SOLIDWORKS Multiple Versions Detected when opening a file

Whether working with legacy documents or files from a supplier or customer, you may at times be opening SOLIDWORKS files from different releases of SOLIDWORKS.  The new SOLIDWORKS Multiple Versions Detected functionality introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2013 can be a great help when working with such older version files.

Starting with SOLIDWORKS 2013, when you double click on a SOLIDWORKS file from Windows Explorer, the program will detect which releases of the software you currently have installed, and what release the file you are opening was last saved in then it will present you with the option to select which release of SOLIDWORKS to launch and open the file in.

Multiple versions detected

This option will only display if there is no session of SOLIDWORKS currently running, otherwise it will try to open the file in the open session regardless of what release it was last saved as.