Originally Posted by
CCarleton
Correct, the method to the madness was that we could get a DWG in 2016 if needed. Some of us still have 2016, and we still have access to 2016 download as it stands so if someone had to provide a 2016 drawing it'd be possible to do, and it'd be easier to have a template in 2016 format rather than 2017+. I currently maintain 2016, 2017, and 2018 on my computer. Part of the reason we started paying closer attention to this was we had a client that we did a topo for that wanted an electronic drawing, and it was done in 2017 so the person ended up redoing it because the client has some lower version and we weren't aware of any methods to get around that problem. That incident caused me to choose not to advance the template to a new CAD version. I'm really not concerned with the slowness created by doing this to be honest, doesn't surprise me it's a thing though.
I'm familiar with LandXML, I've used it for surface exporting/importing, but I guess I never considered it for C3D objects in general. For some reason I just assumed it was for surfaces, not intelligent objects. Reviewing the prospector tab it looks like you can pretty much export anything to a LandXML file (Tested with cogo points from 2017 to 2016). For me the stuff I'd care about is moving over the surface, points and the survey figures along with any additional non-C3D objects.
So right now I'm trying to think through the workflow of properly downgrading a drawing for an earlier version, specifically with survey data with a database. I could export out a landxml of the surface, but for points I'm not sure I see the point (#puns) because we use survey databases for csv importing, I can just dump the database into any old drawing, and assuming it's been managed properly it'll be good to go (and I don't believe databases are picky about what version of CAD). I'd just dump the database into the new drawing and be done with it, and also get my survey figures. My only gripe with this method is that the surface would not be linked with the figures (for breaklines) or points. I'd almost argue just dumping the database in a new drawing and rebuilding would be best practice. If the surface was huge and required a lot of editing then maybe not. Theoretically if the surface was complete a LandXML of it would be fine I suppose, none of the objects would be interact at that point.