AutoCAD is moving in the direction of Inventor - intelligent objects.
Objects are stairs, doors, walls, etc - not just lines, arcs, and circles.
Eventually source CAD data will only be readable by the creating
application. To allow downstream users to use a format that dos not require
a $2800 program, Autodesk has invented DWF and gives the reader and viewer
away for free. In the old days draftsmen used CAD and everyone else used
paper. No one was hamstrung then. You are spoiled in that you are used to
skipping a step, generating the paper, and just using the DWG. With the
Autodesk View and Volo View experience, we have seen that this is not a
sustainable solution.
"Neil W" wrote in message
news:41408177$1_3@newsprd01...
>I am constantly hearing the argument that invertor users can't use a
> standard DWG viewer. Why should the rest of the millions of CAD users be
> hamstrung without a DWG viewer? Make DWF for the Inventor users and let
> the
> rest of us have a DWG viewer.