Inventor 2021 to 2019 compatibility

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

First time posting on this forum.

I searched here an answer concerning my problem but I found nothing.

How can I save Inventor 2021 files in a way that it can be opened by Inventor 2019 ?

Is there a retro-compatibility option somewhere ?

Inventor help pages is talking about anyCAD and that Inventor versions are retrocompatible between them. But when I try it, nothing works.

I also tried to import my parts in Inventor 2019 by the "Derived parts" function, but again, it does not work.

Do you see a solution ?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Hi, backward compatibility is only for 1 release, and usually when you have the latest point release installed. For example 2019.4 could reference in 2020 files. Unfortunately in your situation, as you are going back several releases, you will need to export out a SAT or a STEP file from 2021, which can be opened in 2019. Avoid using IGES files.

Sorry it's not the answer you wanted, but it is how it works.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Paul,

Clint is right that you need to install 2019.4 update (followed by 2019.4.8). It will enable you to reference 2020 files. Actually, with 2020.3 update, you will be also able to reference 2021 ipt and iam files on 2019.4, though we don't recommend you go across more than one release.

Many thanks!

[mcgyvr]

There is no true backwards compatibility in that you cannot open a native Inventor file in an older version and get full access to the same feature tree/model browser.

As stated they have some functionality to allow you to reference newer files in older versions and as stated that requires specific versions/updates to allow that.

Beyond that you simply save the Inventor file as a non-native STEP file (save copy as or export cad format) and can then open regardless of version or update history. Both of those options just give you a "dump solid" which you can edit with direct modeling or other methods but can't just go back and edit features in the model browser.