Enable opening of Creo Files from any version for people using Subscription licensing

[jbailey]

While almost every CAD software doesn't allow for backward compatibility in CAD files, It would be nice for those who utilize subscription licensing to be able to have that luxury.  Most companies disable backward compatibility to ensure companies stay current with maintenance, generating a consistent revenue stream.  This has caused issues for companies that have many smaller projects which work with many different clients/customers where a certain version of Creo (not necessarily the latest) must be used.

This would be a MAJOR help to organizations like mine in which versions of Creo are dictated by project needs, not always a central IT/company dictate.

This would also be a great reward/incentive for people to move to subscription licensing.

[BenLoosli]

Why should I move to subscription licensing when it will cost me more money per year and be a hassle to install new license files every year.

There should be nothing in a subscription license that does not prevent you from launching an older version of Creo, just like I can do today with a perpetual license.

Backward compatibility is a non-issue because of the complexity of the file structures used with the files to store the data. It is a fact of life with CAd systems that opening a newer version file in an older version of software will not work. If you want to modify a newer file in an older version you have GCRI and even that loses the newer features into an internal blob object.

[jbailey]

I agree that there is nothing that prevents you from using the previous version (and to be honest, to load a license file once a year is a 5 minute job)...

What I am looking for is for PTC to build in features for people on subscription to allow for full modification between versions of Creo.  I suspect that "complexity of the file structures" is less of the problem than is the fact that people buy the software, never pay maintenance, and use it for years with the vendor never seeing any new revenue.

[BenLoosli]

Maybe for most people a new license is a 5 minute job, for me it is longer as I have to get IT involved since my production is on a classified network with no internet access. I have to request the license, wait for the email, save the license file to disk, burn a CD of the license file, get IT to upload the file to the classified server, destroy the CD, then do the license upgrade with FlexNet.

Are you looking for a GCRI-like module to be 'built-in' to the Creo builds or something more robust to read newer files?

This has issues in itself in that GCRI has to be rebuilt for each new release and the older releases it needs to be plugged into to read those newer files.

I think PTC is not playing fair with subscriptions anyway. Maintenance dollars are spent on new and improved modules and only those on subscription get the new modules. Perpetual bundle licenses should also be updated annually to include the new modules.

[jbailey]

I understand that.  So ok, maybe not 5 minute, but definitely not hours.

We would like something a little more robust.  While technically the GRANITE stuff will work, the limitations are a drawback.

Also, you've gotta understand that PTC's move to subscriptions are based on financial goals.  They are going to do anything possible to "entice" you to move to subscription.  I agree on the maintenance comment.  For a person who works for an organization that has ALWAYS paid maintenance, I felt cheated too when trying to get functionality fixed, when PTC will bend over backwards for a new customer. 

We are on subscription now - so me asking for this for subscription customers is to try and finally get some more value back from the years of investment in the PTC products maintenance beyond bug fixes.

[dgschaefer]

Full compatibility of newer files in an older version is an impractical request.  As new features are added to the software, structures need to be created to store the data created by them in the file.  The older version has no way to read that data because it wasn't there when the software was developed.

Working with client data from various versions is one of the costs of working in a consulting environment (which I assume is what you do, or something like it).  Part of that is having multiple versions of Creo available to users, including proper config files and templates, and putting policies that ensure that the proper version is used for each client.  

[olivierlp]

Hello,

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