Save As Previous

You can save a MAX scene to a previous version. To do so, use the Save As Type drop-down list.

Choices for earlier versions of 3ds Max on the Save As Type drop-down list

This option applies to the following commands:

You can save to formats as early as 3ds Max 2012, and all releases between that one and the present release.

Important: Save As Previous behaves like Save Copy As in that it does not change the scene you are actively working on, with one exception: Any existing retimers are baked and then removed. Otherwise, the current scene remains in Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 format. Save and Save As using the Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 version do not overwrite the previous version of the file, unless you specify the same file name for both scenes. When you open a scene from an earlier version in Autodesk 3ds Max 2015, the scene is automatically converted to Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 format. In this case, using Save will overwrite the original scene.

You can see the version under which a scene was saved by choosing Application menu Properties File Properties File Properties dialog Contents tab. 3ds Max 2012 scenes appear as “Saved As Version: 14.00” and each subsequent release increments the version number. For example:

Version information for a 3ds Max 2012 scene

Features new to Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 are not supported in earlier versions. If you use an earlier version to view a scene saved from Autodesk 3ds Max 2015, you might see warning messages related to the unsupported features.

Notes and Tips:

Containers A scene from an earlier version can inherit a container only if you save the container (the MAXC file) in the same version format. See Container Save As.
File Link to FBX In a scene from an earlier version, the FBX geometry is visible only if you first bind the geometry (Manage Links dialog Files panel Bind button) in Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 before you save the file to the earlier format. Binding the FBX geometry breaks the live File Link connection.
XRef Scene and XRef Objects If the Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 scene XRefs another Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 scene, or objects within a Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 scene, in an earlier version the XRefs to newer-version scenes are reported as missing files. You can fix this by saving the XRefed files to the earlier format as well.