I am currently running SolidWorks 2007 and am trying to open some assemblies I created in SolidWorks 2004. The previews of the assemblies look correct but when I open them almost all of the parts lose their appearances (turn grey) and most of the mates go bad. I was wondering if there is something I need to do to these older files before I open them to ensure they work correctly.
Have you tried the Conversion Wizard in the SolidWorks tools? But as Troy said, make a back up copy of your data first and there is no guarantee that it will work. That's a real problem with upgrading the SW. Older files become problematic especially when the model is made by surfacing. In our case, we always end up editing the model.
The Appearances problem can be explained by the various changes to the RealView-PhotoWorks-PhotoView-Textures-Appearances functions over the last few versions.
Other conversion problems seem to be exacerbated by skipping versions. It shouldn't be, but sadly, converting 5 years worth of changes is just asking for problems.
Through the scheduler you can update files to current version. I would make a copy of all files first then run the update. No guarantee that it will work.
I tried to convert using the scheduler as you suggested. It fixed about half of the mates but left all of the parts the grey color. It also inserted parts it previously couldnt find. All in all, it partially solved the problem and I think I will try this on the rest of my assemblies that will not work just to see what it will fix. Thank you for the suggestion.
Sorry I had a typo, I am currently running SolidWorks 2009 not SolidWorks 2007.