Is Civil 3D 2017 compatible with AutoCAD 2015?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I've got a laptop in a company i work for that needs AutoDESK Civil 3D, i was able to download a free trial from your site; however the version i downloaded was Civil 3D 2017.

We have AutoCAD 2015/2014 deployed to our company and don't have any licenses for a more recent version. When i tried to install the free trial of Civil 3D it failed with errors i've only seen once before when i was trying to install Vehicle Tracking 2015 when the laptop had AutoCAD 2014, the solution then was to install the 2014 Vehicle tracking

In short i'm trying to determine whether Civil 3D (as a trial and as a network licensed piece of software) is compatible with AutoCAD 2015

Can anyone help?

[rkmcswain]

The base DWG format is compatible. But the AEC objects that C3D uses (alignment, points, surfaces, corridors, etc.) are not backwards compatible with AutoCAD or any earlier versions of C3D.

You can open a C3D 2017 DWG in AutoCAD 2015, or C3D 2015 for that matter, but you can't edit it.

If you create a drawing in C3D 2017 that only contains native AutoCAD objects such as lines, text, circles, etc. - you would be able to open and edit that drawing in AutoCAD (or C3D) versions 2013 through 2017. - But if you need C3D, you're not going to be working with only native CAD objects - so the realistic answer is that C3D 2017 is a unique product whose files cannot be edited in other products.

As far as *installing* them side-by-side - there are no problems doing that. I've got 4 different versions of C3D all running on one machine.

[ocastaneda]

Any .dwg file you open in Civil 3D 2017 is workable and editable, whether is an alignment, a profile, pipe networks, text, polylines, etc.,  so from an older version to 2017 you should have no issues regardless if is a trial, student version or the purchased service. 

I have attached the 2 general messages you will see when opening an older file in 2017, just make sure you convert your VBA content to .NET, and agree to upgrade any AEC objects to this version. If you read carefully, you'll see that C3D is telling you that from this point on, your file will be incompatible with earlier versions. A rule of thumb here, if you have more people in your organization who needs to access these file(s), and they have no access to C3D 2017, then just keep working on the older version everybody has access to. 

  

Now, be very careful when working an older file in 2017, because as soon as you save as a Civil 3D 2017 file, there is no going back, you will only be able to edit your intelligent objects within Civil 3D 2017. 

Hope this helps!

[tcorey]

Please take the advice regarding dwg file compatibilities between versions, but back to your main question, errors during installation of the software.

Can you post the error messages you're getting?

This is not going to be the same answer as your Vehicle Tracking issue. Vehicle Tracking has to be installed on top of another software, but Civil 3D is a complete program.

[Anonymous]

I don't have a exact print screen but i was getting something along the lines of "Installation completed but some features weren't installed" it then showed X's by all of the items. When i checked the program and features of the laptop it didn't appear in the list as an installed bit of software

Running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit by the way