The Mad Cadder

Top 3 free apps from Autodesk that every CAD Manager must have.

As a Application Specialist for SolidCAD (www.solidcad.ca) I deal with CAD Managers from many different firms. It has come to my attention that most CAD managers are so engulfed in maintenance and troubleshooting of the CAD systems, they do not take the time to investigate what applications are out there that can help them coup.

There are 3 free applications from Autodesk that a CAD manager will find very handy and resourceful. Below I have listed the must haves:

1 -DWG TrueView

For those employs that want to view and plot only and not make any changes, Autodesk offers a free DWG viewer called DWG TrueView .

2 - Autodesk Design Review

To reduce paper markups, this innovative tool from Autodesk allows a user to import a DWG or DWF, redline the drawing and then produce a DWF file that can imported into any Autodesk software like AutoCAD. The Autodesk Design Review is the old Volo View or DWF Viewer.

3 - DWG TrueConvert

Because there are many firms out there that are still running R14 or 2000 format of AutoCAD, Autodesk has created a DWG batch converter called DWG TrueConvert. This smart little app can be used to determine the current version of any DWG or convert any DWG to previous versions.

Name changes and future decisions.

Autodesk has finally decided to go with a proper naming convention for the software products that are directly marketed to Architects, Building Mechanical Engineers, Building Electrical Engineers, Building Structural Engineers, Interior Designers,etc....  These types of industries are commonly known as the AEC (Architectural, Engineering, Construction) segment.

All the new product names are of version 2008. The list below decibels the old and new name of the product as of March 2007:

2007 Name                                                          2008 Name

AutoCAD 2007                                                    AutoCAD 2008

Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2007                  AutoCAD Architecture 2008

Autodesk Building Systems 2007                         AutoCAD MEP 2008

Revit Building 9.1                                              Revit Architecture 2008

Revit Structure 4                                               Revit Structure 2008

Revit Systems 2                                                Revit MEP 2008

As you can see by the naming convention above, Autodesk has now made a big distinction between the AutoCAD and Revit based products.

If you would like to stick to the norm, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP have a common look and feel as in the past, but now they are clearly marked as AutoCAD based applications.

If you are willing to make the bold and smart step to BIM (Building Information Modelling), your best bet is to use one or all of the Revit based applications.

In the end it's your decision on what your firm will use in the future. Just keep in mind that AutoCAD is 25 years old this year.

Happy B-DAY ACAD!