Viewing autocad files

[Mahdi Ghiasi]

Hi,

I'm going to buy a Surface 2 for my father; his work is mostly on Microsoft Office and the internet. That's why I think Surface 2 is a great device for him. However, he sometimes need to view some AutoCAD files (just viewing, not editing or creating). Actually, it rarely happens, but it would be nice to have the option of viewing those files.
I just want to know if there's any RT application that can open those files? If not, is there any other solution? Any web applications? Running a viewer app on x86 emulator on a jailbroken RT (Does that emulator run such apps?)? Any other idea?

Regards,
Mahdi

 

[dwigfor]

Autodesk has FBX Review, but I didn't think it ran on RT, only full Windows 8. It supports .fbx, .3ds, .obj, .dxf, .dae, .bvh, .htr, .trc, .asf, .amc, .c3d, .aoa, .mcd. Maybe .dxf?

 

[dwigfor]

Try this: https://www.autocad360.com/products/web/

 

[v0lum3]

Seems this might be a solution, tho its pricy!

Back to the Drawing Board app for Windows in the Windows Store

 

[Mahdi Ghiasi]

Seems this might be a solution, tho its pricy!

Back to the Drawing Board app for Windows in the Windows Store

Seems that it can open DXF files (but not DWG), Anyway, it's too expensive

Try this: https://www.autocad360.com/products/web/

Well, users of this service can upload their DWG/DXF files to that website and view/edit them, Right?

 

[jMawl]

Seems that it can open DXF files (but not DWG), Anyway, it's too expensive



Well, users of this service can upload their DWG/DXF files to that website and view/edit them, Right?

I just was looking into this today. I signed up for the 360 login and the portal (360.autodesk.com) works fine. Unfortunately when you try to open/edit the dwg files it looks like it requires a java plugin or something, which will not work. Although this was also giving me trouble on my full laptop computer today with Windows 8.1 Pro so maybe it is an IE11 problem.

 

[Aenil]

Try AutocadWS website, is the previous version of Autocad360.

 

[jMawl]

Try AutocadWS website, is the previous version of Autocad360.

That just sends me to the 360 site

 

[Christian Kallevig]

Really Surface 2 isn't the device for AutoCAD anyway. Although it would certainly be cool if you could do it, I suppose

 

[Mahdi Ghiasi]

I just was looking into this today. I signed up for the 360 login and the portal (360.autodesk.com) works fine. Unfortunately when you try to open/edit the dwg files it looks like it requires a java plugin or something, which will not work. Although this was also giving me trouble on my full laptop computer today with Windows 8.1 Pro so maybe it is an IE11 problem.

You mean, that problem appears on both IE11 Metro and IE11 Desktop?

 

[martinmc78]

The only way to do it is via remote desktop and teamviewer is probably the best option. Autodesk seem to have shunned any development for ARM tablets and are firmly in the Apple camp. I can remote revit, autocad and navis files from both my home machine and the one here at work which is very handy for meetings.

But if he is only viewing the drawings wouldn't it be easier to receive them as pdf's?

 

[Mahdi Ghiasi]

I've found two open source autocad viewers which are written in VB.NET and C# :
VBDwgImageExtractor - CodeProject
DXF Import .NET: Read and View AutoCAD Format Files - CodeProject

AFAIK, Jailbroken RTs can run .net 4.x apps unmodified. If so, it might be possible to recompile those apps as .net 4.x apps and try to run them in RT. But, RT 8.1 jailbreak has not been released yet. maybe I'll try this in the future.

 

[Aenil]

That just sends me to the 360 site

try compatibility mode, then when you try to addess the web app ask if you want use "old" autocadWS, anyway autocad360 still in beta, when is complete probally it works fine. (sorry for my english..)

 

[N_LaRUE]

I agree with martinmc78. Why not have PDFs sent to your father for viewing if he's not doing anything with them? It's been common practice to send PDFs to those without AutoCAD for as long as I can remember. PDF output is fairly easy.

 

[nasellok]

two words - REMOTE DESKTOP (or teamviewer)..............This is the reason im not going to get the Surface Pro - I need a hefty GPU to do work, so now, just keeping my surface RT for remote access to my desktop computer at home that runs all of my legacy software. If theres no internet, kinda out of luck though, at least until AutoCAD releases 360 for Windows store, which will invevitibly happen, probably not for a while though. The webapp worked with Windows 8, not sure about 8.1.........seems that MS needs to optimize a lot of things for IE11 - Citrix doesn't work on 8.1, used to work on 8.........now I just have a black screen browser when I try to log in, the good news, is that teamviewer works great.

 

[jMawl]

try compatibility mode, then when you try to addess the web app ask if you want use "old" autocadWS, anyway autocad360 still in beta, when is complete probally it works fine. (sorry for my english..)

Thanks, Aenil...no problem on the English. In general, Remote Desktop is probably the way to go for me, too. I wouldn't do much "work" on my AutoCAD files on the Surface 2, and my other software is even more taxing (ANSYS, SolidWorks, etc.). My reason to want Autodesk support is more on the Creativity side with Sketchbook Pro and the like. Unfortunately as martinmc wrote, Autodesk seems to have shunned ARM development.

 

[Daniel Gandolfo]

Try Remote Desktop Connection which works very well in WIn 8.1 on the Surface/Surface 2. Using this you'll have to have Autocad running on a remote computer. In this way you will be able to actually run Autocad on the Surface 2!!

 

[vmdcad]

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