Save As Previous

You can save a MAX scene to a previous version; in particular, to 3ds Max 2010 or 2011 format. To do so, use the Save As Type drop-down list.

3ds Max 2010 and 2011 options on Save As Type drop-down list

This option applies to the following commands:

ImportantSave As Previous behaves like Save Copy As: It does not change the scene you are actively working on, which remains the scene in Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 format. Save and Save As using the Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 version do not overwrite the previous version of the file, unless you specify the same file name for both scenes.

When you open a 3ds Max 2010 or 2011 file in Autodesk 3ds Max 2012, the scene is automatically converted to Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 format. In this case, using Save will overwrite the original scene.

You can see the version under which a scene was saved by choosing Application menu Properties File Properties File Properties dialog Contents tab.

Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 scenes appear as “Saved As Version: 14.00”. 3ds Max 2010 scenes appear as “Saved As Version: 12.00” and 3ds Max 2011 scenes appear as "Saved As Version: 13.00."

Features new to Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 are not supported in earlier versions. If you use an earlier version to view a scene saved from Autodesk 3ds Max 2012, you might see warning messages related to the unsupported features.

Notes and Tips:

ContainersA 3ds Max 2010 scene can inherit a container only if you save the container (the MAXC file) in 2010 format. See Container Save As.
File Link to FBXIn the 3ds Max 2010 scene, the FBX geometry is visible only if you first bind the geometry (File Link Manager Dialog Files panel Bind button) in Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 before saving the file to 3ds Max 2010 format. Binding the FBX geometry breaks the live File Link connection, which 3ds Max 2010 does not support.
XRef Scene and XRef ObjectsIf the Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 scene XRefs another Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 scene, or objects within a Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 scene, in an earlier version the XRefs to newer-version scenes are reported as missing files. You can fix this by saving the XRefed files to the earlier format as well.