Cadalyst - February 2008 - (Page 18)

cadlabsreview By Ron LaFon iewing design files created with a CAD application is something that everyone who works with CAD must do at one time or another. It could be to show a model to a client or to keep coworkers informed about design changes, but having a viewer that can quickly go through design files without having to fire up the originating CAD software is a widespread need for efficient operations. This review article looks at the latest versions of currently available 2D and 3D viewers. You might only need to look at a simple set of design files to determine the one you need, or you might be deluged with a huge number of files in various formats that you must communicate with your team. In either case, you won’t want to start the originating applications and open each file to see exactly what it is. 18 February 2008 | cadalyst | www.cadalyst.com V Whatever your specific needs, a drawing viewer of some sort is almost essential. But what your specific needs are in these software programs can vary widely. For example, a small CAD firm that only uses AutoCAD won’t have the same viewer needs as a large design house that might also use SolidWorks, Inventor, CATIA, and AutoCAD. To this mix, add visualization files, high-resolution graphics, word processing documents, and spreadsheets, and the situation can become daunting. No one viewer fits all needs or budgets, so it’s necessary to find one that is appropriate for you. Among the first questions you should ask when choosing a viewer is whether it supports the file types you most commonly use. Is your work entirely 2D or is some of it 3D? Then there’s the question of what you need to do with the drawing files. Do you need just a simple viewer or do you need to control layers, view attributes, or view cross sections? Do you need to do mark up and redlining? Are you working alone or do you need an enterprisewide viewer? Will the viewer allow for easy navigation among both files and directory structure? Is the cost of the software compared with the feature set within your budgetary restraints? Obviously, a lot of questions need to be answered, but fortunately you can choose from a wide array of capable applications, making it much easier to find a good fit for your needs. What We Requested For this roundup review, Cadalyst requested 2D and 3D file viewers from several vendors with the intention of testing the submitted viewers with both AutoCAD and SolidWorks test files. Not all the viewers supported both file formats, although all did support some form or another of Auto- http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - February 2008

Cadalyst - February 2008 Contents Editor's Window CAD Central Tech Trends More than Meets the Eye — A Look at Today's CAD Viewers IronCAD v10 — 3D Modeling Software AcceliArch with AcceliCAD — Add-In Architectural Drawing and Modeling Software CAD Manager MCAD Modeling AEC Insight CAD Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry

Cadalyst - February 2008

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