Would it be a heavy lift to do a plugin for opening Rhino 7 files in Rhino 6?
Hello - McNeel is not going to do this, if that is your question… There is a converter on Food4Rhino I think.
I think this is what I had in mind, not on food4rhino, I guess
https://www.automapki.com/tutorials/save-rhino-3dm-file-to-any-file-version.html
-Pascal
Maybe McNeel should reconsider that because right now I’m downgrading myself instead of suggesting upgrades for the team.
That’s kinof the opposite effect that the one directional unfair sales hook file format crookery is supposed generate.
I understand McNeel needs revenue. I’d rather pay a subscription fee than like have your business strategy actively complicate my life and waste my time screwing around with file versions totally needlessly.
Hey @wynott,
It’s pretty standard practice that older versions of software do not open files generated by newer versions. This has always been the way Rhino works.
You can always download the Rhino 7 evaluation version and do any needed open/saveas.
Also, our file format is open source. So will always be able to access your data using tools provided by us or by some third party.
Hope this helps,
– Dale
Hi Dale,
I have a license for V7. This isn’t about data loss.
The problem is that it is unclear to me how I am supposed to embrace V7 when my customers and colleagues don’t. We need to share files. This is a fact of any team. If the upgrade isn’t compelling to my customer then what am I supposed to do?
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Put off my own upgrade until they are ready.
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Buy my upgrade and not use it because it’s not faster and it’s too much of a pain to export legacy files to my customer. This is where I am right now.
This scenario happens with each new release of any software where the file format has to change to accommodate the new features in the new version.
Each group of collaborators is a bit different. Our hope and goal is that the new tools are compelling enough and useful enough, that everyone upgrades when the time seems right. Obviously budgets, project cycles, and new hardware requirements have large effects on this decision.
Sometimes, there are no new tools in the new version that are needed. Then the obvious answer is don’t upgrade until they are needed.
Perhaps I’m missing something. Rhino 7 can save in Rhino 6 or earlier formats. When a customer was using Rhino 6 and I was using Rhino 7 I used SaveAs and selected Rhino 6 format before sending a file to him.
Hi David,
Yes, of course. But if you have like dozens of blocks referenced in… You know, like parts from the hardware store. Deck bits and engines and stuff. All those files each have to be manually saved out. So in reality you are forced to keep your parts collection as V6 files which you have to like manually acknowledge each time you save one in V7 then click close without saving changes otherwise you get the save dialog back again.
Ryan
Hi Ryan - is it your experience that in general, software is able to open files from future versions of the product?
-Pascal
Pascal - No but it seems kind of silly to send me through hoops to generate a legacy file format. I’d rather be able to tick multiple boxes and perhaps inflate the file size some amount if anyone using a version of a box I checked could open it.
I am not really suggesting any change to the end result here. I am saying stop penalizing your early adopters by making it hard for us to bring everyone else into the next version.
Why not release a plugin in the previous version in a SR, so it allows you to open current version file, but gives you a splash screen like "give us a moment to downgrade this file for you. Some model features incompatible with your rhino model may be missing. here is a hyperlink to upgrade your version of Rhino.
Another really easy solution would be to automatically save the file in the version format it was opened in and not nag you about confirmations. If you want to deliberately overwrite the file with a newer version then that’s when I’d want to take specific action by having to click a dropdown and confirm through the are you sure box.
Hi Ryan - it is very easy to always save as v6 using a macro if that is what you want to do. To do this automatically would make the different newer stuff in V7 pointless whenever a v6 file was the starting file, it seems to me.
Once a file is already in V6 format -
! -Save Version=6 Enter
If I do not have one already, I can also make a script that saves one or any number of files to a V6 version.
-Pascal
Well, sortof. If you macro a V6 save as and then close the window, what happens? I am assuming the same thing as if you manually save as… which it warns you about unsaved changes which is super unintuitive because you just took like extra special care to save your file in a very specific way then you close the window and is says your work has unsaved changes and it kindof gives you goosebumps to click ‘No’.
Look I’m just spitballing. Being a squeaky wheel.
I genuinely appreciate you guys and Rhino really is my everything and I couldn’t do what I do without it.