Standalone RVT file viewer

[Chad Smith]

While PDF and DWF formats are fine, Revit really needs a standalone viewer or the modeling engine integrated into Volo View.

This would mean that other employees within the company can get access to your drawings for viewing and printing purposes.

In my situation, I am the only person running Revit, and if I am not available at work then nobody can get access to the drawings, due to login password restrictions on the workstations.
It would also mean that our sales and design managers can access the drawings by themselves without the need to continuously interrupt my work.

I could put a demo copy onto the required PC's but this still means they can't print, and would be overwhelmed by the revit interface and would soon give up. They are nearly computer illiterate users.
It needs only to be a simple interface that shows only Views which would include access to Plans views, Sheets, Sections etc, and also reports.

[beegee]

Chad,

I think thats a terrific idea and I wholeheartedly agree.

Not just for your situation, ( which I'm sure would apply to many other organisations also ), but particularly so that we could email a model to a client / consultant to open in a viewer.

Even a simple liitle CAD programme like Datacad has a model viewer called IC2 or something, that is relatively sophisticated in its spin-tilt abilities. We need something like that for dynamic viewing.

At present its necessary to get the client into the office, or go to the trouble of setting up an AVI file for them, which isn't always appropriate.

[Steve_Stafford]

Just to clarify, installing a copy of Revit on other PC's can run in DEMO mode and PRINT. Unless they change something, anything at all. As long as they open a project and then a view and only pan, zoom etc without changing a property of a view they can print from any view.

Demo mode will not let you print/save/export a project that has been modified.

A smaller "footprint" application than Revit to allow viewing/printing/redlining would be a positive thing.

[Chad Smith]

Demo mode will not let you print/save/export a project that has been modified.

Thanks Steve, thats good to know. Wasn't aware of that.
So I guess that would do for the moment. But a viewer would still be a good thing.

[mlgatzke]

I don't know if I like the idea of a stand-along viewer beyond Revit in demo-mode. This may promote the exchange of RVT files and enter Revit into the controversy over liability issues with the exchange of editable files. The nice thing about PDFs and DWFs is that they're not as comprehensively editable as RVTs.

Personally, I wouldn't care to see a separate viewer. I think Revit would stand better and more securely by requiring an export before viewing.

[beegee]

The OC2 viewer I mentioned does exactly that. You export from within the programe to a file that is read by the viewer and from which the data cannot be manipulated.

I don't think anyone would be too happy about .rvt files flying around the ether.

[Chad Smith]

This may promote the exchange of RVT files and enter Revit into the controversy over liability issues with the exchange of editable files.

If you are concerned over liability issues then you can still send PDF or DWF. No-one will force you to send your RVT files. You still have options.

The viewer would not necessarily be so you could distribute RVT files, but rather as I said before, so internal office people can view and print easily. Don't get me wrong I think PDF and DWF will still have their place, but I don't want to have to package a drawing into a PDF/DWF and then internally email it to the sales manager just so he can view it, what a waste of time.

[Martin P]

Autodesk no longer use Voloview, I was reading about the whold PDF - DWF thing thing in AEC magazine just yesterday. Apparantley DWF if going to have the ability to view 3D models etc..... I think DWF is the closest Autodesk are going to let you get to this wish. And DWF sounds like it is going to become almost a dwg and it will ab able to be xrefed etc..... a locked dwg I suppose?

[beegee]

If DWF gets the ability to dynamically manipulate a 3D model, then it will rule. I suspect we will just get the ability to view a static model.
The viwer programs I was referring to are powerful client marketing tools because they are easy to use and allow computer illiterate users to spin / tilt a model file that is both compact in file size and secure for data transfer. The viewer programs are also free downloads.

Heres a link to one of them

[PeterJ]

How about a VRML export? There are any number of vrml viewers out there. Some run with browser integration so you could even add a client area to your web site and allow people to view the most recent model whenever they wish to.

It seems to have lost a little of its currency for some reason but still seems a useful lingua franca to me.