A couple of observations

[GrumpyGrizzly]

Just loaded up Autocad Freestyle thinking this would be a great little cad program for my Netbook. First thing that come up is my resolution. My netbook only has 600dpi vertical resolution and the message said something along the lines of 680. Perhaps that can be looked at, maybe even a bit lower resolution with the ability to make the icons smaller?

The properties box tends to stay off the screen to the right a bit too much but, this could be a resolution problem as well.

The palettes would be nice to have them lock in a vertical mode (kind of like the big brother Autocad platform).

No command line is do able since that's what most Revit users are getting used to.

I'm hoping to be able to grab some drawings and take them with me on field trips and be able to view them on my netbook. Next I'll try to load NavisWorks on it as well.

I've only got 1gb of ram on my notebook but, the program seems to move along quite well. I may end up upgrading my ram and I'd expect a pretty decent improvement.

I'd like to see this stay on the lines of being compatible with netbooks. When I'm in the field, I don't need full blown Autocad or Autocad MEP or even Revit MEP. I just need to be able to bring up a drawing and look at a few things. If I need to make some redlines, it'll be great for that as well.

I've been looking for something along these lines for a while now. Sketchbook Pro wouldn't answer the requirements because it doesn't open .dwg files.

Keep it simple, keep it resource friendly, keep it cheap!!

[crounsl]

Thanks for the feedback. We are starting to hear from more and more people like you who are hoping to use this on a netbook. We optimized the application for 1028 x 768 so the issues that you are encountering sound consistent. I have added "netbook compatibilty" to our customer wish list and will count your post as one more vote for this functionality.

Have you tried opening many DWG files from other applications inside AutoCAD Freestyle? If so, how has your experience been with that?

Again, thanks for the feedback

Lisa

Lisa Crounse - Product Manager, AutoCAD Freestyle

[GrumpyGrizzly]

I have opened a few different drawings using the program and it does a decent job. I primarily work with the MEP folks but, the drawings I've loaded are more Platform Autocad based.

The part that bothers me about the resolution is I can't seem to move the "properties" box away from the upper right corner. It's kind of half cut off from my screen. I think it would definitely be nice to have that fully visible.

I'll fire up some Autocad MEP drawings and give you some more feedback on them Lisa. I used to Beta test for Autodesk quite a bit, just got slammed by real world work, I ran out of time in the day.

Is there anything else you'd like to see tested on a Netbook? Mine is the HP Mini 110 with 1gb of ram and the Atom processor running Windows 7 starter.

When I start the application, I do get the screen size message but, it allows me to proceed with running the program anyway, nice touch..

I decided to fire up my netbook and load a 1.8mb Autocad MEP file in it.

It opened up one of the SE views and doesn't really know what yo do with the fittings or anything 3D which is understandable.

It also recognized annotative scaling and gave me the option of resetting it.

Seems quite sluggish but, I make that out to be the size of the file and the limitations of my netbook.

Clicked on Options and it crashed..

Doesn't appear to like 3D Viewports at all. Would be nice to change the view to top or something.

That could definitely be a problem unless you can get everyone trained to make their viewports from top view. I look at this program as a decent redlining program but, control of views is kind of important. I know this drawing I opened has 2 viewports open in the saved version, I tried panning around and nothing happened, then all of a sudden it started panning. Couldn't find the drawing again so I went to zoom to fit and after waiting a couple of minutes, I have the program back with an empty viewport. As heavily viewport dependent as Autocad drawings are, I think this could definitely make or break this program.

One thing strange, when I went to open, the preview shows both viewports. Maybe I have a setting wrong somewhere??

OK, starting it again, opening it from the splash screen, message says it has 16 errors and says I should run recover. Didnt realize Freestyle had a recover option. When I was opening it before, I double clicked on it in Windows Explorer. Opening it from the splash screen gives me the option to open the viewport I need.

OK, file opened, looked like it was doing fine, came up on screen, I clicked the pan icon and now I'm looking at an error report screen.
Trying it again..

This time, no splash screen from double clicking the icon on the desktop. Used Open command off quickie toolbar. Error message came up that time, 16 errors again, this time it wouldn't let me load the drawing at all.

Option window came up to select the viewport again. This time it worked, even able to zoom in as indicated in the attached image.

Let me know if you want anything else tested.

Paul

[crounsl]

hi Paul -

Thanks for putting Freestyle through its paces with a file. This is really helpful and our entire team is studying these issues. Sounds like the pan/zoom situation was performance based.

We are going to run a short private beta in a few weeks and I would like to invite you to join it to see if we have resolved your issues. If you are interested, please write me directly at lisa.crounse at autodesk.com.

Again, this is really helpful information.

Lisa