Autodesk Revit Viewer

[VMDO-ADMIN]

We really need a RVT file VIEWER for our Project Architects and Project Managers who just want to look around in the model, make comments, and maybe print out something to draw over.  Viewer Mode does not allow printing or saving, and therefore unsuitable for project review and contribution by the managing staff.

Before Revit, we came from a CAD platform that was familiar to everyone on the project team, and everyone contributed to the design and documentation process equally.  A full license of Revit is a hefty price to pay for an employee that is not going to be productive in the program, nor do I feel comfortable with giving editing power to these managers who are not using Revit enough to warrant full training.

I had hopes for the DWF viewer Autodesk gave us, but apparently support for the progam was dropped after Revit 2013. The navigation in the A360 Viewer is not intuitive enough for the older staff I am supporting and I do not see markup capabilities.  What are we to use to create DWF markups now? I would even appreciate such a program for a small desktop subscription cost.

[jaboone]

This could be expanded to include a outside batch plotter.

[casquatch]

We have Revit licenses, so can install Revit and then adjust the icon to be in Viewer mode. This does not use a license. If you have a copy of Revit (use the 30 day trial), you should be able to install it, then adjust the icon with a switch to run as viewer mode. Here is a link on how to set that up. I'm not positive that it will work with the trial of Revit, but I believe it does and the link above does as well.

Doing a quick Google search for Revit viewer, took me to this.

https://a360.autodesk.com/viewer/ 

Which should also help.

Hope that helps!

[mark.jaeckel]

Starting Revit in viewermode does not need a license, but it's not a complete viewer as we know from other CAD programs because if you doing any changes in the model like creating a section for orientation wthin the model, the printing functionality will be deactivatet. So if there is no prepared section view for the projectmanager he only can make a screenshot an print it by Microsoft Word. I understand the deactivation of saving the project, but not for the printing functionality

[casquatch]

You are correct, mostly 😉

You can open a file in Viewer mode and print, but after a change is made you no longer can print.

In order to open and be able to print, you need to open the central file directly from Viewer. In other words, don't choose to Detatch from Central or to create a new local, just select the file and open it. It will let you navigate around and print, it just won't let you create a new section and then print.

So if someone needs to print, they can open it this way, print. If they want to create a new view to print, they will not be able to. They can however navigate around and create new elements/views to look at the model.

Having a dummy proof viewer would be nice though. With the ability to edit/print as needed, just disable the save functions.

[Anonymous]

Design Review is still around...where you can export your model for mark ups, and track changes, printing, etc and bring it back into Revit.

http://www.autodesk.com/products/design-review/overview

[lionel.kai]

@casquatch  Thanks for that tip! I've been trying to encourage the non-modeling engineers to use Viewer, but they tend to open regular Revit to avoid problems with permissions - now unchecking "create new local" seems to have solved the problems!

Still, there's room for improvement: those options should be completely hidden from the user (in Viewer mode) since it shouldn't matter (in theory). You should be able to just "open" a file (as read only - since it's a viewer) and not have any hassles with permissions. Also, I would prefer to not have people getting into the habit of opening the central file directly, JIC I train them to model later. And it would be nice if instead of restricting printing, Revit just restricted modeling (i.e. you can cut sections & print, but not create new beams, etc.).

[casquatch]

Agreed @lionel.kai, just restrict modeling and make the open options simple and it would make it much better.

[harlan_brumm]

Thanks for your submission and votes on this idea!  We are evaluating where this request falls into our roadmap and will provide an update when we have made a decision.

The Factory

[AKingslayer]

It would really be nice to have a low-cost (free?) viewer that would allow non-REVIT users to open the current file and print drawings, or see (and measure) the 3D model. I work at a firm where only a handful of us use REVIT and everyone else is still in AutoCAD.  The complaint I get all the time is we are a bottleneck because only we can access our drawings.

[filipefrancisco]

Very usefull

[sarsenault2CCSS]

I think they want you to pay for BIM 360 Docs or BIM 360 Teams 😛

Then again that is not a perfect solution, since the annotations never make it back to Revit directly, at least not yet.

[Anonymous]

Just download the free install and change the shortcut to have the switch /VIEWER in it.

[sarsenault2CCSS]

DWF Review i back, but it's not really a good workflow.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/design-review/overview

I'd rather get a cloud viewing and commenting tool that link the comments back into Revit.

[Anonymous]

Yep I should have read a little closer, you do need more.  We accomplish a lot with viewer mode and comments using Bluebeam CAD on pdfs.

This is not the path you are looking for:

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2017\Revit.exe" /viewer /language ENU

[alois.huber]

Revit in viewer mode is much too big and the installation takes much too long to roll it out company-wide.

A real simple and small Revit Viewer is urgently needed. 

Autodesk has a solution, 360 or forge, but there are many companies where cloud solutions are prohibited, then 360 is not an option. We would like to install 360 on our servers in the company network.

[lionel.kai]

@alois.huber Maybe it's just my imagination, but it seems like the install (for 2019) has gotten shorter. I know the one for 2017 was CRAZY long. But that said, while I wouldn't mind a quicker install, I wonder how much they'd really be able to "pull out" to lean down the install. Even if they take away the ability to edit (and make it a true Viewer), it's my understanding that the 3D representation is re-created every time the file is opened (which means all of that logic needs to stay anyway).

[MichaelWolff]

I cannot consider BIM360 a solution to the viewer problem as many of our clients restrict us from copying their data to platforms outside of Europe. Starting up Revit itself as a viewer is also hardly a treat. Also others might thrive with a viewer that would run on non windows machines like Mac, iOS, gaming consoles, Android etc.

Outclouding the viewer subject also makes viewers dependent on internet connections which is not always a given.

[sarsenaultbrassard]

There is a free Reivt viewer, but it is online.

https://viewer.autodesk.com/

Also, BIM 360 Docs is a great solution, it just needs to have proper localized servers so that we can host secret projects on it (no data going to the USA or to China, no data exiting Canada for secret projects).

[kimberly.fuhrman]

We are updating this thread to Gathering Support. We are continuing to evaluate where this request falls into our roadmap and will provide an update when we have made a decision. 

The Factory

[adbryson]

I feel I need to add onto this now that BIM Collaborate Pro is becoming more prevalent.  The standard RVT viewer will only open BCP models when that user has a BCP license.  This kind of defeats the purpose of viewing capabilities.

Autodesk needs to update this to work on the cloud side too.

I know you can view cloud models via the website, but that interface is not great and requires other setup that doesn't always happen (not just by us but it also doesn't always happen on the site owner's side either).