Revit error importing RFA from Inventor

September 30, 2024 Shawn Heator

Issue:

Autodesk Inventor has the ability to export building components as .rfa, .ifc, or .adsk to use within Autodesk Revit. After creating a RFA file, using Inventor Export Building Components, a user encounters an error “The file <filename>.rfa was saved in a later version of Revit and cannot be retrieved in this version”.

Causes:

The error occurs because the RFA file was created in a version of Inventor that is newer than the version of Revit. The older version of Revit does not contain a translater for the newer version of RFA used to generate the file from Inventor.

Solution:

Unfortunately, the behavior occurs because both Revit and Inventor lack backwards compatibility. The best option, if possible, is to use the save version (year) for both Inventor and Revit. Alternatively, Revit can open RFA’s from an older version of Inventor because the RFA can be migrated to the newer version.

About the Author

Technical Support Specialist
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Revit error importing RFA from Inventor

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Revit error importing RFA from Inventor

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