Can I reference 2 version of same API?

I have a VB.NET app developed in VS2017, that uses the AutoCAD api to do AutoCAD automation. We are starting to migrate users from AutoCAD 2012 to AutoCAD 2017, however this will be done by department over a few months. I need to reference both Autodesk.AutoCAD.Iterop.Common.dll and Autodesk.AutoCAD.Iterop.dll for the currently installed version of AutoCAD. After I have determined which version of AutoCAD the user is running, how can I reference the version specific .dll? Is this possible? Or do I need to deploy 2 separate apps; one for users running 2012 and another for users running 2017?

With Microsoft Office, you used to have to either reference a specific version of the object model or else use late-binding in order to use whatever version was installed. Microsoft have more recently changed things so that you can add a reference at design time but still use whatever version is installed at run time. This was a change that Microsoft made to the Office interop assemblies though, not a change they made to .NET. Your situation would require AutoDesk to have done the same.

Now, keep in mind that I don't actually do any Office Automation so I'm no expert in this field. I'm only going by what I've read so it is possible that I got something wrong. That gives you an avenue to investigate though.