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How to Tell What Version of SOLIDWORKS and Older Version File Was Saved from

When you open a file from past projects, you may see a warning icon appear on the Save command. Once you hit save, it will also give you a warning about you are converting the file to a newer year version, which can be an issue if you have other co-workers still using an older version of SOLIDWORKS as SOLIDWORKS is not forward compatible (exception is made starting in SOLIDWORKS 2024: Saving SOLIDWORKS Documents as Previous Versions - 2024 - SOLIDWORKS Help)

Image of older version file warning

How can you tell which SOLIDWORKS version was saved in and to use the appropriate SOLIDWORKS version if you need to?

Workflow

You can see the file's last saved year version through the file's Properties in the Windows File Explorer.

  1. Go to the location of the file that you want to check the version for in the File Explorer
  2. Right-click on the file > PropertiesImage of file right click properties menu
  3. In the Properties dialog box, go to the Details tab
  4. Under the File section, there is a row with the information on "SW Last saved with"Image of Properties menu result for previous version file

If Seeing Future Version

Image of Properties menu result for future version example

This is most likely due to having multiple versions of SOLIDWORKS on your machine. I have found success in running a repair on the latest year version of SOLIDWORKS you have: How To Repair SOLIDWORKS 2024 – Hawk Ridge Systems Support, restoring File Associations: How to restore SOLIDWORKS File Associations – Hawk Ridge Systems Support, and restarting the File Explorer through the Task Manager.

Contact Us

For further technical support please contact Hawk Ridge Systems at 877.266.4469 for the U.S. or 866.587.6803 for Canada.

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