Saving PLAXIS files for an older version

It is not possible to save a Plaxis file in a format compatible for an older version. E.g. when creating/saving a file in PLAXIS 2D CONNECT Edition V20, it is not possible to open this file in PLAXIS 2D 2019 or earlier.

Please note that PLAXIS is backwards compatible: Plaxis files made with an older version can be opened and used in a more recent version of the PLAXIS Input program. However, due to some low-level changes, it might occur that is some cases not all data is fully compatible.
An example is the calculation result file format in 3D 2013’s release: the input for the model was fully compatible, however, it is no longer possible to visualize the results of PLAXIS 3D projects made 3D 2012 and earlier.
For details, please see the related page PLAXIS 3D 2013 and older Plaxis files.

Sharing of results

Sometimes, you may want to send the PLAXIS data to another party that does not have access to the latest PLAXIS version. In such cases, you can always let the other user use the latest Output program to inspect your files: the Output program (prior to PLAXIS 2D 2015 and PLAXIS 3D AE/2015) can be used as a results viewer without a licence. To do so, you can have the other party install the latest PLAXIS version on their computer, or you enclose the Plaxis Output program called with your results.

• For PLAXIS 2D 2011 and PLAXIS 2D2012, this file is called plaxout.exe
• And for PLAXIS 3D, this is called Plaxis3DOutput.exe

PLAXIS Viewer

For PLAXIS versions starting from PLAXIS 2D 2015 and PLAXIS 3D AE (2015), special free viewers are available. Please see the related article about the Plaxis Viewer - standalone program to view results.

For support of older file versions, please see the related article about Output project compatibility.