AutoCADderThursday, March 26, 2009
New free viewers for DWG and DWF CAD data
A good book writer (author) has many readers - and similarly a CAD designer (good designer) has many consumers (viewers) for his CAD data.
That's why it is important to have applications capable of reliable viewing of CAD formats. Autodesk has two of them, both of them free, and both were just released in a new "2010" version.
Autodesk DWG TrueView 2010 is a free DWG viewer. It is basically a cut down version of full AutoCAD so you can be sure that it displays, plots, measures and converts your DWG and DXF files exactly the same way as AutoCAD. The downside of this is that the installer is huge - 180MB, and also running TrueView takes quite a lot resources.
If you prefer lightweight applications and lightweight data, you will like Autodesk Design Review 2010. This a viewer for DWF and DWFx design files which can be easily published from any Windows application. And not only a viewer. In Design Review you can print, measure and first of all markup (redline) CAD data. And the markups can be brought back into AutoCAD. Version 2010 introduces ribbons and the ability to open DWG, PDF, DGN and JT files. DWG files are not viewed directly but they are first converted to DWF (in the background, with DWG TrueView). The added support for PDFs is quite surprising but it goes in line with the PDF support added in AutoCAD 2010.
You can download these two new applications from www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueview-download and www.autodesk.com/designreview-download
That's why it is important to have applications capable of reliable viewing of CAD formats. Autodesk has two of them, both of them free, and both were just released in a new "2010" version.
Autodesk DWG TrueView 2010 is a free DWG viewer. It is basically a cut down version of full AutoCAD so you can be sure that it displays, plots, measures and converts your DWG and DXF files exactly the same way as AutoCAD. The downside of this is that the installer is huge - 180MB, and also running TrueView takes quite a lot resources.
If you prefer lightweight applications and lightweight data, you will like Autodesk Design Review 2010. This a viewer for DWF and DWFx design files which can be easily published from any Windows application. And not only a viewer. In Design Review you can print, measure and first of all markup (redline) CAD data. And the markups can be brought back into AutoCAD. Version 2010 introduces ribbons and the ability to open DWG, PDF, DGN and JT files. DWG files are not viewed directly but they are first converted to DWF (in the background, with DWG TrueView). The added support for PDFs is quite surprising but it goes in line with the PDF support added in AutoCAD 2010.
You can download these two new applications from www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueview-download and www.autodesk.com/designreview-download
Labels: AutoCAD 2010, DWF, DWFx, DWG, viewer
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Autodesk DWF tools updated
Autodesk has recently updated all of its free DWF tools.
On the publishing side - for AutoCAD 2008 there is a new DWFx driver allowing to publish DWFx files directly from AutoCAD Plot (ePlot DWFx). XPS-style .dwfx files do not need any viewer to display on Windows Vista computers. I would expect Autodesk includes this in a shipping boxes - but probably the have missed the shipping deadline or the DWFx driver is scheduled to be updated more frequently. For non-Autodesk applications, there is a new DWF Writer 2008 (aka V3.5). All the 2D/3D versions, Solidworks/CATIA plugins etc. are now in a single installation. Unsurprisingly, DWF Writes 2008 also adds support for Windows Vista.
On the viewing/reviewing side there is now a single free application - the new Autodesk Design Review 2008. It has a lot of new functions (see the Beyond the Paper blog), the most important for me is the measuring/redlining of 3D DWF files, DGN support, DWFx support. Autodesk has also rebranded its DWFit web service - the viewerless web viewing of DWF files is now Freewheel (the original name of the development project).
On the publishing side - for AutoCAD 2008 there is a new DWFx driver allowing to publish DWFx files directly from AutoCAD Plot (ePlot DWFx). XPS-style .dwfx files do not need any viewer to display on Windows Vista computers. I would expect Autodesk includes this in a shipping boxes - but probably the have missed the shipping deadline or the DWFx driver is scheduled to be updated more frequently. For non-Autodesk applications, there is a new DWF Writer 2008 (aka V3.5). All the 2D/3D versions, Solidworks/CATIA plugins etc. are now in a single installation. Unsurprisingly, DWF Writes 2008 also adds support for Windows Vista.
On the viewing/reviewing side there is now a single free application - the new Autodesk Design Review 2008. It has a lot of new functions (see the Beyond the Paper blog), the most important for me is the measuring/redlining of 3D DWF files, DGN support, DWFx support. Autodesk has also rebranded its DWFit web service - the viewerless web viewing of DWF files is now Freewheel (the original name of the development project).
Labels: Design Review, DWF, DWFx, Freewheel
