Steve Baldwin wrote:Nick Pyner wrote:If you want the client to look at stuff, Acrobat Reader and/or the o2c plug-in should suffice and both are already free.
I hope the developers of .dwgs viewers for AutoCad files don't start thinking this way.
I would also like to see some sort of free .aec viewer, for those who need/want to view our cad files, as we often do .dwg files.
Funny you should say that. If you really want to send a client a DWG, then they can use Volo Express, or whatever is the current flavour is at Autocrap. This too is a free download, all 25Mb of it, as I recall. It has cloud and text facility. Ironically, the only Volo users I actually know of are all DataCad users, and it has certainly saved the day for me. I believe AutoDesk has some sort of DWF viewer too. DCad exports DWF, but I have never used it.
Personally, I would never insult the client by inflicting CAD files on them. It presupposes they know how DataCad works. Usually, a PDF is all they need, so a PDF is all they get. What PDF doesn't deliver, o2c does.
I have no compunction about sending CAD files to consultants, of course, but they don't need a free viewer, they have AutoCad, or in one case, DCad.