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?

[zx6roo]

We currently have ADR integrated with another program to do basic markups on DWFX files.   This will not work if ADR moves to the cloud as the program needs to be local.   What DWF product will AutoDesk have which will achieve this or are all your program Road maps ending up in the cloud?  How much longer will ADR be available locally?

[scott.sheppard]

We continue to support Autodesk Design Review. It's just that we're not having any new releases. We will continue to support the current version until our cloud solutions offer equivalent functionality. At that time, we can decide what the next step for Autodesk Design Review is.

[toddw.schuler]

Scott,
You are missing the point. The Cloud is not the option for all companies. Networks and firewalls are not set up to handle it and that is not likely to change for many.

It is discouraging that Autodesk is so focused on the cloud and eager to push users in that direction.

Todd Schuler
Design and Drafting Supervisor
Energizer Holdings, Inc.


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[pendean]

They are also focused on PDF quite heavily too.

[Tim.West]

@zx6roo dwf(x) import into Revit is still supported in 2016 (can't talk for AucoCAD). Design Review 2013 will open dwf(x) from 2016 products. ADR 2013 will remain useable and doesn't require a license to be installed.

Cloud markup integration has been broken since its inception, and for several years now we have been told that it is being worked on... Don't hold your breath.

@scott.sheppard The next step for Desing Review is retirement right? Isn't the official word from ADSK that it will not be updated as cloud offerings will replace some of its functionality, and paid services will fill in the missing functionality?

@toddw.schuler If you read all of the 20 pages of this thread, you will notice that your concern has been raised several times, and Scott has kindly answered that 'The cloud is the future, get used to it'. Most of the valid rebuttals have been tendered.

@pendean I do hope they focus a little more heavily on pdf, and integrate pdf references into Revit. Its nice to have referenced pdf output, still a ways to go though.

I have lost faith in ADSK with regard to .dwf and review processes. We had products that worked well in a digital design and review process. Cloud offerings have been broken in that regard, replacing real integration with existing products, with patchy, buggy echoes of useful tools (in comparison).

Continued assurances that things are happening behind the scenes, with these phantom workflows that haven't quite seemed to surface, as a premise for failure to support the last set of marketed solutions, leads me to believe that the next 'solution' will also be on the same shaky ground.

[scott.sheppard]

I agree that the electronic review process via A360 is not there yet. That's why we continue to support Autodesk Design Review 2013. You are correct in that Autodesk 2016 products are compatible with Autodesk Design Review 2013. You are also correct in that the future is in the cloud. The next step for Autodesk Design Review is for the functionality to graduate to A360. A360 needs to be on par with it for that to happen. For situations where connectivity is poor, our cloud solutions will have an offline mode. So our development efforts are in that direction rather than continuing to enhance Autodesk Design Review that is Windows-only. Smart phones and tablets already outnumber PCs. An alternative is PDFs. Adobe continues to support its PDF reader and Autodesk put PDF on par with DWF years ago.

The cloud offers the advantage of applying more compute power to problems. As the projects get more complex, the data files get bigger. Soon it will be better to leave the data on a server rather than sharing DWFx or PDF files. In addition, with the data on a server, there is one source of truth rather than a master copy with possibly out of date DWFx files. Plus, you will be able to seamlessly move among modeling, analysis, simulation, and review without having to export from one program and import into the next. The server will do all of that for you. So you can see why our approach is what one person has called "The cloud is coming. Get used to it." We participate in these forums to hear from customers but also to share where we see the industry heading.

[warrentdo]

What exactly are you hearing from the Nuclear industry or defence?

Fact - WE CANNOT LET OUR DATA OUT OF OUR OFFICE.

What is the strategy for secure/sensitive data, list X, ?

It is because we are a minority, it doesn't matter?

Will we have to wait for a server to get hacked before we all run back to local servers?

Do you think that your servers are more secure than sony, ebay, Apple, Experian. (Possiably Ashley Addison 🙂

In an interview with the cheif of the FBI, James Comey said -

'There are two kinds of big companies in the United States. There are those who've been hacked by the Chinese and those who don't know they've been hacked by the Chinese.'

Regards,

Warren.

[Vitornis]

Exactly some of the contracts we have prohibit us from using any equipment that isn't owned and operated by us. And at any point they have to option to take the computer systems (of course they have to pay us for the equipment). So for me it seems like cloud services are going to be is a fad until they start listening to their customers needs for local ownership of their design data.

[pendean]

>>>...prohibit us from using any equipment that isn't owned and operated by us...<<<

You will need to find a secure internal solution and not rely on 3rd party commercial tools. There is no security if you don't control everything, so it's time for you folks to move away from Autodesk for this task sadly.

[pendean]

@Tim.West PDF is the future, Adobe won this one, once Autodesk finishes licking it's wounds and puts DWF out of it's misery, we all should see the benefits sooner rather than later.

Remember, DWF came and died once before before it got reinvigorated when Adobe lost focus. But those days are gone, Adobe seems to be getting it's act back together on this one. DWF also locks you all up into Autodeskland: almost no other vendor out there gives a monkeys about this file format.

Do you really want your data locked up by a third party? They already have you over a barrel with REVIT and Subscription... .

[zx6roo]

Unfortunately PDF is not the way if you have intelligent drawings.  Adobe doesn't interact with the data.

[scott.sheppard]

With regard to customers like the Department of Defense, who have specific security issues, they will host our cloud solutions themselves. That is down the road. The first step is to perfect our solutions for the public cloud and then address the private cloud. Until that happens, customers like the Department of Defense can continue to use our desktop solutions.  I mention this only because the pro-desktop-only participants in this thread suggest that Autodesk should abandon its cloud strategy and focus it's resources in the desktop software as if the cloud alternative has no chance of ever addressing customers like the Depatment of Defense. 

[Metron4]

Thanks for bringing up the private cloud solution again, Scott. For those of you recently discovering this long and obviously important thread, Scott has mentioned the private cloud solution before. We here at Los Alamos National Laboratory eagerly await this option. Scott, you may want to add a sticky at the top of this forum mentioning this. Like, in aggressive detail.

[Tim.West]

---

@zx6roo wrote:

Unfortunately PDF is not the way if you have intelligent drawings.  Adobe doesn't interact with the data.

---

.pdf can contain 3D with metadata. It falls over where 2D metadata is concerned unfortunately.

---

@pendean wrote:
@Tim.West PDF is the future, Adobe won this one, once Autodesk finishes licking it's wounds and puts DWF out of it's misery.

---

PDF is the past as well as future. .dwf still has its place for transfer, markup and review. Cost-X deals with 2D & 3D dwf quite nicely, and is part of a fairly robust workflow.

.dwf markup integration with Revit works well until ADSK get their cloud offerings sorted, and phase out dwf as an option.

.dwf is the only format I've encounterred (please educate me if I'm wrong) where there is a link between 2D and 3D elements and their metadata. This is great for 2D drawing sets with 3D in Navisworks, though not necessarily in the same file. If Autodesk were to enable the review toolkit in navisworks freedom, saving back to dwf for import into Revit, and hyperlink functionality between drawings, I would be a lot happier (though still sad) to witness ADR's demise...

[chadlk]

That is the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time.  Have tried mulitple times to use the cloud and with file sizes to large this is a no go for Utilities across the country.  So let me get this straight.  Autodesk say's we are no longer going to give you a free viewer because we want you to use the cloud so we will get more $$ for services?  All Autodesk cares about is it's big players.  Been going that way for years and continues to go that way.  How about Autodesk listens to its customers for once and takes care of those that help build the compnay to what it is today?  Or better yet charge me $100 for something that will actually work like a new Design Review Product instead of cramming something that doesn't work down our throats?   JOKE

Chad Kersten

Minot, ND

[chadlk]

Scott,

How about you let the customer worry about security and what and what does not work?  Why does Autodesk always think they are the smartest people on the planet and the only people that know what the customers want?  Autodesk never asks the customers, but takes it upon themselves to tell us what we need and that isn't right.  Listen to the customers instead of telling us what we need or want?  Just a thought !!!

[scott.sheppard]

When file sizes get too large to FTP or email around, that is a perfect opportunity to park the data on a server in the cloud, leave it in one place, and have users access it from desktops, laptops, Mac, smart phones, and table devices. We continue to allow you to use the free Autodesk Design Review if the cloud solution is not suited to your needs. We tried selling Autodesk Design Review for $129, but few people bought it.

[scott.sheppard]

When Henry Ford asked his customers what they wanted, they said "a faster horse." Autodesk does not claim to be the smartest people on the planet. Instead, we have our eyes open to where the industry is going. Smart phones and tablets outnumber PCs and Macs. In 1997, had we listened to the DOS customers who told us to "just stay on DOS," we would not exist as a company. In the years that followed, Windows dominated the industries we serve, so staying with DOS would have been a bad move. Today. Windows has less of a market share than it did in its hey day. Our customers, large and small, are using a combination of Windows PCs, Macs, smart phones, and tablets. Autodesk Design Review only meets the needs of the Windows users.

[chadlk]

A few things  you don't understand.  #1  We have strict requirments for what we do that we do not place any of our maps and information outside of our firewall and control.  So our Techs update tablets each morning by connecting to our LAN and take hundred of maps with them Daily.  Even if we could use the cloud it's to slow for what we need it for.  But posting our information to the cloud is NOT an option.  #2  We don't live in a big city where we have the speed to dowload Scott.  You seem to forget that there are Customers that live in remote areas of the country with little or no way to download stuff in a way that will work.  #3 Years ago I attended AU in Disney.  Autodesk was all about .DWF and pushed everyone in that direction.  It was all about going paperless and using the viewers that Autodesk created.  Know you do not update the software and tell people that your going away from the viewer?  It is just about money with Autodesk and that is it.  That is bad business and if you look at the other comments in this thread you will see that.  You have put many people in a very bad place with little or no regard to the customers.  Carl Bass say's every  year at AU that it's all about the Customers.  RIGHT?  Well I and others have spoken and it doesn't seem to hold much weight with you or others at Autodesk.  This is fine.  This morning I have already talked to ESRI and have budgeted for different software to look at.  It's a matter of time and that is all because Autodesk doesn't listen to what the Customers are saying.  If we ran our business the way Autodesk does we wouldn't be around very long.  Guess we don't buy enough licenses with Autodesk to get them to listen as well as others posting on this forum. 

[Vitornis]

Yeah I remembered when it was offered for 129$ and then on month it was
offered at a discounted price of 99$. So our company bought several
licenses and shortly after that is was offered for free. Bigest waste of
money Autodesk suckered us out of.