Is Design Review discontinued?

[FT398]

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?

[warrentdo]

Hello Scott, 

But it wouldn't be a cloud then, more a solitary puddle at ground level 🙂

Regards

Warren.

[jggerth]

No, not a puddle.  Rather that would be an Engineering Document Management System, EDMS.

Something that woks now... 

[scott.sheppard]

An offline mode for a cloud-based solution differs from the current Autodesk Design Review in that:

a. Eventually, when the user comes back online, the data is uploaded to the cloud. This allows for comments from multiple users to be automatically integrated and displayed against the original design data. Today Autodesk Design Review users have to merge DWF files manually and load them in the Markup Manager of the CAD application.

b. The cloud-based solution, even in offline mode, will run on Windows PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Android phones, etc... but Autodesk Design Review is Windows only.

By the way, there will be a minor Autodesk Design Review update coming that will be released through the Autodesk Design Review update process. So Autodesk Design Review is receiving the care it needs to keep it current -- just not development of new releases.

[warrentdo]

We still wont have a cloud. Hard wire only secure LAN.

Warren

[Tim.West]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

An offline mode for a cloud-based solution differs from the current Autodesk Design Review in that:

a. Eventually, when the user comes back online, the data is uploaded to the cloud. This allows for comments from multiple users to be automatically integrated and displayed against the original design data. Today Autodesk Design Review users have to merge DWF files manually and load them in the Markup Manager of the CAD application.

b. The cloud-based solution, even in offline mode, will run on Windows PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Android phones, etc... but Autodesk Design Review is Windows only.

By the way, there will be a minor Autodesk Design Review update coming that will be released through the Autodesk Design Review update process. So Autodesk Design Review is receiving the care it needs to keep it current -- just not development of new releases.

---

I am glad that ADR is getting a few tweaks!!?!

I like the idea of live integration of comments, being functionality of several 'cloud' services for a few years now.

However, I would rather manually compile comments from different individuals then 'Insert dwf markup', than manually add 'ALL' lively integrated markups... Unfortunately your logic suggests that your current offering will take more time and is more prone to human error than the existing method.

For 360 to work for us, we need the ability to import markups 'comments' from the cloud to our publishing packages. Is this still being 'looked into' by Autodesk?

[scott.sheppard]

For customers who will only have a LAN, please note that once we have the public cloud solutuion perfected, it is quite possibel for us to offer a private cloud solution. Customers could host our services on their own servers.

With regard to "For 360 to work for us, we need the ability to import markups 'comments' from the cloud to our publishing packages. Is this still being 'looked into' by Autodesk?" that is on the horizon. As you can imagine. the initial goal would be to have everything on the cloud since the files are getting so big and teh cloud offers more computng power. But I see your point that you want to select which user comments you want, export that as oen DWF file, and use the markup manager capability of a desktop application to make the changes to the design in response to the comments.

[warrentdo]

Hello Scott,

We you say we can host your services on our servers what does this mean?

How will this differ and what benefits will we have over just installing the design suite on user machines and vault on the server?

I understand that the cloud gives the opportunity to share over different platforms and different devices but we will not require this on a restricted network.

I am sorry if i don't fully understand about your cloud services.

Regards

Warren.

[tim.west]

Scott,

It would appear that Autodesks' ultimate goal is to offer their authoring packages as SAAS and host them on the cloud. This being the case, 360 ideally wouldn't be a separate package, one would have controlled access to the authoring package and the comments would be native? This would remove the need for roundtripping, or for proprietal file formats...

I live in a country where internet access is not guaranteed, where most jobs aren't generally big enough to require much more than the minimum specs for an authoring package. This may help you to understand why "since the files are getting so big and teh cloud offers more computng power." as a justification for moving things to the cloud is frustrating to all but the biggest players...

I don't particularly like Autodesks stance in this. Lets take a free application that mostly works, and replace it with a free beta cloud service that needs serious road testing, and lacks most of the useful toolset from the outgoing application...

I will be reccommending PDF for markups for the forseeable future. Maybe Autodesk should instead spend their budget providing a reasonable pdf solution as an alternative to windows shoddy implementation so we can get accurate pdf output from their authoring packages.

[scott.sheppard]

tim.west: You are correct that in a totally SaaS model, the design data would remain on the server where it is modeled and marked up. There would be no need for round-tripping. There would be one source of truth on the server. For customers who choose not to avail themselves of this approach, for whatever reason they choose, they can continue to use desktop applications packaged into suites along with Autodesk Design Review. The cloud is where Autodesk is headed. Our desktop applications remain the bread and butter of our company. Autodesk Design Review can load DWF or PDF files.

[scott.sheppard]

Warren:

For customers who do not wish to access their data using tablets or smart phones, the cloud may not be the correct choice for them. For customers who do not wish to apply multiple computers to analysis and simulation, the cloud may not be the correct choice for them. For customers who do not mind having multiple copies of their design data with markups from customers in separate files, the cloud may not be the correct choice for them. For these customer we continue to sell desktop applications packed into suites. The cloud is where we are headed, but as I mentioned in my reply to tim.west, desktop applications are the bread and butter of our company.

When I referred to offline mode, this would be used when there is a cloud-based solution that has a temporary disconnection from the internet. Users could still work and would sync their data once they regained connectivity. In terms of public versus private cloud, in a private cloud solution, customers would host our cloud solutions on their own servers and have their team members access those servers via their own local area networks. All of the data would remain in-house.

[warrentdo]

Hello Scott,

I think that the confusion throughout this entire post is that in your last reply you mention ‘the cloud may not be the correct choice for them.’ This is the first time someone has mentioned choice ‘a choice’. Everything has been written as if we are going to the cloud and that’s it, either online or off line or local cloud it will be the ‘cloud’.

As you stated -

Autodesk Design Review 2013 will continue to be available for download from our website, but Autodesk is focusing on delivering enhanced cloud and mobile workflows that integrate with desktop collaboration.

I think your ‘integrate with desktop collaboration’ has been missed by the following 100 posts.

As long as this new form of design review, name it what you will, is capable of being used on a desktop application we have no problem. If there is no new form of design review available on a desktop application then we have a big problem. This is the main topic of this thread and as of yet the question has not been answered (or missed) and that’s why we have 15 pages of posts.

Thank you for your explanation Scott, you are doing a fine job, we will put this post to bed soon.

Regards

Warren.

[TInloes]

Scott,

It's great to hear ADR will be updated.  I hope the Hyperlink bug in ADR 2013 is fixed - it is not usable for my clients because of that bug.  I have over 60 clients that use it and all have 2012 installed so the hyperlinks will work.  Other than that, ADR is a great application - especially the GPS capability for mapping appliations like mine.

Tom

[david_keene]

 It will be interesting to see how Autodesk plan to support defence companies that cannot use cloud applications. We use Design Review extensively and unless Autodesk continue to support desktop apps I guess we will just have to move to a different CAD vendor.

Happy for you to contact me direct to the direction Autodesk are heading.

Regards

Dave

[dvsmiller9]

I believe Scott posted earlier in this thread that once Autodesk has matured their cloud offering they will provide a version that can be hosted on a company's own servers as a private cloud.  This sounds like it would sit next to and/or be integrated into Vault and provide the same type of markup functionality (or better?) that Design Review provides today. Presumably it would use web services on an IIS server sitting in your own server room.

I too work for a defense company and this approach would be fine for us if I am interpreting Scott's post correctly..  All the data would reside on our own servers behind our firewall.

[scott.sheppard]

You are interpretimg my post correctly.

[david_keene]

Thanks for info.

I just hope Design Review can continue to operate as a free service even within a companies own private cloud. We do not use Vault, our business is too big and it doesnt offer the level of application security we require in defence working outside the US.

[rallen]

The idea of being "forced" to take a tablet and go sit in the break room and markup redlines while sipping coffee is a nice one : )

But forcing a shift to AutoDesk cloud without at least a private cloud option is, please fogive me, oligarchical to say the least, unless I missed the post where AutoDesk is providing ADR in the cloud for free to its subscribers? (Not sarcasm, sincerity- I have been working with AD products since 1996) 

There are also incredible solutions (Bluebeam) already out there with live cloud markup tools like Studio that come free with subscription... The wars with Adobe PDF are over, adobe's strangle hold on PDF is dead, maybe Autodesk should shift to integrated PDFs, purchase Bluebeam and go from there... 🙂 It is a rockin' tool!

Otherwise dump DWF in favor of full blown development into a fully Interoperable open source standard like IFC- but that moves faster, is 'current' and allows for extra data that can be merged into the 'mainstream' data later... to maintain data across any platform regardless...  

[bjorn_grim]

I realize I'm way late for the party, both regarding ADR and this thread, but I have just discovered ADR and its capability of compare drawing sheets. So, security and cloud issues aside; will Autocad 360 or any other product offer this functionality?

[rkmcswain]

bjorn_grim wrote:

I realize I'm way late for the party, both regarding ADR and this thread, but I have just discovered ADR and its capability of compare drawing sheets. So, security and cloud issues aside; will Autocad 360 or any other product offer this functionality?

You might want to start a new thread with this question. You're currently at the end of a 158 post thread.

[Vitornis]

A private cloud that is installed and ran on our private hardware is the only way our company can ever use a cloud service. Many of our contracts require us to own and operate all of the hardware that any project data is stored. We can't rent machines or use any cloud services for our customers needs. This push for cloud from many software vendors like Autodesk gives me the impression they are more worried about the bottom dollar than the security of their clients data. Unless these cloud services can offer a more customized and robust security settings that we as users can manipulate I fear this current era of cloud services will just be a fad.