converting Revit 7.0 to 6.1

[bnix]

i wanted to try out revit 7.0 and made some objects, but now i would like to copy them and insert them to revit 6.1 or even open the drawing in 6.1. Is this possible and how do I do it? I've already tryed to open the drawing and to save a family of groups but it won't let me.

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Please note I've *moved* this thread from the Forum Feedback (http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49) Forum to this one as I feel this particular Forum is a more appropriate place for such a topic.

Thanks, Mike

Forum Moderator

[beegee]

There is no backward compatibility between versions unfortunately. So , as you've found, its not possible to open a 7.0 file in 6.1, or to save out a family from 7.0 and then open it 6.1.



i wanted to try out revit 7.0 and made some objects, but now i would like to copy them and insert them to revit 6.1 or even open the drawing in 6.1. Is this possible and how do I do it? I've already tryed to open the drawing and to save a family of groups but it won't let me.

[Merlin]

i wanted to try out revit 7.0 and made some objects, but now i would like to copy them and insert them to revit 6.1 or even open the drawing in 6.1. Is this possible and how do I do it? I've already tryed to open the drawing and to save a family of groups but it won't let me.

Hi,
I asked a similar question several months ago (although my query was about saving from 6.1 to 6.0!)......Alas!...it cannot be done, so I'm told.

Apparently there are issues with "saving down" the new complex features to an earlier version....I'm told that the same is also a problem with the likes of ArchiCAD.

Personally I think that the programmers in the future will have to try address this matter. With the releases of Structural REVIT etc. there is going to be MAJOR exchanging of files between consultants and it will be ABSURD to think everyone will have the latest version of everything at the same time.

Even if all consultants do aim to upgrade to new releases as they come out, there's a snow-ball's-chance-in-hell that ALL will have it installed on the same day....result=lost working time on the projects being worked on at the time of the upgrades!

A "wishlist" perhaps?

cheers
John Mc

[Merlin]

There is no backward compatibility between versions unfortunately. So , as you've found, its not possible to open a 7.0 file in 6.1, or to save out a family from 7.0 and then open it 6.1.
Typical!....I'm so slow at responding BG slips in his response ahead of mine!..LOL!

[Jarod]

The other thing they will need to address is adding service packs to Revit like the rest of Autodesk products. Uninstalling and reinstalling to get into the next build to fix issues is crazy, need to have a service pack for this. Good example is the first release build of 7.0 and its memory leaks, next build fixed it but had to uninstall and reinstall to get it fixed.

[hand471037]

The other thing they will need to address is adding service packs to Revit like the rest of Autodesk products. Uninstalling and reinstalling to get into the next build to fix issues is crazy, need to have a service pack for this. Good example is the first release build of 7.0 and its memory leaks, next build fixed it but had to uninstall and reinstall to get it fixed.

Sorry, but I disagree. The fact that you can have the install process remove the old build, and install the new one, quickly becomes a huge help when you're rolling it out across the office. All I have to do is generate a new Network image, and have everyone in the office click a shortcut I e-mail to them, and they all get Revit with all settings and everything intact in short order. We could even make it automatic, and part of the startup, so that when the turn on the computer in the morning it installs it for them...

Even though we are only 10 people here, I've worked in offices a lot larger, and I still fear the TWELVE STEPS it took to install AutoCAD 2000 back at the place I used to work. When you combined all the service packs, add-ons, and customization it quickly became a big nightmare. And when a new 'service pack' came out, you had to go to over 60 computers and install it by hand. A total waste of time.

Even with the Service Pack way of patching bugs, in AutoCAD 2004/ADT, if you're using Network Images and Installing IIRC you'd have to remake the image to add the service pack and have everyone re-install from that anyways, unless you want to walk around to everyone's computer and install it by hand. So in the end, with the service packs, you wind up with a more confusing, more troublesome way of installing and you have to reinstall anyways...

So what I'd like to see that would be better than both Revit's Build idea and the AutoCAD Service pack idea is something more like what Windows/Linux or Firefox can do, whereas with Windows/Linux you can have your own update server and choose which updates get rolled out and have it all done for you automatically, or as in Firefox where it pops up a very minor notice to let me know there's an update available, and when I click that notice it downloads and installs the update for me without requiring for me to shut the program down.

BTW nice Camero. what year is that? a '68? I recently sold my '68 Dodge, and am still a little sad about it. ;)

[Scott D Davis]

It will just take coordination between you and your consultants or others who are working in Revit. We are all on subscription, so we are all entitled to upgrades. Communicate with your teams. If a new version comes out during a project (highly likely!) you need to collectively decide to stay with the current version, or upgrade across the entire team. If you choose to upgrade, you must come to a consensus and set a deadline...."everyone will upgrade to Revit 8.0 by this date." no questions asked.

[FK]

You can run different versions side-by-side.

[Jarod]

BTW nice Camero. what year is that? a '68? I recently sold my '68 Dodge, and am still a little sad about it. ;)
We will see what the futures holds as Revit becomes more main stream and user base gets bigger.

As for the car it is a 67 Firebird with a 462ci Pontiac Engine, sits ya back into the seat just a little when ya get on it. :cool: See more profile and website if you want to know more about it...

[hand471037]

You can run different versions side-by-side.

But not different builds, and it's important to have everyone on the same build when sharing files or using worksets. FK, I know you know this ;), just giving a heads-up to everyone else who might not know.

[FK]

Actually I didn't know this. ;-) I've been under the impression that builds of the same release should interoperate seamlessly. Am I missing something?

[christopher.zoog51272]

Actually I didn't know this. ;-) I've been under the impression that builds of the same release should interoperate seamlessly. Am I missing something?

i didn't know this either. while we try to run the current build accross the board, we sometimes run in an mixed build environment without issue.

[David Conant]

The Revit development standard is that builds with the same release number must be fully compatible. This does not mean that there is 0 chance that some bug introduced into a new build will generate some incompatibility in some obscure part of the product, but we do go to great lengths to avoid such problems. Thus, any project file created with any build of 7.0 should be openable in any other build of 7.0.

[Exar Kun]

It will just take coordination between you and your consultants or others who are working in Revit. We are all on subscription, so we are all entitled to upgrades. Communicate with your teams. If a new version comes out during a project (highly likely!) you need to collectively decide to stay with the current version, or upgrade across the entire team. If you choose to upgrade, you must come to a consensus and set a deadline...."everyone will upgrade to Revit 8.0 by this date." no questions asked.

That would be all well and good if the consultants were only working with you but what if structural consultants are working with several different architectural offices at once? It would force everyone to hold back upgrading until the final project was completed despite there being a number of degrees of seperation between offices.

I understand that there must be some major issues involved with saving to an earlier version but it would appear there is no really ideal solution to non-compatable versions either.

[hand471037]

It's certainly openable, yes, and but I'm wary of someone with a build three versions old saving to central when everyone else is running a different build within the same office. I can't remember where I read it, I'll try to track it down, but when we were having major problems with a project (that was due to Groups and Worksets in 6.1, but we didn't know that yet) I was doing a bunch of research about Worksets and I do remember something/someone saying that it's not a good idea to mix builds within the same office when everyone's saving back to the same central file. If that's not the case, and I'm mistaken, I'd love to hear it, for I've been worried ever since about keeping everyone on the same build...

[PeterJ]

That would be all well and good if the consultants were only working with you but what if structural consultants are working with several different architectural offices at once? It would force everyone to hold back upgrading until the final project was completed despite there being a number of degrees of seperation between offices.

No. You misunderstand this one.

You keep a copy of Revit 5.1 to work with the really stick in the mud guy that refused to go with subscription and a copy of 7 to work with me and maybe a copy of 6.1 to work with the people who have a very backward thinking IT guy looking after their network. Revit doesn't take too much disk space so you can afford that overhead and you just fire up whatever version you need. You can run 7 at the same time as any other version as far as I know, i.e. an instance of 7 running while you work in 6.1 so you don't have to hold back anyone else just because one consultant doesn't wish to upgrade.

[Exar Kun]

Ah, I see. That is an option, yes. And I've got all those old CDs around somewhere! :)

[papurajx]

I have not experienced any problem in sharing the 'workset enabled project' with machines running different builds of 6.1. As long as the Version is same it is not an issue, but I have not tried this in 7.0. Though we have received the CD for 7.0, I am still not confident of upgrading the 'workset enabled' project created in 6.1. The team is worried about the bugs and issues outlined in the forum with Revit 7.0.

[Steve_Stafford]

During version 6.0's lifespan we experienced build issues when using workset enabled projects. Different builds patched or resolved problems with worksets.

Using a newer build that resolved a problem while another used the older build that did not introduced errors. We were cautioned then to make sure our builds matched on workset projects. We haven't altered that stance since and we haven't been told otherwise.

[SCShell]

Hey there,

Now I have a question. I still have v5.1 loaded on my machine along with a bunch of projects saved in 5.1. Normally, to work on an old project, I simply open it using my default working version; however, after reading this thread, I tried opening 5.1 by clicking on the Revit 5.1 icon and got a message that my subscription license grace period had run out and I was re-directed to a subscription license page. (Once I canceled all that, I could still open an old 5.1 project and work on it.)

Secondly, how are you all managing your old project files which were done in earlier versions? Are you concerned about trying to open them in the future when it may be several versions later? Are you converting or updating/re-saving all of your old files with every new release? Is this even a concern? (I just remember problems updating 5.1 projects into 6.1 projects. What will it be like to open a 5.1 project with v9.0?)

Just some thoughts.
Steve

[bclarch]

As far as I know, current versions of the program are able to open and update all prior versions. However, as you point out, it is hard to imagine this continuing seamlessly for all future releases. There has to be a point of diminishing returns when some future release will not open everything prior. Unfortunately, the only way to be absolutely sure of upgrade compatibility is to upgrade all of your files with each release. Obviously it is not very practical to do this once you have a large number of old projects. I think that, for now, each firm has to make a risk / benefit analysis based on how important it is for that firm to be able to access legacy files. The ultimate solution would be for Revit to provide a batch conversion utility to handle this covering all versions.

[SCShell]

The ultimate solution would be for Revit to provide a batch conversion utility to handle this covering all versions.I agree with you. Sounds like a perfect wishlist item. In the mean time, I have thought about this and have decided to upgrade certain projects which I imagine would, or might be "on-going"or possible future remodel/additions as new versions come along.

Thanks
Steve

[christopher.zoog51272]

I was able to open a revit 3.0 file in 7.0:shock:

[Merlin]

We are all on subscription, so we are all entitled to upgrades. Communicate with your teams
Sorry Scott....but here in Oz, not all are on the subscription purchase system...(and I'm talking about file transfers to other consultants/businesses)....that is a MAJOR part of the problem...easy to say that people should have it this way but....people will be people..*sigh*

[Merlin]

That would be all well and good if the consultants were only working with you but what if structural consultants are working with several different architectural offices at once? It would force everyone to hold back upgrading until the final project was completed despite there being a number of degrees of seperation between offices.

I understand that there must be some major issues involved with saving to an earlier version but it would appear there is no really ideal solution to non-compatable versions either.


My point exactly!