How do I keep my data in vsn 10.2 while editing in 10.6 desktop?

[FayWalker1]

Hello,

I run the GIS portion of our CAD system. This CAD system only uses data that is developed from ESRI's vsn 10.2. Further, our CAD vendor has no plans to upgrade to a more current version although the CAD's mobile piece will eventually use ArcGIS Pro (which is a separate animal entirely).

My question: Is there a way that I can upgrade my workstation to ESRI 10.6 and still edit my feature classes in my 10.2 GDB? Essentially, I want the data to continue to operate in vsn 10.2 even after I edit and export it to a shapefile using my desktop vsn 10.6. The reason being is that after editing, I will need to export the data  to a 10.2 shapefile for CAD to consume. 

I am worried that exporting the data to a shapefile, using desktop 10.6, will convert the shapefile to version 10.6. 

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Fay Walker

[AdrianWelsh]

Fay,

I guess I was not aware that shapefiles were significant for each version of ArcGIS.

Take a look at this article about saving to an older release:

Migrating data from a newer geodatabase release to an older one—ArcGIS Help | ArcGIS Desktop 

Does this help?

[FayWalker1]

Hi, thank you for your response. Perhaps I am overly concerned however, CAD can be a many tentacled thing. Our CAD software is proprietary and our vendor does not really support GIS. So, if they tell you to make sure that your data is in 10.2, than you can expect CAD to crash in quite a memorable way if you diverge from their advice. Unfortunately, how to correct errors and what caused them in the first place, are not well documented so I am always left scratching my head when something happens. I have learned to thoroughly research first before making huge changes and this is just one way for me to be sure that shapefiles will not change to the more recent version that it was edited within. I will check out your link and again I appreciate your timely response.

[AdrianWelsh]

Fay,

I'd be curious to know what you find out. Plus, you could potentially share one of your CAD files here on GeoNet, have someone with 10.6 convert it to a shapefile (or whatever file you need) and then try it again on program to see if it works. Just an idea