slide21 Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 I work for a company who sometimes have to look at plans from architects etc, at present we only look at them in printed form but wish to have the ability to have them sent online. We therefore require some kind of CAD software simply for read-only usage. Can anyone suggest the most appropriate thing for this? A download or software purchase perhaps? I know nothing about CAD and have never used it personally so any help would be great! Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 Would PDF be enough? There are numerous free PDF viewers out there, and they function pretty much like their printed brothers. The most common are adobe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lpseifert Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 Trueview might work for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slide21 Posted July 14, 2008 Author Share Posted July 14, 2008 Can you open files just in PDF form using adobe or do you need to change the file type first? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryG Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 We have ADOBE Prof. 2008 and it will not open .dwg files without first converting to pdf from autocad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cganiere Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 Just download Autocad and when it asks for licensing information stick with DEMO mode. Or use one of their other "free" solutions. http://www.autodesk.com I work for a company who sometimes have to look at plans from architects etc, at present we only look at them in printed form but wish to have the ability to have them sent online. We therefore require some kind of CAD software simply for read-only usage. Can anyone suggest the most appropriate thing for this? A download or software purchase perhaps? I know nothing about CAD and have never used it personally so any help would be great! Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strix Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 We have ADOBE Prof. 2008 and it will not open .dwg fileswithout first converting to pdf from autocad. You ask the company who provide the drawing to send you the PDF - and if they don't know how to do that, you tell them to PLOT to PDF instead of their plotter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daft vader Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 well before we had autocad we all ways used the free dwg viewer from autocad try this link http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=6703438%26siteID=123112 or this link if they send in dwf http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=452932&id=6475302 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 You ask the company who provide the drawing to send you the PDF - and if they don't know how to do that, you tell them to PLOT to PDF instead of their plotter yep, just as simple as plotting to paper. And there are numerous free PDF plotters out there as well - you can read some more on our FAQ about PDF plotting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slide21 Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 Thanks for all your help! I downloaded the DWG trueview 2009 software, but for some reason when I now open DWG files in it, they just come up blank. Any ideas why this is happening?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strix Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 you are zoomed out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slide21 Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 I wasn't zoomed out, but I realised after I had downloaded the DWG viewer when in fact the file was a DWF file, I am currently downloading the DWF viewer instead, can you tell me what sort of files CAD documents usually are then? Shouldnt I be able to view all on this software? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 For an explanation of what a DWF file is and why you might want to use it click here: http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/autocadtips/AutoCAD_tips_create_DWF.html .DWG files are actual AutoCAD drawing files. They can be altered. If you need a program capable of viewing many different types of CAD files, Microsoft files, graphic files then try Myriad. Warning: it's gonna cost you though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slide21 Posted October 30, 2008 Author Share Posted October 30, 2008 Can anyone tell me if it possible to print from the free trueview CAD software? As in full size A1 prints? Is there a specific printer you would need this or would any large format printer be acceptable? Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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