The educational versions are released a little bit after the normal version (i'm not sure on the exact time period).
![open future solidworks with serivce pack 2014 open future solidworks with serivce pack 2014](https://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/2014/ENU/SimCFD/images/GUID-662AC85F-5849-48AB-A0A4-19C8FF67A5EB.png)
SW2012/2013 is SW2012, meaning you can't open SW2013 files in it. The university versions are functionally equivalent to the first year stated, i.e. To clarify about the Educational releases, they are marketed as SW2012/2013 and SW2013/2014, etc.
![open future solidworks with serivce pack 2014 open future solidworks with serivce pack 2014](https://www.solidsmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/solidworks-mechanical-conceptual-sww14-solidsmack-370x305.jpg)
#Open future solidworks with serivce pack 2014 upgrade#
As of SW2012, you can now also open an SW2013 part in SW2012 SP5 (the last release), since they upgrade the kernel for it, although it is still essentially a dumb solid like an IGES file. You should definitely be able to open a file created in SW2012 SP5 in SW2012 SP0, or SP1, etc. Once the 5th service pack is out, any outstanding bugs are unlikely to be fixed in that release. In recent years there have been 5 service packs per version, with the 5th released around the same time SP1 is released for the newer version. A few months later, SP1 is released, generally to fix bugs, but sometimes also to add new functions. The initial version for example, is SW2014 SP0. Service Packs are released throughout the year. Each version updates the Parasolid kernal (licensed from Siemens), which is essentially the 3D engine behind SolidWorks, and this is the (main) reason why you cannot open a model created in SW2014 in SW2013 (not 100% true since 2012, but I'll ignore it for now).
![open future solidworks with serivce pack 2014 open future solidworks with serivce pack 2014](https://www.cati.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/SOLIDWORKS-1491502940487-2.jpg)
Technically 2014 is version 22, SW2013 was v21, etc. SolidWorks releases a new version every year, i.e. You can't open a 2014 file in 2013, but you can open a part from SW2013 SP5 in SW2013 SP1 SW2013, SW2014), Service Packs are released throughout the year to fix bugs for that version. I think you may be confused between versions/releases and service packs (SP's)