Save as previous version

[yavork]

Please Allow Revit files (either projects or families) to save in previous versions of the program. (Or at least the Families??)

With so little new features I cannot believe Autodesk can justify upgrading the project database every year?

(If database is not the right term - please excuse my negligence)

I am sure it can easily go for 3-4 years before some of their "new features" requires upgrade to the database. Or find different workaround.

It has been asked and requested so many times on the forums and whitelists I am surprised is not first on the list.

[vanessa]

Absolutely. We have consultants working on our team that are not as up to date with us and are a couple years behind. What a drag.

[NateBrush]

Practically, it seems like this should be achievable by making the database file of the project isolated from the program tools to manipulate the data.

[syman2000]

I am not sure why Autodesk doesn't have this feature to downgrade. It works great if you are a smaller firm. Larger firm will run into much bigger issue. You cannot expect the user to work with yearly upgrade cycle and not run into issue. Larger firm wants to work with other 3rd party software. Most often 3rd party has to play catch up, test and develop solution to work with the upgrade. Most often it is more time wasted trying to comeup with quick fix solution rather than making an effort to work with multiple release. Other software vendor like Microsoft, Trimble sketchup, Nemecheck ArchiCAD and few other Software has a downgrade feature. Why can't Autodesk? We are working with complex world where no matter which version you use, you should be able to interact with the data.

[Anonymous]

This seems to be a pretty common issue through out most Revit users. How to I open a newer version of Revit in an older version of Revit. I am mostly asking so that way we can start a conversation about this because i'm sure there is a way to do this and definitely has a lot of value for all Revit users. Whether this means it is a similar process as AutoCAD or if it is an entirely new step. 

I have been using Android Studio and found that it provides the option to save the project as backwards compatible to a certain version (this does mean that you would not be able to newer features if you are going backwards compatible too far ex. 2019 to 2015). but versions of Revit from 2016 to 2017 haven't really changed that much and would probably be beneficial to be able to save a Revit file as a 2016/2017/2018 version vs. just working in the one version you own. This would make things much easier for teams that are doing collaboration and don't have time to wait for an hour while the consultants older models to have to upgrade.

An example would be with the new Steel tab in Revit. If it was possible to do the work in Revit 2019 but when it is saved and opened by an outside consultant (with an older version) they can link it into their model as an older version but the Steel categories wont be accessible by that older user. Since they are a subcategory of Steel Connections why not just convert them to the Steel Connections category or even create them as a Generic Model. 

[syman2000]

We definitely need ability to save backward. If Revit is pure database, why can it not save backward?  Microsoft database is backward compatible. I never get a clear answer from Autodesk developer. The excuse I always get is we have a new feature that requires the newest version. Also we have a lot of contents and saving to newest release seems like a lot of wasted effort to constantly duplicate content for newer version.

[adrian.calabria]

I was listening to the BIM Thoughts podcast a while ago, i think when 19 released, or just before. Apparently there are an extraordinary number of code changes (or something like that, i’m a drafter not a coder 🙃) that backwards compatibility is impossible.

Made sense to me. We need to be better at negotiating with the consulting team about using the latest version. Staying in 16 i get because of the font change, but upgrade for anything still in 17!

[thomaskoruga]

This topic was already discussed in multiple Revit Ideas with imput from the dev team.

It would take up many resources of the development team to built backwards compatibility which they would rather put to use to develop useful new features for the current version.

[Anonymous]

Its more of a question of its great to have all of these features but if there is a huge need to have this by the Autodesk users isn't there inherent use for these software developer resources to develop this? Wouldn't this make the Revit Software more valuable? Its nice to provided new tools but there is clearly a need or want for this and could provide long term value. Probably just as much as new tools and features in Revit.

It would just be nice to not have to wait 3 hours to open a model that is linked into my model that was made in a version of Revit that is only a year or two older.

[Yien_Chao]

Non compatibility version is truly anti-BIM.

each professionnals and consultants shouldbe able to, at least, open, consult and share files. Now every users of Revit on a project must have the latest version, which doesn't make sense in this era of BIM washing.

[thomaskoruga]

I truly understand all your concerns and I mostly agree with all points made here. Check out this link for the (lengthy) statement of a member of the dev team regarding the topic:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/save-as-previous-version/idi-p/6337733/page/2

Hope this helps in understanding the topic a bit more. 

[syman2000]

I read over the comment. It is the same as what dev told me. To me it is silly because new addition is just new addition. What about old stuff that exist prior to the release? You don't tell me you cannot develop a way to downgrade and strip whatever is exist in newer version. Also this quarterly release any indication is they can implement them, but they rather have yearly cycle so they can get more out of the subscription. This is unfortunate because the more and more I work on Revit, the more I hate it. Revit looks nice from marketing perspective, for user working on it for over two decade, it is very difficult to manage the Revit content and data efficiently. It isn't friendly and no other 3rd party software can open it. I would recommend alternative now if Autodesk don't focus on getting the main issue out of the gate. If Autodesk couldn't get backward compatibility to work, perhaps make their RVT file format open source so we have 3rd party to take a stab at the format and give us what user wants.

[Anonymous]

I understand that Dev doesn't want to use resources to change this but... what if everyone wanted this feature? or something similar to this feature anyways. Why couldn't we as the consumers of the product leverage our need for this to the Autodesk team? If this is at the top or even just in the top 5 wouldn't they have to consider it?

[ipselute]

Just imagine a big project involving multiple designers and contractors. Maybe they are using different Revit versions. Maybe they don't upgrade software at the same time. Some does it in the spring, others in autumn, etc. Maybe they upgrade only once every two years or at the end of the big project.

How are they supposed to exchange working files with no common base file version ? I can open an older version file, it gets automatically converted to the newer version, but i can't create a older version backup file for exchange with others !

Nobody is gonna upgrade Revit in the middle of a 500-building neighborhood project. The risks are just too high ! We need common base file (older version file) for exchanging between multiple parties. Exporting all drawings to Autocad is just hilarious. We need 3D coordination and clash checks, not some colored dwgs.

[Anonymous]

You would lose information going back and things would break.

This is how it used to work for AutoCAd and it was a nightmare. Nobody was on the same version because they were too cheap to upgrade so you spent a lot of time down-saving to send ot different people.

Agree to an update cycle, either every year or two. Frankly, it does not take that long to update a project, just do it on a separate machine, overnight or during the weekend.

Its also not crazy to just stay on the original version of the project for the duration of the project. These things should be part of you BIM execution plan and contract.

If you guys are exporting to DWG, it seems like you urgently need to make a BEP for your project.

[wr.marshall]

2 links for interest related to this

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/update-previous-versions-of-revit/idc-p/8217374#M22297

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/save-as-previous-version/idc-p/6954018/highlight/true#M66...

[ipselute]

@wr.marshall : With all due respect, your links show no respect to customers. Should i mention that any decent software offer some kind of backward compatibility? Even Allplan and Tekla offer some kind of workaround to such kind of "problem".

There are so many so called "impossible" tasks with Autodesk i just lost count. That's why there are so many extensions for Revit solving so many "impossible" tasks. Autodesk should have the least decency to let other search for solutions (lending source code under R&D contracts).

Autodesk is world famous for their management skills with rebar software: Autodesk Structural Detailing - buyed from Robobat and closed, Advance Concrete - buyed from Graitec and closed, Revit Rebar Extensions - buyed from Graitec and abandoned/dumped to Naviate. What kind of trust relationship can a customer build with Autodesk over such indecision strategy ? Maintaining a single unified brand, with unified interface , with unified strategy, is much simpler and cheaper that all that branding mumbo-jumbo. Customers need stability and reliance, not pity excuses.

[Anonymous]

@ipselute Did you actually read the well written posts? They make logical sense. WR.MARSHALL does not work for Autodesk.

Yes Autodesk does a bunch of stupid mistakes and kills products like its nobody's business, but I don't categorize this one as part of that family of mistakes.

You'll never be able to save backwards because it would make no sense. Doing that would mean every effort in new version of Revit would crawl to a stop because it would mean changing 5+ different version to be compatible. Completely impossible.

[Anonymous]

A few month later, please let me share this point of view regarding this topic even if it has been already archived.

First, thanks a lot to sasha who gave us a excellent technical view of the problem.

Let us think 5 ou 10 years further regarding users needs, interoperability, big data and IT industry.

Must of us on this forum are aware that the added value in the IT industry has switched

>> from softwares to data (eg facebook is a SaaS - software, but it added value lays in it ability to broadcast your live and to share it)

>> from data bases to AI - (starting from data mining to Artificial Intelligence)

The world is changing and the competitors of REVIT-AUTODESK are working in the direction of these changes, mainly:

>> on interoperability of various data set in different versions of the same software (saving form version X+1 to version X)

>> on interoperability of their BIM datas from one software to another, through IFC standards (using datas produced in sofware X in software Y)

I find it strange that AUTODESK - REVIT can not guarantee interoperability of it data sets in the same software, from one version to another.

I understand that it may be a huge amount of work and it is sweetable for Autodesk buisness (as Mirko explained it). But this is a 1 or 2 year vision.

Please let us raised our heads and think 10 to 20 years further. Then this amount of time for revit format interoperability will appear as very few in a pro and corn analysis.

Price

[Anonymous]

Autodesk just needs to finish their plans to implement Revit in the new SaaS model. They already force people to subscriptions (no perpetual licenses), so now they just need to finish the transition. Make the software require an internet connection to make sure it has the latest update, and there is no longer the ability to have multiple versions on active user computers (after the transition). One current "live" build that everyone must be on to work.

I can understand a request for backward compatibility since people currently have many projects in multiple Revit versions at the same time. The licenses only officially support the 4 latest versions, and they require a special license exception to allow you to use the older versions. The main factor to successfully implementing this type of change would be to vastly improve their QA process. If they made this switch, the software can't have files crashing or things disappearing after the new patches get incorporated. They also wouldn't be able to afford to have files getting corrupted as often as they do now.

I don't expect this anytime soon sadly since they have a hard time fully implementing features even over multiple updates. The non-rectangular crop regions is a simple example, and they should have implemented the same feature to the annotation crop by now. Ideally that change should have propagated to the scope boxes, section boxes, etc. They have great intentions, but they need to work on the follow-through.

[ttfeio]

Citando um blog: "O ARCHICAD é Feito por Arquitetos para Arquitetos – O foco do ARCHICAD na arquitetura, design e criatividade, combinado com a tecnologia de ponta e a inovação, permite aos arquitetos fazer aquilo que eles fazem de melhor: grandes projetos!" No entanto o Revit tem tudo para se tornar a melhor plataforma BIM do mercado.