There are many new and exciting enhancements that have been added in SOLIDWORKS 2024. One enhancement is Previous Release Compatibility. As the name suggests, Previous Release Compatibility allows you to save a SOLIDWORKS 2024 file to the two previous releases (SOLIDWORKS 2023 and SOLIDWORKS 2022). This provides a game changing collaborative experience that will allow SOLIDWORKS users to share their models and work seamlessly with users who are not using the latest release of SOLIDWORKS. ​​

Previous Release Compatibility works by saving the current model to a new file. In a few cases the functionality removes items added to models in the latest release, that are not supported in the previous two releases. The need to remove items is rare, a vast majority of customer models (upwards of 98%) will save to a previous release without having any items removed. In the event that items incompatible with a previous release needs to be removed from the model before saving to a previous release, powerful tools have been added to help the user through the process.

Previous Release Compatibility is accessed by setting the version for your part, assembly or drawing to SOLIDWORKS 2023 or SOLIDWORKS 2022 in the save as dialog. The Previous Release Check dialog is used to identify features and model items that cannot be saved to the previous release of SOLIDWORKS. The Previous Release Check dialog can also be launched via Tools -> Evaluate -> Previous Release Check, also, the dialog will automatically appear when attempting to save as a model that contains features and model items that are only supported in SOLIDWORKS 2024.

[CLICK HERE] to view a video on this powerful functionality.