In the two years since Cadalyst last did a viewer roundup, a number of changes have occurred in the industry itself. Obviously, DWG files are not the only ones whose formats changed over time, so sometimes it's remarkable that viewers work as well as they do with the number of file formats they support. Because you may need to work with DWG files that go back a number of years, you'll want to be sure that your chosen viewer supports them. Note the number of changes that have taken place in the DWG format over the years. With the continued evolution of major design applications, file formats also evolve, making them somewhat of a moving target. I was impressed with the viewers and their ability to accurately view a wide range of file formats. I ended up trying a variety of file formats with each of the nine viewers that Cadalyst received for evaluation. Not all the viewers supported both file formats, although all did support some form or another of AutoCAD DWG files. With InnoCielo View, you can view, zoom, compare, and print more than 200 file formats without needing the native application on your workstation.įor 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. 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.

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. No one viewer fits all needs or budgets, so it's necessary to find one that is appropriate for you.Īmong the first questions you should ask when choosing a viewer is whether it supports the file types you most commonly use. To this mix, add visualization files, high-resolution graphics, word processing documents, and spreadsheets, and the situation can become daunting. 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. But what your specific needs are in these software programs can vary widely. Whatever your specific needs, a drawing viewer of some sort is almost essential. In either case, you won't want to start the originating applications and open each file to see exactly what it is.ĭWGSee DWG Viewer Pro supports DWG-to-image (JPG, TIFF, GIF), DWG-to-PDF conversion, and advanced mark up with the ability to publish mark ups in PDF or image format. 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. This review article looks at the latest versions of currently available 2D and 3D viewers. 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.

Viewing design files created with a CAD application is something that everyone who works with CAD must do at one time or another. More than Meets the Eye (Cadalyst Labs Review) 31 Jan, 2008 By: Ron LaFon Cadalyst compares and contrasts eight of today's CAD viewer solutions.

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