Uneditable/Unsaveable .dwg file(s)

[Anonymous]

Good Morning Autodesk Community,

I work for a construction company who needs to submit "As-Built" Building Drawings at the end of every project.  We have just received the original .dwg file(s) from the designer/architect/engineer of a current project and are having difficulty editing/saving models.  I've only used AutoCAD on 5 other construction projects so far, but this is the first time if experienced this situation.  Below are some of the messages I've received trying to work on their files.  Please let me know if/how I can change the file(s) into an editable/saveable format.  Thanks in advance!

[arthur]

1) it seems that you are in "REFEDIT" mode.  the warning is to let you know that you are editing an Xref that was made in a different version of ACAD MEP than what you using. when exiting REFEDIT, when you save your changes, the file will be written in the version you are working in.  if you were to send these drawing files back to the originator, they may not be able to open it correctly due to compatibility issues between ACAD versions.

2) You can't do a "SAVEAS" command while you are "REFEDIT" mode.  if you need to do a SAVEAS, i'd recommend opening the xref drawing, doing your editing, and then SAVEAS to whatever file name you desire.

[s.borello]

Don't open your xref that way... you are in refedit mode and you won't be able to do a save as.  Open the files by double clicking or go into your xref manager if they are referenced into your drawing and open them from there, then do a save as.