I did some surfacing in Civil 3D, 2011 and saved the drawing to AtuoCAD 2004. My collegue runs Civil 3D, 2010, she can open the drawing and see everything except the surface data. All she can see is boxes were the contour labels should be but no contours or labels. Also a client who runs AutoCAD had the same issue when I sent them the file. We can open and see all the surface data in a newer version of Civil 3D but not a older version.

Can this issue be resolved without updating my collegues workstation to 2011 or choosing another surfacing program to use so my clients can also see my surfaces in older versions of AutoCAD?

A gentleman on the rpls.com website gave me this response and it works.
You can do a couple of things:
Export an AutoCad file (do not do a saveas) for a previous release from the Big C quick menu, this will export the drawing file as lines and text, but everything will be visible (No civil 3D objects)
Export a Land XML file of the surface, which I think any Civil 3D version can import. (This is probably the best thing to do)
You may also be able to create a data shortcut for them to reference the surface in, but I do not know if that is backwards compatible.
Saving to a previous version of Civil 3D is usually not a good idea.
It depends on what your collegue will be using the information for.

Thank you so much! This problem is the reason that I registered just so I could search for this. Excellent.-Cory

I did some surfacing in Civil 3D, 2011 and saved the drawing to AtuoCAD 2004. My collegue runs Civil..

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