Ubiquitous desktop & mobile access, except maybe on Windows Phone.

Very Handy! Would be even cooler if the properties grid supported hyper-links. I love the ability to view metadata associated with the components, I wish you could control visibility Pros Nevertheless, it has provided a way for many users to view their files on the go, which has been much appreciated. It seems like very little has changed with Design Review Mobile since then, whereas AutoCAD WS has been going from strength to strength. I was excited by the announcement of Autodesk Design Review Mobile being released in September 2011, it came after AutoCAD WS and Project Nitrous, which was to become Autodesk 360 Design Review. As a result Design Reviews’ offspring do actually have a tough act to follow while floating around in the cloud and zipping around on mobile devices. Since the graphics are generally horrid and the measuring tools are diabolical but the markup tools are fantastic, then when you consider the drawings should be fully dimensioned anyway, its measuring inadequacy becomes less of an issue. I have to be honest and say I both respect and loath the Desktop version of Design Review in equal measure. Whereas the DWF file format allows them to provide a read only CAD format with a writeable overlay to comment on and interact with the model and/or drawing. I would bet a lot companies aren’t keen on supplying writeable and crucially usable DWG files to external users, when most companies get shirty about hosting their IP in the Cloud let alone allowing it to be freely edited.

I personally think the Cloud based Design Review concept has a lot more potential than AutoCAD WS for external collaboration. So most Vaults will generally contain literally thousands upon thousands of DWF files.

Design Review Mobile and Autodesk 360 Design Review both use the *.dwf & *.dwfx file types supported by all of Autodesk’s CAD applications and Autodesk Vault is dependant on the DWF format for generating visualisation views and are integral within the ECO review process.

Continuing on from the the previous post, I’m going to highlight Autodesk Design Review’s raison d’être, including the obligatory Pros & Cons, then write a brief conclusion with some of my observations and closing opinions.

Autodesk design review versions