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Volo View vs. Composer

6 REPLIES 6
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Message 1 of 7
Anonymous
263 Views, 6 Replies

Volo View vs. Composer

About 2 years ago, my boss moved across state and we started using Volo View for markups and to allow him to print small sized drawings. It was a great solution for our situation and everything has run smoothly (actually much more so than I expected!). Anyway, we recently purchased a license of Composer for each of us. While I only use it to view his markups, he uses much more of the features. After working with it for a project, he said he was disappointed in it compared to Volo View. First off, the lack of a print preview is a big issue. Often he needs to print just an area of a drawing and preview is essential to him. Also, we really liked the system of dwf and rml files. It was easy to determine that rml's were markups from him and dwf's from me. Having only the dwf requires saving as different names if we'd like to keep the "unmarked" dwf (which we always do). In addition, composer has a minimum font size of 8pt, while VV allowed you to go all the way down to 1pt. Also, no ability in Composer to do a cloud without a leader? And the extra text tools in VV are nice, especially the "push pin" note tool. We use this to distinguish notes to the drafter vs. notes to go on the drawing. After that one project he uninstalled Composer and went back to VV3. We will likely stick with VV until these features are restored. Are any of these I mentioned hidden in Composer? Anyone else who's used VV extensively agree with his assessment? I find it a bit disappointing to get a new version of software to find it is missing things you've come to rely on in previous software (yes, I realize that Compser is not a VV upgrade and is in a sense a new product, but if it's expected to replace VV, it needs some work.)
6 REPLIES 6
Message 2 of 7
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I have forwarded your constructive feedback to the guys in development and hope to have some answers for you soon. HTH VJoseph "Phil Clark" wrote in message news:410830ad_1@newsprd01... > About 2 years ago, my boss moved across state and we started using Volo View > for markups and to allow him to print small sized drawings. It was a great > solution for our situation and everything has run smoothly (actually much > more so than I expected!). Anyway, we recently purchased a license of > Composer for each of us. > > While I only use it to view his markups, he uses much more of the features. > After working with it for a project, he said he was disappointed in it > compared to Volo View. First off, the lack of a print preview is a big > issue. Often he needs to print just an area of a drawing and preview is > essential to him. Also, we really liked the system of dwf and rml files. > It was easy to determine that rml's were markups from him and dwf's from me. > Having only the dwf requires saving as different names if we'd like to keep > the "unmarked" dwf (which we always do). In addition, composer has a > minimum font size of 8pt, while VV allowed you to go all the way down to > 1pt. Also, no ability in Composer to do a cloud without a leader? And the > extra text tools in VV are nice, especially the "push pin" note tool. We > use this to distinguish notes to the drafter vs. notes to go on the drawing. > > After that one project he uninstalled Composer and went back to VV3. We > will likely stick with VV until these features are restored. > > Are any of these I mentioned hidden in Composer? Anyone else who's used VV > extensively agree with his assessment? I find it a bit disappointing to get > a new version of software to find it is missing things you've come to rely > on in previous software (yes, I realize that Compser is not a VV upgrade and > is in a sense a new product, but if it's expected to replace VV, it needs > some work.) > >
Message 3 of 7
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Well, i was just wondering about the differences and benefits of each. We're looking for a new markup tool. the volo view express is outdated and does not support the newer dwf formats etc. I was just wondering what product would be better. (VV or DWFC) It seems a bit confusing to have the two products when it would seem more natural to merge the feature set of each into one product. Thanks for the comments. "Phil Clark" wrote in message news:410830ad_1@newsprd01... > About 2 years ago, my boss moved across state and we started using Volo View > for markups and to allow him to print small sized drawings. It was a great > solution for our situation and everything has run smoothly (actually much > more so than I expected!). Anyway, we recently purchased a license of > Composer for each of us. > > While I only use it to view his markups, he uses much more of the features. > After working with it for a project, he said he was disappointed in it > compared to Volo View. First off, the lack of a print preview is a big > issue. Often he needs to print just an area of a drawing and preview is > essential to him. Also, we really liked the system of dwf and rml files. > It was easy to determine that rml's were markups from him and dwf's from me. > Having only the dwf requires saving as different names if we'd like to keep > the "unmarked" dwf (which we always do). In addition, composer has a > minimum font size of 8pt, while VV allowed you to go all the way down to > 1pt. Also, no ability in Composer to do a cloud without a leader? And the > extra text tools in VV are nice, especially the "push pin" note tool. We > use this to distinguish notes to the drafter vs. notes to go on the drawing. > > After that one project he uninstalled Composer and went back to VV3. We > will likely stick with VV until these features are restored. > > Are any of these I mentioned hidden in Composer? Anyone else who's used VV > extensively agree with his assessment? I find it a bit disappointing to get > a new version of software to find it is missing things you've come to rely > on in previous software (yes, I realize that Compser is not a VV upgrade and > is in a sense a new product, but if it's expected to replace VV, it needs > some work.) > >
Message 4 of 7
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I believe Volo View will be supported for one year. I think Autodesk wants to have just the one tool - DWF Composer. It will be a while before DWF Composer has all of the features of Volo View. They will probably add the ones that really get used - the ones people ask for. This was the same story for Volo View. It took some time before it had all of the features of Autodesk View. In fact, it never did. Autodesk View supported more formats and had a DWG compare tool. "The Real JD" wrote in message news:410954e8$1_1@newsprd01... > Well, i was just wondering about the differences and benefits of each. > We're looking for a new markup tool. the volo view express is outdated and > does not support the newer dwf formats etc. I was just wondering what > product would be better. > (VV or DWFC) > > It seems a bit confusing to have the two products when it would seem more > natural to merge the feature set of each into one product.
Message 5 of 7
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Does anyone care that we still need to be able to open and view DWG files? If the engineer wants to look at a drawing that was done years ago, how is he going to view it? He has to go to the CAD tech and have him convert it to DWF. The CAD tech has to stop what he is doing, set up the drawing for plotting to DWF and export it. Then the engineer opens it and finds out that he needs to view another drawing from the project, so he goes back to the cad tech and...well you can see the obvious. DWF is great for digitally sharing documents, but it is not a replacement for a native DWG viewer by any means. "Phil Clark" wrote in message news:410830ad_1@newsprd01... > About 2 years ago, my boss moved across state and we started using Volo View > for markups and to allow him to print small sized drawings. It was a great > solution for our situation and everything has run smoothly (actually much > more so than I expected!). Anyway, we recently purchased a license of > Composer for each of us. > > While I only use it to view his markups, he uses much more of the features. > After working with it for a project, he said he was disappointed in it > compared to Volo View. First off, the lack of a print preview is a big > issue. Often he needs to print just an area of a drawing and preview is > essential to him. Also, we really liked the system of dwf and rml files. > It was easy to determine that rml's were markups from him and dwf's from me. > Having only the dwf requires saving as different names if we'd like to keep > the "unmarked" dwf (which we always do). In addition, composer has a > minimum font size of 8pt, while VV allowed you to go all the way down to > 1pt. Also, no ability in Composer to do a cloud without a leader? And the > extra text tools in VV are nice, especially the "push pin" note tool. We > use this to distinguish notes to the drafter vs. notes to go on the drawing. > > After that one project he uninstalled Composer and went back to VV3. We > will likely stick with VV until these features are restored. > > Are any of these I mentioned hidden in Composer? Anyone else who's used VV > extensively agree with his assessment? I find it a bit disappointing to get > a new version of software to find it is missing things you've come to rely > on in previous software (yes, I realize that Compser is not a VV upgrade and > is in a sense a new product, but if it's expected to replace VV, it needs > some work.) > >
Message 6 of 7
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

DWF Composer comes with a native DWG viewer for exactly that purpose - DWG viewing. But in the event the non CAD tech user needs to markup or measure, then the CAD tech or the non CAD tech user (one of them has to do it) needs to use that viewer to generate a DWF just like the old fashioned days when paper was used in place of the DWF. At least the DWF generation part wouldn't happen until the user determined he had the right file by using the DWG viewer. "Neil W" wrote in message news:41407fa3$1_1@newsprd01... > Does anyone care that we still need to be able to open and view DWG files? > If the engineer wants to look at a drawing that was done years ago, how is > he going to view it? He has to go to the CAD tech and have him convert it > to > DWF. The CAD tech has to stop what he is doing, set up the drawing for > plotting to DWF and export it. Then the engineer opens it and finds out > that > he needs to view another drawing from the project, so he goes back to the > cad tech and...well you can see the obvious. DWF is great for digitally > sharing documents, but it is not a replacement for a native DWG viewer by > any means.
Message 7 of 7
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Thank you for informing me about the DWG viewer in Composer. I was not aware of this. "Scott Sheppard" wrote in message news:41408359$1_1@newsprd01... > DWF Composer comes with a native DWG viewer for exactly that purpose - DWG > viewing. But in the event the non CAD tech user needs to markup or measure, > then the CAD tech or the non CAD tech user (one of them has to do it) needs > to use that viewer to generate a DWF just like the old fashioned days when > paper was used in place of the DWF. At least the DWF generation part > wouldn't happen until the user determined he had the right file by using the > DWG viewer. > > "Neil W" wrote in message > news:41407fa3$1_1@newsprd01... > > Does anyone care that we still need to be able to open and view DWG files? > > If the engineer wants to look at a drawing that was done years ago, how is > > he going to view it? He has to go to the CAD tech and have him convert it > > to > > DWF. The CAD tech has to stop what he is doing, set up the drawing for > > plotting to DWF and export it. Then the engineer opens it and finds out > > that > > he needs to view another drawing from the project, so he goes back to the > > cad tech and...well you can see the obvious. DWF is great for digitally > > sharing documents, but it is not a replacement for a native DWG viewer by > > any means. > >

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