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Is Design Review discontinued?

326 REPLIES 326
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Message 1 of 327
FT398
32079 Views, 326 Replies

Is Design Review discontinued?

So all the 2014 products are out now but Design Review 2014 is conspicuous in its absence. It isn't available for download (still only 2013 available) and it hasn't been included in any of the other product installers where it always has been in the past.

 

Have I missed something or is this the end of the road?

326 REPLIES 326
Message 101 of 327
dvsmiller9
in reply to: scott.sheppard

So I assume that future on-premise Vault versions will continue to use DWF and Design Review 2013?  I'm just getting users used to DWF with the markup and 3D viewing capabilities integrated into the ECO process.  I would really not appreciate having to change course any time soon.  We also have no plans to use Vault PLM 360.  We have enough issues with Internet access.

 

At least I won't have to worry about migrating Design Review every year on every client system in the company.

 

If Design Review is eventually retired and not supported please have a suitable replacement integrated as part of Vault.

Message 102 of 327
bryanmeier
in reply to: dvsmiller9

I could not agree more. We have no intentions to going to the cloud. We have well over 80 locations with intermittent network issues throughout every day. Our business will not rely on this type of technology. On premise will be the only form of technology for us other than Email in the cloud.

Message 103 of 327

So Autodesk is forcing everyone to 360?  How will that apply to multi national organizations that operate in countries where there are restrictions of internet use?

Not having a desktop only solution will also hurt small machine shops that couldnot afford to opperate if they have to either have a full verison of the CAD programs or subscribe to a web service to get drawings.  Many machine shops that we deal with have email and rely on either PDF or as we finally convinced them was better DWF. Now we are going to have to backtrack on that?

 

Disapointing at best.

Message 104 of 327
pendean
in reply to: toddw.schuler

forcing? very dramatic: read what this topic has posted, it's a long term transition. It's still early in the process.
How old are you? I only ask because I've heard the same when the following were in their infancy too: fax machines, BBS boards, Newsreaders, Internet, AOL/Compuserve, Amazon.com, death of betamax, start of VHS, video "disks"(the 12" ones, both versions), "portable" phones, email, sharing cad files. To names a few things.

Time validates new solutions, not much else.
Message 105 of 327
patxi_autodesk
in reply to: pendean

This is exactly what I don't want. Ok, change all, put Autocad on internet as Design Review. You will see how many people start to use briscad.... The same has happened with these technologies. And some companies closed for this reason. 

 

This product is relatively new. Our development is growing based on it, and because DR it's not a finished product (many internal errors) . We don't need to put all this effort in trash and start AGAIN.

Message 106 of 327
pendean
in reply to: FT398

Software come and go.
Trends come and go.
All companies must innovate and try new things: if not we'd all still be using DOS and delivering files to one another by courier (or USPS) on gloppy disks 🙂
Let's revisit this topic in 5-years then again in 10-years: we will either laugh our heads off or point to it as an prophecy.
Message 107 of 327
toddw.schuler
in reply to: pendean

I remember AutoCAD 13 as I am sure many at Autodesk do too.  And Vista? Didn't take long to fix that mistake either. Now we have Windows 8.

 

Innovations is great, it is what companies must do to survive, but innovation must have value to the customer and not pin them in a corner.  I have been through this bad innovations thing before and we no longer use that companies software.

 

360 and the cloud have their place, I have tried to figure out how we could use it in our business, and have yet to find any benefit. Design Review does work and does work well for what we need. It provides a publish tool for Vault and viewer for the hundreds of users who consume drawing information but do not have CAD on their machines.  For one that saves us thousands in fees and provides a single viewer that my users can use.  Some of those users are not permitted to go on-line.  We also deal with many small machine shops that don't see the need to have anything more than email, it is an added expense for them to have full internet service and then a 360 account on top of that?  They will either raise the cost to us or stop doing business with us.

 

Innovation or another AutoCAD 13?  Time will tell.

 

Message 108 of 327
pendean
in reply to: toddw.schuler

Remeber when very few had fax machines? 'small shops' were threatened then according to many.
Remember when computers were becoming 'business tools'? 'small shops' were threatened as well.

Remember when very few had email? 'small shops' were threatened then too.

'small shops' do whatever it takes to keep businesss, just like the rest of us manage it too. Everyone catches up. Let's not pretend no one catches up, everyone does eventually. Prices will go up too: unless you are one that shuns pay raises to offset cost of living increases and increased benefits over the years.

You seem to have missed a critical discussion in this thread: ADR is still available as a download and is not going anywhere, they are just giving up the pretention that it changes from year to year since there is nothing new to add. Don't be fooled by the 2013 naming convention, the product hasn't changed since DWFx was introduced many years ago.

Message 109 of 327
Metron4
in reply to: pendean

I work for an American federal national laboratory. Two years ago I convinced our utility division to use the Design Review process. They love it as it saves back and forth trips between designers, drafters, and technicians, and also a ton of money and paper by printing less. Does Autodesk plan to implement a national security plan for its servers that will convince Uncle Sam they can safely use the cloud? SIPRNET is waiting to hear back.

Message 110 of 327
olivier.eckmann
in reply to: Metron4

Hi,

 

I've read this topic with interest. Sorry for my english, it's not my native langage.

I understand that there is nothing new to add so there is no new version of ADR.

But ADR 2013 has a big bug for me, because relative hyperlink doesn't work (french version of ADR, I haven't tested in US version). A dot is added to the link so file path is corrupted and file couldn't be found.

If there is nothing new to add to the product, is it possible to have a new version which can use relative hyperlink?

Actualy, I use and deploy ADR 2012 which works fine for me, and I'm a very fun of this product, but if we could have the lastest version without bug, it would be perfect.

 

I've a question from my users/custumers who would like to have this viewer on tablet : offline mode AND hyperlink (and markup). I've tried 360 Mobile but I haven't found how to activate hyperlink (and markup)?

 

Thanks 

 

Olivier

Message 111 of 327
scott.sheppard
in reply to: Metron4

@Metron4:

 

Our latest information is available on:

 

http://www.autodesk.com/trust/security

 

Until you and the government are comfortable with a cloud-based solution in terms of security and functionality (e.g., electronic markup), you can continue to use Autodesk Design Review 2013 which remains available for download.



Scott Sheppard
Program Manager
Autodesk Labs
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 112 of 327

@olivier.eckam:

 

Whereas the DWF format is not dead, we have no plans for further updates of Autodesk Design Review (ADR). Instead we are investing resources on a cloud solution that will allow the sharing of models without sharing the source (e.g. DWG, RVT). This solution will include collaboration capabilities (e.g. markup) because that is one of the strengths of the cloud. We are strongly investing in DWF as our work involves loading bigger DWF files than ADR can and making them available to the workflow of the cloud solutions like Autodesk 360, Fusion 360, and AutoCAD WS. These efforts are part of our roadmap for which we do not share specific dates publicly.

 

So stick with Autodesk Design Review 2012 until the cloud solution meets your specific needs.



Scott Sheppard
Program Manager
Autodesk Labs
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 113 of 327
peteh
in reply to: scott.sheppard

Scott,

 

Does your explanation mean that eventually dwf files produced by AutoCAD and Inventor are going to be so large that Design Review will no longer be able to open them?

Message 114 of 327

Hi Scott,

 

Thanks for your answer, I will continue with ADR2012 until I can install it (perhaps problem with new WIndows?).

For my question on tablet, is it possible to visualize DWF(x) and keep Hyperlinks available on Android or iOS?

 

Thanks

 

Olivier

Message 115 of 327
bryanmeier
in reply to: scott.sheppard

Scott, I realize that most industries are going to cloud services and my company uses some cloud services. The mission critical pieces of our business will not be going to the cloud and we consider all CAD products missions critical to our company. We have 100+ locations just in the US and if every one of them has to rely on having a internet connection to do mission critical business it's likely not going to happen for us. It makes perfect sense for small shops and companies that have outside sales people.

 

In our opinion forcing the large companies to go to a cloud service platform is just bad business and not knowing what your customers really need. Our company spends well over 100k a year just on subscriptions for Autodesk products but after what we seen at Autodesk University this year, we are looking at other products to move to outside the Autodesk company like SolidWorks.

 

Deisgn Review is something that we were looking at using but it doesn't have some of the features others have.That leads me to the fact that Autodesk has stopped developing Design Review because there are no new features to add? I know Autodesk customers would completely disagree with that. The fact is that Autodesk is using this as a way to push it's customers into cloud services, which we all know Autodesk is betting their future on.

 

In my opinion it's just a bad business.

Message 116 of 327
pendean
in reply to: FT398

The Cloud 'ship' has left the harbor and sailing, it's too late to turn it back now.
When it reaches maturity/is fully developed, your businesses and clients will move to it like we all have done in the last 15-20 years.

Saying today that you will never do so tomorrow is going to appear to be 'disturbing' when the time is right and you look back at your statement.

It is happening, and your company will follow when it's time to do so. We all will.
Message 117 of 327
scott.sheppard
in reply to: bryanmeier

@brianmeyer:

We have not stopped developing Autodesk Design Review to force people to the cloud. That is why we continue to make Autodesk Design Review available for download. We believe there are more effective ways to provide design collaboration. More and more of our customers want to access design data via iPhones, Androids, Mac, and assorted tablet devices. Autodesk Design Review does not run on these devices. As projects grow in size and complexity, so do the files associated with them. Many of our customers already notice that it is easier to leave the data in one place and have team members work on it than copying and sending the files around. This approach also provides one source of truth to ensure that everyone is on the same page. There is more to design projects than creation and review. Using a cloud-based solution allows all aspects of a project to be treated in a similar fashion under one umbrella. Customers need "the Facebook of Design Projects" so that all activities are reported in a consistent fashion across a wide variety of devices.



Scott Sheppard
Program Manager
Autodesk Labs
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 118 of 327
scott.sheppard
in reply to: peteh

@peteh:

 

As projects grow in size and complexity, so do the files associated with them. We are already working with customers who create DWF files that are so large that Autodesk Design Review cannot open them. We are using these DWF files as test cases to improve our cloud service. We have the luxury of running our cloud services on beefy servers with fast CPUs, GPUs, and lots of memory.

 

For users who wish to remain using Autodesk Design Review, one of the advantages of DWF is that the user controls what gets published. So for these customers that we are working with, they have published a set of DWF files, smaller in size, that Autodesk Design Review can consume. My guess is that they have set up some sort of automated publishing process to generate the set of DWF files and use some naming convention so the team knows who has which versions of which files.



Scott Sheppard
Program Manager
Autodesk Labs
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 119 of 327

It would be great to have an honest discussion on the negative side of using only the Cloud before we all have to make that move. An opportunity to express our concerns and air out the issues we currently see with moving to the cloud. For some the cloud currently does not make sense and if it creates additional cost to the business, it will be a tough sell for some.


Todd S.
Design and Drafting Supervisor
Energizer Battery Manufacturing


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Message 120 of 327
dvsmiller9
in reply to: toddw.schuler

@Metron4:  Completely agree.  We are an Aerospace and Defense company and are very sensitive to company data privacy concerns and must meet various DOD and State department rules.  We will not put business critical and proprietary data on the cloud for the foreseeable future.  This includes CAD data and other documents currently managed by our Vault system.

 

Cost is another issue.  Depending on the application, for the same number of concurrent licenses (as few as 5) monthly subscription costs outstrip that of current annual client license subscriptions.  Including the initial client purchase and server costs doesn't even things out either.  In house expertise already exists for IT support of other business units so the additional fractional manpower to support our CAD IT needs is minimal. For our money, the new monthly leases are sutiable for very temporary use only.

 

@scott:  Back to my original post about development.  If Design Review can't handle some customers' DWF files due to filesize then it's obvious that a solution needs to be found.  There is also the matter of no direct Vault client integration (in Design Review app itself, not the embedded viewer in the Vault client) for an app that is meant to edit and consume a filetype that is so integral to the Vault.  Kudos to Autodesk for having the vision to support and innovate for the mobile community but let's not abandon the current user base of on-premise installations by stopping development on Design Review. Perhaps scrapping Design Review and offering a more capable on-premise replacement is in order as well as expanding your mobile offerings?

 

@pendean:  So true about embracing change, but remember when everybody thought that PCs would make mainframes and thin clients obsolete?  Well we still have mainframes and thin clients as well as PCs, blade servers, etc., many of these systems running the cloud.  The 'cloud' movement is just about more options to access data.  It doesn't neccessitate abandoning established methods.  Customers have different requirements and therefore need different options. 

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