Every now and then we have to take a project to an earlier version, like from 2017 to 2016. For most of the version the next steps work, but you will be attempting this at your own risk.
First be aware of when major project formats were changed. The really big one was between 2013-2014 when line groups were changed on P&IDs. For the rest of the project versions 2017 and 2014, you should be ok switching the project version.
Do not try to do this process to avoid project migration however. When you are migrating up, the migration routine adds necessary properties to support new features. When we migrate down, the software ignores the additional properties so they are irrelevant.
The project version number is stored in 6 different xml files.
- Project.xml
- PnIdPart.xml
- PipingPart.xml
- OrthoPart.xml
- IsoPart.xml
- MiscPart.xml
If you are using a different project standard (not PIP), you may have slightly altered xml names, but they’ll be close.
In short, you need to locate the project version variable and change it to the version that you need.
Here are the version numbers for the last few releases:
| Year | Version Number |
| 2014 | 7 |
| 2015 | 8 |
| 2016 | 9 |
| 2017 | 91 |
Yes, that’s not a typo. Even though it seems like 2017 would be 10, somehow it’s 91.
Report creator templates are generally project independent. However in 2016, the report engine was upgraded and new functions are available. If you use some of the newer functions, your reports will not be backwards compatible.