Support for DWG 2017/2018 formats

There is currently no plan to make RealDWG2017 support for V8i. In fact there are no major enhancements planned for V8i in general as far as I know. If you need RealDWG2017, you probably should consider moving on to CONNECT edition.

A work around is to convert the dwg to 2015 or low enough for v8i to read, you can download autodesk True view for free  it can open and read latest acad DWG and save  back down to lower versions it can even batch convert.. then you can open the new outputs in v8i...

not all of us a ready to  change over to CE  and this is a viable alternative work flow....although it involves extra work on your part ..

I think that it might be worth of clarifying RealDWG vs DWG file format.

While these two are well related they are not the same thing. DWG file format is about the data content saved in a file, whereas RealDWG is a piece of software that creates and reads such content. Their versions can change (and has changed) independently. That is, a DWG file format version number does not equal to a RealDWG version. For instance, DWG file format version R2013 has stayed the same since year 2012 through year 2017, while RealDWG version has been changed every year during the same period. What that means is that all RealDWG versions from R2013 through R2017 create the same latest DWG file format, R2013. Of course, RealDWG can save DWG as an older version, but the latest version has been R2013 until RealDWG 2018. So, if your only concern is about DWG files saved from V8i vs CONNECT to be compatible with the same version of ACAD (or whatever software that reads the file), you do not need to upgrade RealDWG. Upgrading RealDWG from R2016 to R2017 will not make any difference as far as file format is concerned.

That said, RealDWG version change does have an impact on software features. Object enabler is probably among those mostly impacted. An object enabler compiled with one version of RealDWG (really should be ObjectARX but for the sake of my explanation I choose to equate them here) may not run on another version of it. Since you have not brought up the question of object enabler, I assume that it is not your concern.

RealDWG 2018 does have a DWG file format change. The latest file format created from ACAD/RealDWG 2018 will not be able to open in previous versions of ACAD/RealDWG. Our plan is to upgrade RealDWG to 2018 on CONNECT near the end of the year. Among other things, object enabler compatibility as well as ACAD 2018's popularity are the main considerations why we are not rushing to upgrade RealDWG this time.

I think that it might be worth of clarifying RealDWG vs DWG file format.

While these two are well related they are not the same thing. DWG file format is about the data content saved in a file, whereas RealDWG is a piece of software that creates and reads such content. Their versions can change (and has changed) independently. That is, a DWG file format version number does not equal to a RealDWG version. For instance, DWG file format version R2013 has stayed the same since year 2012 through year 2017, while RealDWG version has been changed every year during the same period. What that means is that all RealDWG versions from R2013 through R2017 create the same latest DWG file format, R2013. Of course, RealDWG can save DWG as an older version, but the latest version has been R2013 until RealDWG 2018. So, if your only concern is about DWG files saved from V8i vs CONNECT to be compatible with the same version of ACAD (or whatever software that reads the file), you do not need to upgrade RealDWG. Upgrading RealDWG from R2016 to R2017 will not make any difference as far as file format is concerned.

That said, RealDWG version change does have an impact on software features. Object enabler is probably among those mostly impacted. An object enabler compiled with one version of RealDWG (really should be ObjectARX but for the sake of my explanation I choose to equate them here) may not run on another version of it. Since you have not brought up the question of object enabler, I assume that it is not your concern.

RealDWG 2018 does have a DWG file format change. The latest file format created from ACAD/RealDWG 2018 will not be able to open in previous versions of ACAD/RealDWG. Our plan is to upgrade RealDWG to 2018 on CONNECT near the end of the year. Among other things, object enabler compatibility as well as ACAD 2018's popularity are the main considerations why we are not rushing to upgrade RealDWG this time.