While we’d all prefer to be running the most up-to-date SOLIDWORKS release and never run into problems with other users running an older SOLIDWORKS release, it’s just a fact of life that our collaborators will use older versions.
While SOLIDWORKS Service Pack 5 of a release can open files from the next year’s version, they can’t edit them. Additionally, editions further back for previous releases or service packs can’t even open them. Starting with SOLIDWORKS 2024, we have the ability to save files back to two releases.
Saving as a Previous Older SOLIDWORKS Release
What this means for us is that with an assembly created and saved in SOLIDWORKS 2024, we can save to both SOLIDWORKS 2022 and 2023 all while maintaining the feature tree. From the File > Save As menu, you can select SOLIDWORKS 2022 or SOLIDWORKS 2023. If any newer features were added after the version we want to save for, we will get an error and need to clean them up. The Previous Release Check tool will show the affected features and what version they were added. After clearing up the problem features, the check can be rerun and then officially saved to an older version of SOLIDWORKS.
SOLIDWORKS Previous Release Check
Exporting to Even Older Versions of SOLIDWORKS
What if a customer wants to view our files and uses a version of SOLIDWORKS older than two releases back? In this instance, we will need to export as a neutral format such as STEP or IGES and they can import those files into SOLIDWORKS. If you go to the File>Save As menu, you can specify the file format and select either STEP AP203 or AP214. STEP AP203 is the older version of this format that doesn’t transfer colors and layers amongst other things. However, any neutral format will work in this case.
Save As options for export file format
After selecting a format, a button for options appears at the bottom of the save dialog. Clicking this brings you to the SOLIDWORKS System Options and shows useful settings to change for the export. In the case of exporting for older versions of SOLIDWORKS, outputting as Solid/Surface geometry is the best option. Another key setting of note is “Export assembly components as separate STEP files” which can be useful if trying to export large assemblies. By turning the option on, SOLIDWORKS will break up the assembly into separate STEP files for each component greatly increasing performance.
STEP export options
Disabling SOLIDWORKS 3D Interconnect
SOLIDWORKS 3D Interconnect is a powerful tool that delivers groundbreaking capabilities for working with both neutral and native CAD data from various sources. In short, it allows SOLIDWORKS to directly open non-native files and use them in your modeling workflow while maintaining a link back to the original file. Although it is the default import option, it is not always recommended to use. For our previously exported assembly to import correctly and be editable on the older version of SOLIDWORKS, the STEP needs to be imported with 3DInterconnect disabled. This can be done by going to Options > Import > General and then unchecking the “Enable 3D Interconnect” checkbox.
Imported STEP assembly in an older version of SOLIDWORKS
After doing this, open the STEP file in the older version of SOLIDWORKS. The assembly tree will resemble the version that we exported from. However, the individual part features will not propagate over and you would have to use something like FeatureWorks to convert the dumb geometry into SOLIDWORKS features.
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