Importing between versions of VW

[Rowland]

I am sending VW files created in VW 11.5.0 (Landmark) in Windows XP to a colleague who uses VW 9.5 (Architect) on a Mac.

At present he can't open them - his machine won't recognise them as VW files. I have tried exporting my files as VW 10 but I can't export as any versions before that. I can share files if I export as a DWG and he then imports them, but this isn't ideal as the layer information is lost.

Please, can someone tell me how I can export my files in a form that can be read by a Mac running VW 9.5? I'll be eternally grateful...

[CipesDesign]

Go to the menu: FILE>EXPORT>EXPORT TO VERSION... Save the new file to your desktop (or wherever). Then send it to him. HTH's

[Rowland]

Thanks for the reply, but I don't get this option in the 'Export' tab.

I can export as a whole host of other file types, but it only offers me Vectorworks 10 and nothing before that. Perhaps it does give you this option on a Mac (wish I'd bought one) but not on my PC.

[mclaugh]

If you still have VW 10 lying around, you could do a double translation, i.e., export the file to 10 then open the exported file in 10 and export to 9. It's a kludge, but it (mostly) works.

[Rowland]

OK. Am trying this by sending it to someone who has VW 10. Hope it works.

I don't have VW10 myself - any suggestions for doing this without having to do this in the future? Does the Mac edition of VW give you the option of saving to any earlier version then?

[Peter Huggins]

The standard workspace in VectorWorks 11.5 includes export commands for VW 10, VW 9, and VW 8.

[alanmac]

If I remember correctly the only VW versions with limited export facilities as you describe are educational copies that only go back one or two versions, which of course you cannot use for commercial purposes anyway.

Worth checking out to save any future grief.

Alan

[ionw]

Rowland, you may want to try changing your workspace to a default one, I am pretty sure you can export all the way back to V8 from 11.5. v12 exports back to V9, so that it supports the three earlier versions seems to be supported. though of course this is on a Mac, though this is one time, I believe the options should be the same.

HTH

[Guest]

The educational copies are limited in the versions they can export back to.

Rowland, it sounds like you are using an educational copy and will not be able to export to earlier versions of VW prior to version 10.