.  Not for institutional use.  My boss would love to do away with our Autodesk edu license expense as we also use SolidWorks and in the past year SolidWorks has become our primary CAD software.  If I could get free Autodesk license on our lab computers maybe, just maybe....

[wilkhui]

Hi JD,

I should have known there was a reason that you didn't suggest it to begin with!

I'm not sure of the details so I'll get someone else to respond here.

Thanks,

Indy

[JDMather]

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@wilkhui wrote:

Hi JD,

I should have known there was a reason that you didn't suggest it to begin with!

Thanks,

Indy

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I did think about suggesting the OP change to a school that uses the latest release....    Hmmm, I can think of one in particular...

[LT.Rusty]

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@JoAnn_Hogan wrote:

Thats true. So basically you have a few months left before 2015 gets released and 2011 is not supported anymore. 

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Based on historical trends re: Inventor release dates*, I'd say you should revise that to "a few weeks" vice "a few months."

(*No special knowledge is implied here, just remembering when previous versions came out.)

[mcgyvr]

I'm surprised that Autodesk does not offer multiple versions for students as this seems to come up quite frequently.. 

IMO Autodesk should have 4 versions of Inventor available to students all the time.