NavisWorks 2010 File Format

[OwenWhitehouse]

In the past, newer versions of NavisWorks overwrote older cache (NWC) files, making them incompatible with the older versions of the software. Can anyone confirm/refute that this will occur with the 2010 version?
Thanks!

[Peter Davies]

Hi, I've just opened a NWF with 2010, then tried to open in 2009. No go I'm afraid.

[J3F]

Wow, really?

I guess that I really shouldn't be surprised being that I went through this with other Autodesk products in the past

I can only hope that all of our subs are on a subscription so that we can all have the two versions installed side-by-side just in case.

[david.kingham]

You can save nwf and nwd down to earlier versions, just do a save as and change save as type to the version you need

[J3F]

David,

I need to supply a NW 2009.1 & NW 2010 3D model to the subs for each coordination session.

As far as work flow process, would it be okay for me to compile the model in the NW Manage 2010 software and when complete, "save-as" to save down to the 2009 file format?

Thanks for the clarification!

[david.kingham]

Yes that should be fine, there is no need to create 2 different versions though. Just save down the nwd to 2009 and send this to all the subs, 2010 will open 2009 files no problem

[J3F]

Thanks a lot David!

[J3F]

I was afraid that I was gonna screw something up with the file formats...

Can someone tell me how to unlock the published file? I'm the only one who uses these files right now and I can't understand how I locked myself out of my own file and now I cannot publish the model!

[RobertB]

I was afraid that I was gonna screw something up with the file formats...

Can someone tell me how to unlock the published file? I'm the only one who uses these files right now and I can't understand how I locked myself out of my own file and now I cannot publish the model!

Open the NWF, not the NWD, and in the Publish dialog box, make sure to select the Allow Resave option towards the bottom of the dialog.

[J3F]

Yes that should be fine, there is no need to create 2 different versions though. Just save down the nwd to 2009 and send this to all the subs, 2010 will open 2009 files no problem

Hi David - I have been supplying the entire team with 2009.NWD's as suggested. Here is something that I ran into that may help others out later on though:

I perform all of my NavisWorks coordination in the 2010 software package, and then save down all of the .NWD's to 2009 version and distribute to contractors. Being that they can all open the 2009 format but not the 2010 format, I agree with only providing them with ONE version to keep it simple.

However the coordination team and myself add comments to clashes, and we also use the new Clash Tests "grouping" feature in the 2010 release.

When using the "grouping" feature in 2010 keep in mind that once you save the .NWD down to an earlier format that you loose this work done within that feature. Meaning that your clashes will not be sorted out into the folders that you worked to organize.

So I have to provide a 2010.nwd clash model for the 4 contractors who run 2010 and want to utilize the grouping/etc. And I also have to provide a 2009.nwd for the contractor who is running 2009 (which I export out the clashes into ViewPoints & create a clash test report to help him view clashes as best as possible).

This is not a problem, but I wanted to give everyone a heads up to be aware of this if they have contractors who are using different versions of NavisWorks Manage.