CAD read only software

[slide21]

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

[Tiger]

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.

[lpseifert]

Trueview might work for you.

[slide21]

Can you open files just in PDF form using adobe or do you need to change the file type first?

thanks

[JerryG]

We have ADOBE Prof. 2008 and it will not open .dwg files
without first converting to pdf from autocad.

[cganiere]

Just download Autocad and when it asks for licensing information stick with DEMO mode. Or use one of their other "free" solutions. 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

[Strix]

We have ADOBE Prof. 2008 and it will not open .dwg files
without 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

[daft vader]

well before we had autocad we all ways used the free dwg viewer from autocad try this link http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...6siteID=123112 or this link if they send in dwf http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servl...932&id=6475302

[Tiger]

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.

[slide21]

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??