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General Software

AutoVue SolidModel Professional v17 for Windows

31 May, 2003 By: Ron LaFon

Cimmetry Systems


5 stars out of 5
Highly RecommendedCimmetry Systems’AutoVue SolidModel Professional v17 for Windows is one of three applications to receive a five-star rating in this roundup. Not only does AutoVue SolidModel Professional offer extensive file viewing options, its markup and collaboration capabilities—and the depth to which they are implemented—are excellent. The excellence of its features is as much the product of good software design as of listening carefully to users.

AutoVue SolidModel Professional v17 for Windows
The Measure menu in Cimmetry’s AutoVue SolidModel Professional v17 for Windows lets you measure all dimensions, including angles, arcs, circles, surface area, distance, and cumulative distance.
All products are available as thin-client, server-based solutions that allow viewing and markup of 2D and 3D CAD, EDA (electronic design automation), and Microsoft Office documents over the Web. In an online demo, I saw a beta copy of the Java version that reads AutoCAD 2004 files. Cimmetry says that version is shipping as we go to press. Even in its early tests, it looks quite good.

New and unique in AutoVue v17 are real-time collaboration capabilities that let you schedule online meetings and simultaneously view, mark up, and chat on all document types over an intranet or the Internet. These features are implemented in the Java-based version of the thin client. The number of participants is unlimited, though operations slow with a large number of users. The meeting host transfers control from user to user, so that a number of users can work concurrently on the same model. Users can make annotations, authorized users can approve changes, and AutoVue writes an audit trail of the entire session. I set up an online demo of this feature, and found it fast even on large drawings—and very well implemented.

Other noteworthy features include extensive 2D and 3D markup functionality and print capabilities. There is much here to recommend this product. Highly Recommended.


About the Author: Ron LaFon


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