Any need to maintain multiple versions of Navisworks?

[david_spehar]

Simple question. Does anyone know of a valid reason to maintain multiple versions of Navisworks? Or should we do some house cleaning and uninstall all versions other than our most current? I don't use it enought and don't want to get complaints from someone saying that they need an older version for some reason. We've traditionally been maintaining all versions of Navisworks aligned with all versions of Revit but I'm wondering if that's silly.

[dgorsman]

If you have everyone on the same version and SP of Navisworks then there isn't much need. You can downsave to several earlier versions if you have a need to work with those who are still using an early version of Navisworks; in that case you'll need one or two installs provided the licensing terms support it.

[david_spehar]

Thanks for the reply. One more question regarding upgrading Navisworks files to a newer version. I did a quick test and any "upgrades" seem transparent to the user. Am I safe to assume that there isn't as much drama associated with it like upgrading Revit files? So if I take old versions of Navisworks away I won't get users complaining that it's a pain to upgrade to a newer version or that files will get screwed up. Again, I'm not a heavy Navis user at all.

[dgorsman]

Gah, surprised that was readable - I cut out something important. That should be: you only need check your licensing terms if you need to keep a very old version of Navisworks, since they can save back only a couple of versions. If a client is still using, say, Simulate 2010 then you might need an intermediate release (2016 save-as to 2013 NWD, then use 2013 to saveas to 2010 NWD).

There should be very little drama associated with Navisworks upgrades. Most important, like Revit, is to have everybody switching at the same time. It can help if you export your options file (and perhaps dedicated Quick Properties settings as well) for the new version for others to import. You can't import options for an older version since they change a bit over releases.

[david_spehar]

Ha - it was readable enough but thanks for further clarification. Also, good pointers on exporting options files. Thanks!

[jasonp]

NW doesn't care if you have multiple versions of the same license in use. The only one big reason not to upgrade is bugs (Many Alpha releases from Autodesk are, buggy, to say the least. Also, coordination, compatibility with others. If you need to send files to anyone, Save down works well, but 2015 will only save down to 2013 now.