Error: "The file was created in a newer version of SketchUp"

You may be seeing this error message if you created a model with SketchUp 2016 and you'd like to open the model with SketchUp 2015 or older. Note that every major version of SketchUp (eg, 6, 7, 8, 2013, 2014, 2015) has a unique version of the *.skp file format. As such, the model needs to be saved in the correct version of SketchUp that will open the file. But don't worry, you can always "down save" a model so you can open the file in an older version. To do so, please follow these steps:

  1. Open the version of SketchUp that matches the version of the SketchUp file. For example, SketchUp Pro 2016 or SketchUp Make 2016.
  2. Open the SketchUp file by clicking File > Open.
  3. Click File > Save As.... This will open the Save dialog box.
  4. Click the Save as Type drop-down menu and choose the version of SketchUp you would like use to open the file. For example, SketchUp version 2015.
  5. Modify the file name to make it unique, for example, add "-v2015" to the end of the file name.
  6. Click OK. You can now open the resulting file in SketchUp Pro 2015.
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