Is anyone out there running AutoCAD ???

Sorry but with all the CAD systems I'm familar with (AutoCAD included) you can't open future versions just past ones. I think you're hosed unless you can get access to AutoCAD 2007 or newer and then you can save them down as the 2000 release file format.

Plan B would be to go get draftsight it's a free autoCAD clone released from the parent company of SolidWorks that might do the trick for you.

Like mramsey said , find someone that has AutoCAD 2007 or newer and have them opem them and resave them in AutoCAD 2000 format.

there are 2 ways you can open them:
1- you can use autocad 2007 and use the save as option to save to a lower autocad version. This method allows you work on the lowered version file.
2- download a dwg viewer. This method allows you view, print and possibly annotate your file, but you will not be able to open it in autocad 2000.

pmt

Are any of them three dimensional?

I have access to Autocad LT 2010, which is only 2D.

JOHN

If you want, PM me the files and I will see if I can save them down to a 2000 compatible.

http://www.cadwizz.com/
Here is a link to a free trial version of a drawing viewer.
This viewer has the ability to save Autocad files as different versions or even convert them to other formats.

I know that's frustrating and from what I understand, nothing you can do about it, at least within the capacity of Autodesk software. I've had the same problem creating new excel spreadsheets and trying to open them with older software. I now make sure I save certain new stuff as an excel 97-03 workbook.

Thanks, guys. I think I've found a conversion volunteer.

LumberJocks, as always, ROCKS !!!

You might try down loading a trial copy of latest and greatest ACAD and use that to save your files backward to 2000.
I think the demo is full featured.
That way you could do it in house until you get 2007 back up, you'd have 30 days of use.

I run into this:

DWG TrueView

TrueView is a FREE (we all like free, aren't we?) application you can download from Autodesk site. It's actually a DWG viewer. You can open any DWG files with it. But you should know that you can use TrueView to save a file back to older version. To beauty of TrueView for me, you can batch convert all files in a folder.

If you have older version and can't open a DWG, you can use TrueView to convert files you receive to your owned version. You just need to download it here: http://autodesk.com/dwg

What lanwater said is correct, you may lose some advanced features when saving back to an older version, but woodworking plans are usually quite simple.

Once again, I'm overwhelmed by the kindness and helpfulness of the folks on LumberJocks.

THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH !!!

Yesterday I was in a real pinch, and today I'm a happy camper with the converted files I need.
And I'd like to send a special shout-out to Bob Current. He jumped on the case and the files were sitting in my inbox this morning.

Now about that $10,000 I'd like to "borrow" ...

If you're looking for a new version of "autoCAD" check out draftsight. We have a couple old time autoCAD users who can't tell the difference between them.

http://www.3ds.com/products-services/draftsight/overview/