Cadalyst - February 2008 - (Page 23)

cadlabsreview CADSoftTools’ ABViewer is moderately priced from 49€ to 398€, depending upon the version you require, with the standard version being the least expensive. Floating licenses are available and are twice the price of the standalone versions. A trial version of ABViewer and most other Soft Gold products can be downloaded at the company’s Web site. Free Software Sometimes you can get something for nothing. By Ron LaFon MYRIAD 8 Informative Graphics Corpo800.398.7005, 602.971.6061 ration (IGC) develwww.myriadviewer.com ops software for Price: $115–$595 content visualization, secure publishing, and collaboration. Particularly noteworthy is the company’s CSF file format, which is an alternative to PDF for securely sharing content by keeping control of what users can do with that content. CSF incorporates Visual Rights technology, which allows users to apply persistent security controls to grant rights to print, copy, and measure with an option to expire the file after a selected time interval. I evaluated the completely redesigned MYRIAD viewer, which is a multiformat CAD viewer designed for the manufacturing and AEC industries. MYRIAD 8 represents a complete architectural overhaul of the product, featuring improved speed and performance. The new interface is clean, attractive, and easy to use. MYRIAD supports an array of 2D and 3D CAD file formats as well as popular image and document formats, including PDF. You can view, print, mark up, measure, compare, and publish file formats in MYRIAD 8. The viewing features include multiplant cutaways or cross sections, 3D measurement, and interactive explode capabilities. This release also includes updated file-format and version support, enhanced comparison features for comparing two files or versions, I Informative Graphics f your viewing needs and your budget are limited, you might be able to get a free viewer. I’ve listed some currently available options below for your perusal. You won’t find the breadth of file support or depth of features of the capable viewers covered in this roundup review, but you might find alternatives that will meet limited needs. Adobe Reader is a free viewer for PDF files that can be downloaded from Adobe’s Web site at www.adobe.com. Versions 7.07 or later support files generated by Acrobat 3D, enabling sophisticated 3D shading and viewing options. When creating a PDF file using the full version of Acrobat 3D, for example, you can enable the file for mark up and by so doing also enable the free Adobe Reader as a mark-up application on a per-file basis. Autodesk offers a variety of free viewers in addition to its more capable fee-based viewing applications. Find free viewers for Revit Projects, DWF files, and even a free DWG viewer at www.autodesk.com. SolidWorks offers a free version of its eDrawings Viewer that lets you view, print, and review all types of eDrawings files. As a bonus, it is a free viewer for AutoCAD DWG and DXF files as well as for viewing SolidWorks parts, assemblies, and drawings. The base eDrawings Viewer is free, but you can try out or purchase eDrawings Professional, which allows you to create review-enabled eDrawings files that allow an unlimited number of recipients to mark up and provide feedback about product designs. Download the eDrawings Viewer from www.solidworks.com/pages/products/edrawings/eDrawings.html. A version of the viewer is available for the Macintosh. If all else fails, there’s always a Google search. As I’m writing this, a Google search for free CAD viewers turned up 242,000 results for my perusal, so you may well be able to find a simple and free solution for your current needs. MYRIAD Viewer lets you view, rotate, print, measure, compare, mark up, and save to PDF/TIFF/DWF with Visual Rights–protected CSF files. and the ability to fly through 3D models. You can now publish 2D files to PDF, TIFF, DWF, or secure CSF with Visual Rights, and you can publish 3D models to 3D DWF or STL. MYRIAD supports 23 2D CAD formats, including AutoCAD, MicroStation, SolidWorks, Solid Edge, Pro/E, and HPGL. It supports 17 3D CAD formats, including SolidWorks, STL, VRML, Inventor, XGL, 3DS, SAT, IGES, Pro/E, and STEP. Various common graphics file formats are supported, such as TIFF, PNG, JPEG, GIF, CALS, BMP, and EDC. MYRIAD 8 is available with desktop, network, and concurrent licensing and prices ranging from $115 to $595, depending upon the licensing options chosen. A license manager is included with the network version. For additional information about MYRIAD 8, visit www.myriadviewer. com. There you can download a trial version of the software for evaluation and learn more about IGC’s Visual Rights technology. www.cadalyst.com | cadalyst | February 2008 23 http://www.adobe.com http://www.myriadviewer.com http://www.autodesk.com http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/edrawings/eDrawings.html http://www.myriadviewer.com http://www.myriadviewer.com 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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