Backward compatibility between Revit versions

[johan.nieuwenhuysQQ5SJ]

We are an organisation of 1000+ and using Revit 2019 due to contractual / project requirements, as one of our BIM software packages. The issue we are facing is that some of our sub-contractors has used Revit 2022 as authoring tool and of course, these models are not compatible with Revit 2019 and can't be saved / exported as Revit 2019 from within the software itself. Can you advise of an alternative way of utilising the Revit 2022 models (within Revit 2019) without having to model from scratch?

[pedruccioli · Accepted solution]

The only way I know is exporting as IFC, then opening the file as a Revit Project (Open > IFC). If you need to edit the project, that's a workaround, but not perfect.

[Anonymous]

Be on the same version as everyone else

Your subcontractors should have told you what version they are on or you should have told them what the version requirement is

[barthbradley]

If the contract states that the deliverables are to be 2019, then it sounds like the sub-contractor has no choice but to redo their work.      

[ToanDN]

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@johan.nieuwenhuysQQ5SJ wrote:

We are an organisation of 1000+ and using Revit 2019 due to contractual / project requirements, as one of our BIM software packages. The issue we are facing is that some of our sub-contractors has used Revit 2022 as authoring tool and of course, these models are not compatible with Revit 2019 and can't be saved / exported as Revit 2019 from within the software itself. Can you advise of an alternative way of utilising the Revit 2022 models (within Revit 2019) without having to model from scratch?

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If you have a contractual agreement and a BIM Execution Plan indicating 2019 is the version to be used then they need to redo their model.

If you don't have the above, then:

- use IFC approach

- coordinate in Navisworks

- consider the benefits of upgrading the entire project across the board to 2022

[mhiserZFHXS]

There's definitely a big screw up somewhere. The question is who has contractual agreements with who and what those contracts say. If the sub has a contract with the owner and that contract says to use 2019, its on the sub. If the sub has a contract with your company (more of a consultant than sub), and you didn't include a requirement for 2019 in that contract, then your firm screwed up and will probably need to eat the cost.

[RLY_15 · Accepted solution]

An IFC export will retain geometry but will likely strip the model of many or most parameters containing project information. This is probably not a functional use of the 2022 model; the most correct answer is unfortunately remaking the 2022 models in 2019. The alternative is a project-wide upgrade to 2022 which may be the more political route but requires a deeper study of the contract language.

As to preventative measures for future work - BIM execution plans as part of project kick-off, as well as when individual contractors may be pulled into an active project. Like anything else on a project, early outlines of requirements reduce risk of occurrence.