IES-VE User Forum

Hi all,

I have a file created on my own computer with a student license of IES-VE 6.4.0.7 and I tried to open this file on my school computer with a license of IES-VE 6.4, and I got an error message "unsupported file or format, the selected file requires <VE> 6.4.0.7 or higher to open". I was wondering if there's any way I can save my file in a previous version so I can open the file in an earlier version of IES-VE?

thanks!

Hi,

There is no backward compatibility or save as version option. The best you could do would be to export a GEM of your project and import this to the university machine version but that would only give you the geometry and none of your other model setup.

This is why it is important to ensure our home version and university/school/work version is the same.

Maybe you could ask the department to install the upgraded version on one (or all?) of the machines for you?

Phil

you could use the VE Compliance Export as 6.1.1 option - that 611 file can then be opened by any newer package.
Why it's not an option in the main save window is a mystery.

A word of caution here - the reason I wouldn't generally advise to go down that route is that you can still lose data this way but it will be more subtle and harder to pick up. For example where new features have been added since 6.1.1 to present (there have been a few) then your model would have lost any of those settings.

I find it riskier to go that way as you may think you have everything and miss the bits that are lost whereas taking only geometry or just not trying to go back at least you know exactly where yo stand.

The export as v6.1.1 is there in Compliance for any user though should you wish to try it.

Phil

Ah - that clears up the mystery.
I'll not even look at opening the obvious can of worms leading from that...

yeah let's steer clear of the many cans of worms in the VE.

The export as v6.1.1 was designed with the specific intention of taking a VE Compliance Model back from VE 6.4 to VE 6.1.1 for the purposes of running 2006 regs Compliance sims. As the latest version of the VE and v6.1.1 move further apart there will be more and more differences and it would take us a lot of work to maintain this for other purposes so I would always put out the disclaimer that this shouldn't be considered a solution for backwards compatibility in VE projects.

My official Support line is that projects aren't backwards compatible. I know this is something people would like to see and I'd still champion it if we discussed adding this option in here but for now it's not possible really

Phil

Thank you all for your help!

my department has now updated their IES, but the newest version is 6.4.0.8!!!!! I have 6.4.0.7 on my own laptop. when I open my 0.7 version file in 0.8 IES, it DOES open, but some geometries are LOST, so, just a word of caution here for anyone trying to do this....

You shouldn't be losing any data when you upgrade a model, there must be some reason this happened.

When you upgrade a model it will offer to Rebuild adjacencies as part of the upgrade so it may have been at this point that you lost geometry but I don't think the VE would damage a good model so it's possible you already had issues there to begin with (a geometry check report in ModelIT would confirm Settings menu >> Model... and choose Intersections, ones and Surfaces then click Check to generate the report).

When the project was upgraded it would have automatically created an archive of the model in the project Backups folder that can be opened in 6.4.0.7 if you wish to go back and review this).

You can download 6.4.0.8 as well from our Download Centre, if the university upgraded you might as well do it too.

Phil

PCully wrote:You shouldn't be losing any data when you upgrade a model, there must be some reason this happened.

When you upgrade a model it will offer to Rebuild adjacencies as part of the upgrade so it may have been at this point that you lost geometry but I don't think the VE would damage a good model so it's possible you already had issues there to begin with (a geometry check report in ModelIT would confirm Settings menu >> Model... and choose Intersections, ones and Surfaces then click Check to generate the report).

When the project was upgraded it would have automatically created an archive of the model in the project Backups folder that can be opened in 6.4.0.7 if you wish to go back and review this).

You can download 6.4.0.8 as well from our Download Centre, if the university upgraded you might as well do it too.

Phil

HI Phil,
thanks, you are right, I did have a bit of issues with my original geometry according to the geometry report, but it wasn't a mistake per se, I have these really tiny windows (2 inch x 2 inch), and these came back as "slivers" issues in the geometry checking report, can you tell me exactly what happens in IES if I have the "sliver" issues?

I've been able to run dynamic simulations (in 6.4.0.7) without any errors (and I have also done suncasts without any errors). Basically I hadn't encountered any errors whatsoever until importing into 6.4.0.8, that's when I "lost" these tiny windows when the upgrade rebuild the adjacency.

What I'd like to know is if all my simulations in 6.4.0.7 are still valid? and do having these slivers mean that the IES ignores them when doing the simulation? (so basically the simulation results gives me the outcome AS IF I didn't have these tiny windows? ). This is really important, because I'm doing an analysis that I'd really need to know if these tiny windows have been accounted for or not.....

Thank you very much!!!