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solidworks question

Funny thing was that one of the initial salespitches for Solidworks was that SW can open ANY Autocad file, regardless of what version it was created in.

Perhaps we can look towards the purchase of Inventor to open ANY versions of SW files.

Seriously, who makes these decisions?
 
Opening AutoCad files is a whole different ballgame. With no parametric functions in the API, AutoCad is a snap. Backwards compatibility of parametric files will ALWAYS be an issue. (unless you can live with o part history)
 
Failsafe

0 part history vs. 0 geometry.

And the clear winner is?
Yes, Seymour. I already know what your position is. :D

Not everyone has that luxury, though. Some of us actually have to maintain these parts, and do so throughout their entire life. The clear winner becomes a different story, in that case. You can't fully appreciate that until you've spent a couple of years in a design department, dealing with the same old **** day in, day out.
 
Failsafe

For god's sake, can you just once understand what I'm trying to say?
Not saying that history is a useless, but is not having ANY geometry better?
Fine, you loose the history but you still have your sketches dont you?
Sure beats import and extract IMHO.
 
Ok, great. But that's not what we're talking about, here. The guy wants to know how to get his Solidworks files from a later version to open in an earlier version, and to be able to edit it. The simple answer is, he can't, because there is no backwards compatibility w/history, in any parametric software on the market. Nobody signed on for any of the other tangential bullsh1t. So why bring it up?

This isn't one of your "my AutoCAD is better than your parametric CAD system beause..." threads. It's a Q&A for a SolidWorks user. I think that that the question has now been completely answered, in its original context.
 
Well, please re-read my first post and tell me where did I say My ACAD is better than....
In fact I brought it up because I'm in the same boat as he is. I have SW2007, unfortunately I cannot use it because can't switch to XP due to other software incompatibilities.
So, salesguru with wide smile says no problem, install '07 on the laptop with XP and install '06 on the main puter with W2K. Sure thing he?
Neglected to tell me that the '07 files will be useless with '06, but hey, who cares, we can open any ACAD version with either one.

Does this context make any sense now?
 
Without making much talk, let me re-iterate what has already been said. (in case anyone might have gotten lost/confused/distracted) Below is the *exact* question, and the *exact* answer:

how do you save a solidworks 2007 file so that it can be opened in solidworks 2006 and edited?
The guy wants to know how to get his Solidworks files from a later version to open in an earlier version, and to be able to edit it. The simple answer is, he can't, because there is no backwards compatibility w/history, in any parametric software on the market.
 
SW2007 will read SW2006 files, no? Files can go forwards but not backwards?

There are generally both technical and business reasons for this arrangement...
 
Watch it! You gonna blow the Failsafe by not staying on topic!!!

But, since you brought it up, (again), Solidworks reads Inventor files. No history but the sketches ( in many cases anyway ) do import fully defined.
Try that with SW'07 files on '06, and get the useful message of:
Cannot open ..... Future Version.

AT least they thought of the future.
So how exactly is that different from the retarded ACAD no backwards method?
I don't mean '07 files to be backwards compatible, but have a way in SW2007 to save as '06 or '05.
Interestingly ( my initial point re-iterated) I have the DWG Gateway plug-in - Courtesy of Solidworks Corp. - in ACAD-14 which allows the save and open of any existing DWG file. Converts what it can, ignores and discards what it cannot.

So the reason for the no-go is technically pure business.
 
Well I purchased a copy of 06 SW at work, and
the retailer called me the other day to ask how
it was going.

So I recalled this thread, and put him on that
specific spot.

"Can you read 07 files in the 06 software?"

And the specific answer was, "no."

EXCEPT you can save the part as a non-editable
solid (the term he used was, I think, something
like a parasolid - which is sort of the 3D
analog to a DXF file for a 2D design tool) which
then *can* be opened and inspected in the earlier
version - but it loses all editability and
individual features on the 3D solid.

So this of course caused me to ask "why" and
the short answer was because new features sell
better for the software manufacturer than
does backwards compatibility. So they don't
go to any great lengths to allow the new versions
to creat geometry that can have the new features
turned off or ignored by the earlier versions.

I pointed out that backwards compatibility is
a big bonus for large organizations and the
reply was that at some point that bonus will
begin to outweigh the benefit of small incremental
impovement in various features. So that will
begin to happen.

So there is a crude workaround apparently in
the 'parasolid' approach.

Jim
 








 
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