Autodesk Answer Days: SAVING TO OLDER REVIT VERSIONS?

[Mirko.Jurcevic]

As I said in the Subject line, why we cannot save Revit files in the older Revit versions.

Everyone can see that there is no significant change between versions, no new categories and such, why we cannot save to, at least, one previous version?

Everyone knows how dangerous this can be.

[L.Maas]

I think it is because it create a tremendous amount of overhead. you have to keep track of all the changes between the versions  and then consider how to resolve it. For example Revit has recently implemented Fabrication parts. So if you would want to make it backward compatible You have to do something with those, so that it could be read by previous versions. This is just one example. Basically it would apply for all the (small) changes that have happened.

[mp_thompson]

There are plenty of reasons why you can't save backwards but I'll let someone from Autodesk go into it.

You can get round the issue by exporting as an IFC file and then importing into an earlier version of Revit but you risk losing data etc

[Lance.Coffey]

The following article has some information on this topic:

Backwards compatibility of Revit with earlier releases of the software

Regarding changes between versions, the following help topic covers changes in the specified version:

New in Revit 2017

New in Revit 2016 R2

New in Revit 2016

New in Revit 2015 R2

New in Revit 2015

Even small changes that introduce new commands or functionality will propagate through the model.

Here's an example of a process that is easy to add to, but difficult to reverse:

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Imagine you are baking a cake (for those bakers out there).

Adding spice blend represents new features (Spice Cake!).

Now, imagine that the birthday person of unspecified gender decides that they don't want spice cake, and instead want chocolate.

In this situation would you:

• Work on a method to extract the spice blend from the existing batter, and then add chocolate?
• Start over and make a new chocolate cake batter?
• Extol the virtues of Spice Cake!

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[Mirko.Jurcevic]

Thank you for detailed answer and for your effort.

I am sorry, but me and many other users simply cannot accept this as a fact.

There are numerous software which are able to save to "their" earlier format. AutoCAD for example. MS Word. Archicad.

I think this is pure marketing or sales demand, not a technical issue.

If there is something what cannot be saved to earlier version, it's because software architecture wasn't planned right.

There is always a solution:

- Revit can warn users that some stuff will be lost

- Some stuff can become Generic models or in-place, or something else

- There could be dedicated backward compatibility category that will display "stupid geometry" but it will hold something "from the future"

AutoCAD warns me that I will lost some features if I save to some old file version. If I do this, I know the consequences, but my asociate will be able to open my drawing. Maybe I will not use the features that are not backward compatible.

From the user perspective, more than 90% Revit elements are the same accross several Revit releases, so I am not convinced that this cannot be done.

I know the one from the sales, saying: "Biggest AutoCAD competitive is the... old version of AutoCAD". And it's true.

Now I see that Autodesk will not make "the same mistake" again.