Do I have to uninstall the old version of AutoCAD to install the new version?

[Jessup]

As you prepare to install your new version of an AutoCAD based program, you want to know if you need to uninstall the old version to install the new one, or if the new one needs to have the old version installed to work, and you want to know if you can uninstall the older versions after the newer versions are installed.

The AutoCAD based products are separate programs, and you can either install them all on the system or have them installed one at a time.

Note: The only AutoCAD related program (that I know of) that is different is Autodesk Design Review, which can only have one version of the program installed at a time.

If you want to migrate settings from the older version of AutoCAD to the newer version, you will need to leave the older version installed so that the settings are available. Migrating settings overwrites any new settings in the new program.

Once you are done migrating the settings from the old version to the new version and are sure that everything works, you can uninstall the old version with Add or Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel.

For more information about migrating settings, you can search the currently installed version of AutoCAD’s Help files for “migrating, custom settings from previous releases”. The information applies to the newer products up to 2011 as well.

The AutoCAD 2011 online Help file on this topic is available on our website at the link below:

http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2011/ENU/filesInstall/WS1a9193826455f5ff3d6161141208a8044f3-7983.htm

From what I have seen, migrating settings from a much older version to a much newer version does not always work as well as migrating up one version. For example, migrating your AutoCAD 2005 settings to AutoCAD 2011 does not always work the best.

Some of the vertical AutoCAD products may have different options for migrating settings, and you will need to search their specific Help files for information about the limitations of those programs.

[Jessup]

Here is some more information about this: You will need to read and follow the terms of your End User License Agreement (EULA) to be sure if you can run more than one version of an Autodesk Product at the same time. The 2011 EULA says that the previous version needs to be uninstalled 120 days after installing an “upgrade” version, but as an added benefit, Subscription customers can run current and previous releases at the same time.