topic Re: Any Way to View/Edit new Fusion 360 Files in older version of Fusion 360? in Fusion Support Forum

Any Way to View/Edit new Fusion 360 Files in older version of Fusion 360?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 15:59:12 GMT

Hi, recently I started taking a Mechanical Engineering Program at college which has you buy mandatory school laptops. On this laptop Fusion 2016 is installed and I'm wondering if there is a way to get my Fusion 2018 files into this version to be edited/ viewed? Thanks

Re: Any Way to View/Edit new Fusion 360 Files in older version of Fusion 360?

ryan.bales — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 16:39:51 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

There is no way for Fusion 360 files to be backward compatible with an older release of Fusion (although it should have a number not a year release, i.e. 2.0.4854 is the update as of Friday 10/19)

You could export them out as a step file and use that in the lab install. I would highly recommend the lab keep their installs up to date and they should receive emails when updates go live.

Re: Any Way to View/Edit new Fusion 360 Files in older version of Fusion 360?

PBelles — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 09:15:33 GMT

There is a way. You have to export a STEP file from the newer version and open it on the older version. STEP files are a standard and do not contain the parametric data tied to a specific version of Fusion.