I am a CAD instructor, and one of my students downloaded Revit Architecture 2013 to his personal laptop so that he can work on projects at home. We are still using 2012 in class, and when he came to class he couldn't open his 2013 files in 2012. Is there an option like in AutoCAD to save files as an earlier version?
Short answer....No. Once a Revit file has been promoted, there is no way to edit it, or save it back to a previous version.
You can continue to work on it by exporting to IFC and then opening the IFC file in the older version of Revit, but this is only going to bring in the geometry, much of the "Revitness" of the file is going to be lost during the conversion.
Wow, that is ridiculous. Before becoming a teacher I worked as a drafter for several different companies. They all used AutoCAD but few had the most recent version. AutoCAD had the feature to save the file as a earlier version, so that when working with other companies, they could open the file reguardless if they didn't have the same version you did. If you want people to use Revit I believe this needs to be fixed. I see this causing chaos out in industry.
The good thing about revit is that it is NOT autocad. Two different worlds. My understanding is that in order to get the "database" intelligence of revit with all of the "edit it in one place and it changes in all places" functionality, revit needs to work with files that cannot be downgraded. This requires thought about who will be working on a project, and what version they have access to, prior to the project starting. Good to see that you are using revit..
Think of it like this abilyeu;
Each new version of Revit has new functionality, new
intelligence and new systems. Older versions cannot
understand the new stuff. It was not hard to save backwards
with AutoCAD because just using the mouse like it was an
on-screen pencil was never anything new and nothing about
it ever changed. Someone drawing lines on paper in 1930
would have no problem understanding lines drawn in 1960.
But BIM is in a much different world.
I'm not knocking Revit, or praising AutoCAD. I am just saying that this will cause problems, because it already has for me. I have told this issue to other CAD instructors in my state so that they can avoid the issue. They were all surprised and thought the same thing I did, which is that it is something that needs to be looked at (and that is putting it nicely, some were very unhappy). Again not trying to start some AutoCAD/Revit debate.
Dear abilyeu,
We all have faced the same situation many years back, which you are facing today.
Eventually you'll agree that it's beneficial to keep the version restricted.
It may take sime time since you are a Teacher and the actual working environment of a actual/live project then a class room tutorial project.
For you it may not be a big loss if the file can't save back but i have seen people facing difficult time due to this reason.
Perhaps you should research software a little more before you just jump in and start using it. I still find it incredibly hard to believe that people still don't realize that Revit does not, has not, and will probably never save down to a previous version.
Perhaps you should take a moment and realize that you are not the majority on this issue. An overwhelming majority of Revit users use the program successfully on a daily basis, and have been doing so for a number of years, without ever needing to save down. Do you know how? By planning ahead, as you should do with any project. If you don't know the ramifications of the decisions you're making, perhaps you are not the best person to be in place to make those decisions.
Also, this is not something that is limited to Revit. If you take an AutoCAD Architecture file, where walls, doors, windows, etc. are semi-smart objects as they are in Revit, and save that down to a plain old R14 CAD file, it will let you do it. But you know what you get? Dumb blocks and dumb lines. Do you know what you'd get if you tried to save down a Revit file? Something even worse. At that point, you might as well just export it to CAD. Sure, you can export to IFC, and then open that up in a previous version. But there's absolutely no way to know exactly what you're going to get.
Sorry for the rant, but it needed to be said.
Edited by
Discussion_Admin
Like I said in one of my other posts I am not knocking Revit or praising AutoCAD. I don't know why you need such a resonce when I think something is an issue. But since Revit is apparently perfect with no errors or issues I will not be posting any questions or problems I have with it.
Edited by
Discussion_Admin
Dear abilyeu,
You are a important part of this forum.
And specifically since are from teaching background, you can add value to the discussions here.
Please keep sharing your observations/experience (also from your students) and we look forward for your active participation.
No matter what the reason is, no matter whether they are going to fix it or not, this is wrong, and causes problems. Even if you are planning everything ahead. Believe me.
Jeff, I also think this is a big problem. There is something no one is taking into consideration. Autodesk nowadays releases a new version every year, and it is not possible for EVERYBODY to keep up to date. Software is expensive!!! So the whole idea of making every consultant in the different fields to work BIM is actually taking business off from Autodesk. Why? Because it is not attractive to update to the latest Revit release when all the team and other consultants are still working on earlier versions. With all respect I also feel Revit's backward compatibility is something Autodesk needs to work on.
@Eduardo2012 wrote:
all the team and other consultants are still working on earlier versions.
This is what BIM is all about. All disciplines working together as a team
and all using the same tools. Otherwise it's not BIM.
Edited by
Discussion_Admin
abilyeu - Please continue to post your questions and thoughts - they are inportant to our community here. There are a few posters that you will need to take with a grain of salt - but please stay! We need people like you here. I am also an instructor at a local college and use this area a lot to get answers to my questions and answer the ones I can.
Revit users can be a bit dogmatic - forgive us!
LD
Ross,
No, it didn't need to be said. This is a forum and a question was asked. The answer was then given. You did not have to go off on this and try to pound your chest. Somewhere, someday, you will actually not know something and need information. Yes, it will even happen to you. And when that day comes, I hope Karma remembers...
I too am an instructor and if I taught my students that asking normal questions deserved a "rant" like this, the industry would suffer. Thanks to the rest of you who use this forum as a means of bettering ALL Revit users...
I am in agreement with Abilyeu, I believe this to be a serious design fault by Revit.
If other common drawing software [ which is most such as Auto Cad / Sketch up etc ] has the option to save back to a previous release –why not Revit ?
This is a necessity; consider any Architects office which may have various different versions
of software – with different release dates – think of the headache this would cause!!
Judging by many of the replies above, it would seem you all have shares in the product!
I have been requested by my office to give Revit Lt 2013 a trial run –
Which I have – now to learn I cannot save back to a previous version is a joke –
This flaw will be highlighted .
In general, I imagine that backwards compatibility would be an absolute nightmare to incorporate (if even possible without major flaws) as Revit is a program in constant evolution and development. Revit has often changed drastically between releases, as major functionality is revamped, new concepts are added, and existing tools and functions are completely revised or even outright removed.
Take, for example, Electrical Conduit. This was just added a few releases ago, so how would you image that Revit could translate that to a version prior to the introduction of Conduit? Mind you, and also maintain the functionality of related Conduit Schedules. And that's just one matter of concern.
Now regarding simple projects/families that use functions that haven't fundamentally changed, I image that it could be possible for someone to create a basic "translator" that could recreate the project/family in a previous version based on the data. However, this would probably be a massive undertaking and investment.
As mentioned previously, AutoCAD will lose advanced functionality and potentially run into problems saving previous versions. And since Revit is changing and contains so much information, one would likely have to suffer a huge loss of information to save backwards. (Probably only slightly better than the 'export to IFC, and import" trick!)
And its not that I'm against the concept of backwards compatibility, it just seems like it really would not be practical.
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At the end of the day. We need to print the documents in black and white. im all for Revit. im the leader in the office. but right this exact moment I having the same dilemma. We are not asking to have the ability to save up, but to save down is crucial. Is the only way people will see the true advantages of having the latest version. It works for all software.
architects and engineer give great value to autodesk and the such. As the majority consumer shall have a voice in the overwhelming demand for an improvement by autodesk.
I am a student, and I have Revit 2012 on my own computer, but when I work from school, I use machines with Revit 2013. Many of my classmates are done using Revit, because they can not save down. One possible solution is to allow existing 2012 licenses to transfer to 2013 for free.
I don't think it is our duty to think if backwards compatibility is difficult or not, practical or impractical, etc. As with any other software, it is MANDATORY. It is up to the Autodesk software development people to figure it out. I mean, come on, they've built an exceptional piece of software, it's clear they have enough brains and creativity to make each new release work with previous ones. It is their job, not ours to figure it oug.
This compatibility takes place every single day in amost all software available, and it is really necessary. In fact I find it difficult to understand why some people are actually against the idea.
Not only that. If you try to workshare a project it turns out that not only the year version must be the same. But also the build version must be the same.
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