AutoCAD bear hugs interwebs, Apple iOS

Autodesk has released a web service and an iOS app for viewing, updating, and sharing AutoCAD designs when AutoCAD isn't handy. With the help of a plug-in for the desktop incarnation of AutoCAD, you can upload files to the web service — known as AutoCAD WS — and the files can then be viewed from a browser or, thanks to the …

[JaitcH]

Autocad on a mini-screen?

The Autocad drawings I work with need a large desktop screen. Many are schematics and it is very useful to be able to see both ends of a connection for the drawing to make sense.

Likewise, printed circuit board layouts are best viewed in their entirety. and multi-layer boards again are also better on a large screen.

I wonder what drawings, viewable on a small screen, Autocad has in mind or is this just a novelty App?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm thinking architects on site visits making notes and revisions

likewise structural engineers doing the same, or office planners laying out exactly where the desks are going to go while standing in that space, or road planners checking and amending drawings in the field, or an art gallery director working out just how to hang the pieces in their next show, or the supermarket designer rejigging the fresh veg layout, or the same architects, planners, directors and designers simply presenting their work in its native form without having to go through all the projector/screen/Powerpoint malarkey.

[ColonelClaw]

Cast your memory back

When I first started using Autocad it was running out of Dos on a screen that had a resolution of 800x600. I remember when I moved up to 1024x768 in the mid nineties thinking "wow, so much resolution!". I'm sure it will be absolutely fine on iPhone/iPad/Web Browser, you've just gotten too used to your dual 24" screens by now.

[Bilgepipe]

Yeah...

AutoDesk just called, they say some guy called JaitcH says that no AutoCAD drawings anywhere in the world can be usefully viewed on a small screen, so they are going to scrap the whole idea.

Try and see beyond your own desk.... "your drawings" aren't the only uses for this.

[Tigra 07]

Maybe so, but it's expensive, really expensive

AutoCAD is brilliant but super expensive.

It's so difficult to find a free version that i gave up ages ago, which is a real shame

[Michael C]

If you think that's expensive...

...you really have no idea. I've a friend in MRI research. Some of the 3d modeling applications they use are $50-150K per seat. Some of the physics modeling software is half a million, just to run on a single workstation. Some of the stuff animation and professional video editing studios play with is also in this price range. AutoCAD is a professional suite capable of meeting the extremely complex guidelines of each nation, state or county for building codes, mechanical design rules, and more, and capable of exporting the design file in an array of formats for 3rd party plug-in for 3D rendering, animation, virtual engineering analysis, and more. "expensive" is very relative when the guy sitting at the desk using it costs $100K a year.

In my own data center I don't think there's a single server operating with less than $2500 in licenses on it. The average is over $10K. Some are licensed over $50K (per cluster node). I don't even want to take a guess at the VMWare licensing or DR system licensing total costs.

[The Other Steve]

Stop saying words

"AutoCAD is brilliant but super expensive."

If you can't afford it, you don't need it.

"It's so difficult to find a free version that i gave up ages ago, which is a real shame"

See ? I told you don't need it.

[Tigra 07]

RE: The Other Steve

You're right i don't need it, i did interior design and found drawing the plans by hand and scanning them was just as accurate for me and a whole lot cheaper

I actually get the kudos for making my work look more authentic and can charge more

[cphi]

and direct file transfer??

was looking forward to viewing pipework schematics in the field from iPad. now have to use their upload service - which will be inevitably be blocked by company's firewall - sigh...

[Mips]

Butterfly?

Would that be the one that flaps it's wings in the Amazon and causes tornadoes in Sussex and earthquakes in China?

I am suspicious of everything that Autodesk does.