Navisworks - AutoCAD previous version support

'Team. Team, team, team, team, team. I even love saying the word, team'. If you have no idea what I'm talking about – and there's a good chance you won't if you live outside of the UK – check out this clip for reference, taken from the UK comedy show, The IT Crowd.

We all know that if we work together [as a team] then, as Aristotle put it, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". And if you think about it, Navisworks supports and actively encourages this philosophy – by bringing together all project contributors to create a greater whole.

Navisworks supports a diverse range of authoring applications and laser scan formats. This is achieved through a combination of file exporters and file readers:

And this list continues to grow with your teams' requirements to collaborate with an increasingly diverse supply chain, including manufacturers and fabricators.

In this post I wanted to specifically discuss support for AutoCAD, and AutoCAD-based applications. Here we provide both options, file exporters and file readers.

Exporters

With the exporters (either installed as part of the Navisworks product, or as a separate standalone installer) you can export a Navisworks Cache file (NWC) directly from your AutoCAD-based app. One of the benefits of using the exporter is that you can then distribute a more compressed, un-editable version of the model, and you know the receiver will view the model as intended (that is, you don't have any concerns over the use of Object Enablers, as discussed here).

File Readers

Navisworks includes RealDWG, which effectively means that it can open DWG files as though it's vanilla-AutoCAD, thereby ensuring file fidelity. Object Enablers can also be installed and configured for Navisworks, meaning that it can support custom objects and properties from say, Civil 3D, or other third party AutoCAD-based apps.

Previous Versions

You can usually expect to find support for three previous versions. Navisworks 2012 however, supports:

• Nine versions of DWG, AutoCAD 2004-2012,
• Nine versions of the 32-bit Exporter, 2004-2012
• Five versions of the 64-bit Exporter, 2008-2012

As you can probably imagine, we're unable to maintain an ever increasing number of prior versions. For the next release we're considering dropping support for some of the older DWG file readers and exporters, 2004-2006 (inclusive).

Now would be a good time to let us know if this brings you out in a cold sweat! If this doesn't affect you, we'd equally like to hear which prior versions you are working with, to help guide future decisions.

Comments

[Andrea Baxter]

Hi Lee

Thank you. We are actually looking to have this done for a project of ours....is this a service your company provides?

[Lee Mullin]

Hi Andrea,

It's one we haven't yet covered in the blog but thank you for the reminder, we'll get something put together.

Lee

[Andrea Baxter]

Hi Paul

We are looking do something similar to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQkDRXo7tLM&feature=related for one of our projects. Where can I get more details, pricing on this? We love it? thank you

[Paul Walker]

Hi Teresa, a good point worth considering. The good thing is that any of the latest DWG readers will continue to open older DWG files, and the latest Autodesk Object Enablers will load the older DWG files too. Also the 2012 standalone export utility (available now), could still be used by customers for earlier version software, so they should be OK.

The main concern would be for anyone who needs to install a 2004-2006 object enabler (where a later version of the OE doesn't exist) against future versions of Navisworks. Let us know if the gov/inf projects you're referring to fall into this category. However most third-party AutoCAD-based apps I'm aware of have released at least a 2007 OE, so again should be OK.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Paul Walker]

Thanks for the feedback Basam, an interesting idea. One of the drivers for considering this though is the additional impact on engineering and QA resource each new version requires, (as each old file reader has to be reconfigured and QA'd against the latest version of Navisworks).

I understand what you mean about the single installer - there are technical reasons for the current installer configuration (not my area of expertise I'm afraid), however your point is noted. Thanks.

[Basam Yousif]

How about you keep it, but as a separate "add-on" that people can download when needed ?

Also, can you please group all these installations into ONE line for easier uninstall ?

[Teresa Martin]

I think dropping support for 2004-2006 could be an issue for government clients. Government/Infrastructure projects typically have a very long scope (6-10 years). Frequently, these projects stick with the software that was used from the project's inception. This could be deal breaker for firms and government agencies dealing with older legacy data.