The ability to serve CAD drawings to web browsers without the use of special viewing software has become the latest technology quest for CAD vendors, right up there with supporting Google Earth. We have reported recently on AfterCAD InSite (here and here), which uses Ajax technology, and eDrawings for Google SketchUp. Now comes Project Freewheel, an Autodesk Labs test site, which delivers CAD drawings, saved as DWF files, to the web.
As with the other web-based viewers, Freewheel allows open access to CAD drawings without the need to install a special viewer. The current test version only works with 2D data. But since 2D still represents 90% of AEC CAD data, that’s not such a hardship for most people who want to view drawings on a standard web browser. Currently, among this new batch of viewers, only eDrawings for Google SketchUp displays 3D content.
The availability of this viewer puts some interesting new twists on the DWF versus PDF debate for CAD users. Designers who publish to the DWF format can now share drawings with anyone computer literate enough to run a web browser. The size difference between a CAD drawing converted to DWF and one converted to PDF is significant; for all but the smallest drawings and the highest bandwidth, drawings as DWF’s will load much faster. (click to read full article)
--RSN