Fox,

I just got my first copy of Revit last week. I'm evaluating it for now, but we decided we needed to have at least 1 copy for translation purpses, since some of the other firms are starting to switch over to it.

Autodesk usually goes a couple of versions before changing the dwg format. If I remember right 12 and 13 use the same dwg format, so saving to R12 is the same as saving to R13. R14 changed the DWG format and so did 2000. That lasted for 2000 and 2000i, and 2003. 2004,2005, and 2006 all share a dwg format, 2007, 2008, and next year's 2009 will also be compatible with each other. Autodesk has fallen into a 3 release cadence. The merciful thing is that it gives you 3 years before forcing an upgrade due to incompatible drawings. The kicker is that stuff from the 2007 and above formats translate horribly down to earlier formats. Just doing a save-as, normally works, but then you get all kinds of errors you have to use a hotfix to suppress or copy all objects into a new drawing also gets rid of them.

I haven't upgraded any of our firm's 2006 copies even though we are under subscription. I plan to have us jump into 2008 in about a month since we've now fallen behind a lot of our consultants and are having to save-down a lot. I never like to be the on the bloody knife edge. Better to stay back a little and let others get bloody. However unlike Tom I'm still somewhere on the blade. No offense Tom, but R13 is like trying to cut with the leather sheathe the knife is stored in. :)

Steve G.