Upgrade???

[Misteracad]

As an office we are trying to determine the best way to deal with projects in older versions of Revit. We started using Revit with the 2009 release. We have a few projects that were done in Revit MEP2009 that are no longer active. We have the subscription and have upgraded each year since then. Now that the 2013 release is out we are being told that our subscription will only cover the current version plus the three previous versions of Revit. This means that with the implementation of the 2013 version we no longer can open Revit 2009. What should be done with the 2009 projects. Immidiately we thought of upgrading all the 2009 projects to 2010, which wouldn't be a huge problem until the next year when we have to upgrade them again to 2011 and so on and so forth. With each succeeding year we will have an ever increasing list of projects that need to be continually upgraded. We do not want to just leave them in their current format in case there is a future need for the model.

I work for a reseller and would like to clarify a couple things...

First, if you are on Subscription, you are able to authorize up to 3 releases back. If you are not on Subscription, once you upgrade you cannot reauthorize the previous version. That means that
you will still be able to OPEN 2009, but you will not be able to AUTHORIZE it. However, if your PC dies you will not be able to reinstall 2009 and activate it. If your current PC continues to breathe for years to come...with an authorized version of 2009 already loaded...you'll be able to technically continue to use it to open 2009 project files. 'Course, it is no longer supported, so don't expect any help from Autodesk or your reseller if you have a problem or it kicks the bucket for some reason.

This concerns me as Autodesk recommends upgrading project files one version at a time (e.g. to upgrade a 2009 project to 2012 - first upgrade it to 2010, then 2011, then 2012). I don't know that Revit will be able to open a 2009 project with any future version. And say 10 years from now when we finally do a remodel on one of these projects and the oldest version of Revit is 2020 because they only support the previous three versions, there is no way I can trust that I will be able to recover anything from the 2009 model. On the other hand, by then the content will have evolved so much that the 2009 model content would probably be worthless anyway.

Second, it IS indeed recommended to upgrade your project files one version at a time...2009 to 2010, 2010 to 2011, etc. This minimizes the risk of corruption between conversions...especially with MEP content. However, the scenario you provide above does seem like this would be a bit overkill. No one can predict the future, so you'll just have to play it by ear and use your best judgment.

I've got DWGs that are nearly 20 years old, but, obviously, they never pose a problem for us when we're opening them up. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts and experiences on the necessity of doing that one version at a time.

Melanie, I have personaly experienced old DWGs refusing to open in newer versions of AutoCAD software. Most opened fine, but some were corrupt for whatever reason. To that end, I also recommend upgrading files one version at a time...especially files containing AEC content...if the user is concerned about the stability of the file. Having said that, the question then becomes, will RVT files have the same concerns/issues? Unfortunately this is not something I can confidently say one way or another

[Wanderer]

Melanie, I have personaly experienced old DWGs refusing to open in newer versions of AutoCAD software. Most opened fine, but some were corrupt for whatever reason. To that end, I also recommend upgrading files one version at a time...especially files containing AEC content...if the user is concerned about the stability of the file. Having said that, the question then becomes, will RVT files have the same concerns/issues? Unfortunately this is not something I can confidently say one way or another

Comforting, Tim, thanks.

Seriously, I'm following along and appreciating the input. So, as with everything else new we try, it's just going to be a wait and see thing? Oh, goodie.

[Lashers]

Whatever happened to that executable that used to batch upgrade revit projects / families to the latest version?