Autodesk Design Review and DWF enable building designers to conduct fast, effective all-digital design reviews with non-CAD users.

MKM & Associates Shortens the Design Review Process with Autodesk Design Review

“Writing down 30 comments could take us four hours or more. But with Design Review, you can put your comments within the context of the design, which makes things so much easier for both the engineer and the contractor. In fact, we can do the same amount of work in half an hour or 45 minutes.”
—Mark Douglas, MKM & Associates

Read the Autodesk Design Review Building Design White Paper (pdf - 78Kb)

Architects and engineers understand that competing in today’s building industry demands increasingly seamless collaboration with all project team members— even non-CAD users. In response, they are exploring all-digital ways to make design collaboration with non-CAD users more automated, clearer, and faster. A reporti recently issued by the AberdeenGroup highlights this fact, noting that CAD publishing, especially 3D publishing, is the fastest growing form of collaboration within design-dependent industries. Successful approaches to design collaboration will require effective ways to publish, share, and comment on designs both during the design review process and throughout the building lifecycle.

Knowing that a myriad of problems can result when project team members lack ready access to design information, many building industry participants are scrambling to build secure, electronic, and collaborative 2D and 3D design review capabilities. When they cannot provide electronic access to designs, designers must depend on traditional paper-based methods, including delivery and fax, for exchanging and reviewing designs with clients, consultants, and contractors who are non-CAD users. These methods are not only slower than electronic processes, they are also more error-prone, disconnected, and harder to control and manage. Moreover, lack of electronic access to designs causes problems beyond the design stage of the building lifecycle, resulting in inefficiencies during building construction and operation. Problems common with traditional processes include:

• Inefficient design review cycles in which reviewers handwrite comments and designers generate multiple design drafts per cycle
• Lack of time for valuable back checking, increasing the risk of errors, miscommunications, and version control problems
• Incomplete design data for non-CAD users, forcing designers to waste valuable time clarifying the rich details of designs, such as measurements and 3D elements
• Excessive costs associated with printing, distributing, and storing designs throughout the life of the building

From planning to building to facility operation, Autodesk® Design Review software and DWF™ technology power more effective and clearer design collaboration between CAD and non-CAD users by delivering easy-to-use tools that allow all project team members to view, review, and mark up designs. During preliminary design, the software automatically tracks markups, and thanks to tight integration with Autodesk® design software, allows designers to incorporate comments and changes into designs quickly and seamlessly. Autodesk Design Review then streamlines communication around design issues with contractors before and during construction, helping to prevent delays. The usefulness of Autodesk Design Review does not stop when a building is complete. After construction, Autodesk Design Review enables facility managers to view, share, and annotate as-built drawings, driving more efficient facilities management processes.

By enabling architects and engineers to effectively share designs and collaborate with clients, consultants, and contractors, Autodesk Design Review and DWF save time, reduce the risk of errors, and help control costs throughout the building lifecycle. Just as importantly, architectural and engineering firms that incorporate these effective collaboration tools into projects—sooner rather than later—stand to gain a competitive advantage.

In this white paper, we will explore how building project teams that use Autodesk Design Review and DWF are able to keep projects moving forward effectively by connecting processes at every stage of the building lifecycle.

Faster, More Connected Building Processes

By introducing projects teams to Autodesk Design Review and DWF, architects and engineers can deliver easy-to-use, accurate, and powerful design collaboration capabilities to non-CAD users. Project architects simply publish DWF files of designs directly from within Autodesk® Revit® software-based applications, Autodesk® Architectural Desktop, Autodesk® Building Systems, or AutoCAD® software products. Clients, contractors, and other stakeholders view, review, measure, and mark up those DWF files electronically with Autodesk Design Review. Consultants can securely share information without exchanging printed drawings or huge DWG™ files. As a result, there are faster and fewer design reviews, change orders are documented automatically, and project teams communicate more clearly. Additionally, Autodesk Design Review is integrated with all design software from Autodesk, the world’s leading provider of design software to architects and engineers according to Gartner’s annual updateii on the AEC market.

Let’s look more closely at how Autodesk Design Review and DWF transform and accelerate the way project teams complete building projects.

Learn How Design Review Works in the Project Workflow (pdf - 255Kb)

Streamlined Design

Autodesk Design Review accelerates design review cycles, speeding up the pace of the entire design process. The architectural team publishes DWF files for the client and lead architect to review and mark up. The lead architect uses markup tools in Autodesk Design Review to give detailed comments on the design for the draftsperson to execute. Overlaying the DWF file in his design software, the draftsperson makes the changes quickly. The client then views, reviews, and marks up the design in DWF with Autodesk Design Review. Thanks to the free* Autodesk DWF Viewer, people in the client’s organization who do not need markup capabilities can view the design as it evolves.

Agile Consultant Collaboration

As engineers become involved, Autodesk Design Review makes design collaboration across the extended team faster and clearer. Project engineers publish designs as DWF files from within their design software. They then e-mail them to the project team or post them on one of Autodesk’s on-demand collaborative project management offerings, such as the Autodesk® Buzzsaw® or Autodesk® Constructware® services. Because they do not have to share DWG files with other consultants, their work is secure and protected against unauthorized changes. The team uses Autodesk Design Review to comment on designs and to request changes. Digital back checks reduce the risk of errors and automatic markup tracking enables consultants to review design status and changes.

Faster Construction Validation

Autodesk Design Review and DWF facilitate earlier and more efficient collaboration with contractors. Working with the architect, the client shares DWF files of preliminary designs with the general contractor. The contractor reviews the files for constructability. When the contractor has questions or concerns, he makes comments using Autodesk Design Review. The project manager collects all project construction cost estimates and timelines in Autodesk Design Review, which tracks changes automatically. Because the contractor’s insights are included earlier in the process, the team sets the stage for a more hassle-free construction phase. The general contractor can also distribute drawings digitally to subcontractors for faster bids and estimates.

Better Building Permitting

Digital permitting with DWF and Autodesk Design Review further accelerates the project—while saving a significant amount of paper. The architect submits DWF files of building plans to the local city planning agency, which accepts DWFbased plans. City planners review and mark up the plans in Autodesk Design Review. The architect and the draftsperson overlay the comments on the original design and quickly make the changes. After checking the changes, the planning department issues the necessary permits and is able to efficiently archive the compact DWF files.

Coordinated Construction

With Autodesk Design Review and DWF, the contractor, client, architect, and engineers can all collaborate to resolve construction issues in record time. The contractor marks up DWF files with comments when he has questions. The design team is able to respond almost immediately. Autodesk Design Review tracks and archives all change orders automatically. At the job site, the construction team can print accurate DWF files of plans for subcontractors thanks to integration with large-format printers. And Autodesk Design Review enables the construction team to measure elements within designs, minimizing the need to use phone or fax to verify measurements.

Efficient Facilities Management

Both Autodesk Design Review and DWF contribute to more efficient facilities management processes by making designs more available to owners, facilities managers, and occupants. When the building is complete, the design team delivers DWF files of the building to the owner. During the operational phase, the facility manager can then use the files to streamline maintenance activities and to populate facilities management tools, such as Autodesk FMDesktop software. Autodesk Design Review and DWF enable the facility manager to easily share designs and collaborate around evolving facility needs with team members over the intranet. SOM Communicates Complex Design Changes Faster Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) is one of the world’s leading architecture, urban design, and engineering firms. Since its founding in 1936, SOM has completed over 10,000 projects around the world and won more than a thousand awards for quality and innovation. That level of innovation is why owner/developer Silverstein Properties picked SOM to design the Freedom Tower, the first building to rise on the site of the former World Trade Center. After a competitive software selection process, SOM chose Autodesk® Revit® Building software as the project’s primary architectural design tool. To share the 3D building models created in Revit, SOM uses Autodesk Design Review and DWF. Autodesk Design Review provides all project stakeholders—even non- CAD users—with custom markup and approval tools. These tools enable the extended project team to communicate complex design changes with speed and clarity as the firm moves to all-digital processes.

Conclusion

As reportediii by the AberdeenGroup, the necessity for efficient, digital design collaboration is rippling through design-dependent industries. In Autodesk Design Review and DWF, Autodesk offers a complete solution for successful design collaboration that leverages the world’s most popular building design software. DWF allows any team member to view designs with the free* DWF Viewer. Autodesk Design Review extends the power of DWF to allow clients, consultants, and contractors to easily review, mark up, and measure drawings. By adopting Autodesk Design Review and DWF, architectural and engineering firms can accelerate the design review process and design collaboration at every stage of the building lifecycle. Moreover, firms that turn to effective all-digital collaboration ahead of the competition are likely to see a business advantage in the form of more satisfied clients and accelerated projects.

Design firms like SOM and MKM are using Autodesk Design Review and DWF to shave days off of design review processes and reduce the number of review cycles per project. They are achieving these tangible results by helping ensure clients, contractors, and consultants can collaborate successfully and connect processes that have traditionally been disconnected. With Autodesk Design Review and DWF enabling more effective design collaboration, building industry participants can:

• Conduct faster, more efficient design review cycles
• Decrease the risk of errors and miscommunications with improved back checking capabilities
• Share more complete and easier to understand designs with non-CAD users
• Reduce the costs associated with printing, distributing, and storing designs throughout the building lifecycle

Find out how Autodesk Design Review can make your building projects and processes flow faster. Visit us on the web at www.autodesk.com/designreview

i AberdeenGroup, The Product Lifecycle Collaboration Benchmark Report, 2006.

ii Gartner Dataquest, Market Share: AEC Applications Software, Worldwide, 2005.

iii AberdeenGroup, The Product Lifecycle Collaboration Benchmark Report, 2006.

*This product is subject to the terms and conditions of the end-user license agreement that accompanies download of this software.

IN THIS WHITE PAPER

In this IDC White Paper, IDC discusses the global pressures that are forcing business process changes upon design and engineering companies as well as small, mediumsized, and large enterprises. These changes open the door to new opportunities as well as threats of harsher competition. To succeed in this changing economic environment, companies are beginning to form extended business networks within manufacturing, infrastructure, and design-build. However, managing these often global and multiple partnerships and work processes requires new technologies and new tools.

Autodesk® has a long history of providing the building, infrastructure, and manufacturing industries with cost-effective and easy-to-learn product design applications. Founded in 1982, and with over 3,400 employees, customers in 145 countries, and revenue of $1.234 billion in fiscal 2005, Autodesk is one of the world’s leading design software and services companies. Therefore, it is no surprise that the company has taken the initiative to develop a comprehensive all-digital and Webenabled solution for its design, engineering, and manufacturing clients in the new product development (NPD) market space.

Autodesk is responding to the demands of global partnerships for NPD with the introduction of new technologies and collaboration solutions that help global companies better manage and share design product and project information across their entire enterprise. The core of its collaboration solution offerings is Autodesk DWF™ technology, which makes digital workflows possible by connecting project teams and individuals with the most accurate design information at any given point in the project’s life cycle. Autodesk provides a set of products and tools based on its DWF technology to help companies share and manage design information no matter what design software is used.

At this writing, the Autodesk DWF Viewer has been downloaded more than 11 million times, making it the industry’s leading vehicle used to share design data. Additionally, 24 ISVs and more than 100 developers are using the DWF toolkit to offer added value to customers. There is every indication that Autodesk is well on track to turn DWF into a de facto standard for Web-enabled design engineering collaboration.

SITUATION OVERVIEW

The design, engineering, and manufacturing market is no longer what it used to be. Particularly since the advent of the Internet, companies have expanded their operations from local to regional markets, from regional to national markets, and now to global markets. What was true five years ago for electronics, apparel, and largescale civil engineering projects is now true for practically all business activities. As a result of the increasingly worldwide customer base, business opportunities have grown dramatically for both large and small enterprises. This scenario holds true for manufacturers and service providers in manufacturing, infrastructure, and construction companies.

To compete effectively, companies are rethinking and restructuring their business processes. Being efficient internally will not be enough. They will have to be efficient both inside and outside their four walls. They must effectively collaborate with their entire business partner network. At issue are unambiguous information exchange, control over business processes, and assurance of timeliness, quality, and cost of their products and services.

The tools that they use must be able to:

• Share design data with entire project team, even non-CAD users
• Make rich design data available for quick design reviews
• Support distributed cross-functional groups with standardized technologies and applications

To achieve these goals, companies are increasingly relying on Web-based workflow to control internal product and project management throughout the enterprise and throughout the extended business partner network.

The keys for success in this emerging environment of extending business networks are the enablement, management, and control of workflow connecting people and processes faster and more efficiently in a secure environment. However, these tasks are easier said than done. Yes, large numbers of business activities are automated electronically using task-specific software by a large number of application providers. However, because data structures, architectures, and operating systems differ between user groups and applications, data exchange and collaboration among a company’s distributed cross-functional business teams or among partners can be a major hurdle — even more so when these partners use different languages, metrics, and currencies. There is no doubt that cross-functional collaborative business processes can only succeed if current task-related "silos" of communication and data are opened up to enable seamless businesswide information exchange and workflow.

FUTURE OUTLOOK

A Need to See, Share, and Manage: Product and Project Collaboration with Autodesk DWF Technology
DWF technology is the foundation for life-cycle management and enables digital workflows by connecting project teams with accurate, data-rich design information at any point in the project life cycle. An open, standards-based specification, DWF enables organizations to securely share 2D and 3D design information while minimizing errors, costs, and information loss throughout the process.

DWF facilitates an integrated, all-digital design review process. With DWF Composer software, 2D and 3D designs can be reviewed, marked up, and then revised through an integrated design review process between designers and their team members. AutoCAD® DWG, DWF, and other files can be viewed and printed, measured, redlined, and annotated. All changes are automatically tracked and can be viewed in the original CAD application, closing the loop between the designer and the review team. (For more details on DWF, please refer to www.autodesk.com/dwf. To gain a detailed perspective on the benefits a variety of end users have gained from using DWF, please refer to the three customer case studies at the end of this IDC White Paper.)

When discussing the benefits of DWF, product and project contributors in extended business networks are stressing the following challenges:

• The need to enable enterprisewide teams to collaborate over the Web
• The need to control work processes and workflow among dispersed teams
• The need to do so flexibly, cost-effectively, and in an easy-to-use fashion

The following sections provide brief discussions of these challenges.

Team Collaboration over the Web
The time has come to cut back on the fees flowing to overnight couriers from shipping product and construction drawings or product models back and forth across various countries and oceans. This is where data compression technology can turn the Internet into an alternative communication channel that is much faster and cheaper than overnight mail or couriers can ever hope to be. In particular, CAD files that can be many gigabytes in size can benefit from the availability of data compression to provide what is called "light geometry."

Beyond reducing the file size without losing data precision, the second challenge to achieving effective workflow for team collaboration is to make sure that anyone can read these files — that is, users of specific CAD programs in which the files are written, as well as nonusers. Of course, product information is critical to CAD users, as well as to professionals in sales and marketing, purchasing, maintenance, and technical support and publication, none of whom can reasonably be expected to be CAD savvy or to have full-fledged CAD programs on their PCs. In fact, the ratio of product information users between CAD and non-CAD users can be conservatively estimated at 1:10.

The interviews conducted with end users reinforced this message. The ability to collaborate with an extended team in an efficient manner and the ability to offer increased functions to this team were seen as solid value propositions. Collaborating over the Internet with documents that can be shared, worked upon, and managed without impacting the network or storage requirements benefits a large range of cross-functional activities within the organizations. IDC interviewed three Autodesk customers for the case studies presented at the end of this IDC White Paper.

Work Processes and Workflow Among Dispersed Teams
As business networks expand and become more dispersed, controlling work processes and product workflow becomes increasingly challenging. Only if these processes are closely managed can companies achieve their goals — closer collaboration, controlled workflow, more efficient use of resources, faster time to market, lower cost, and broader product portfolio.

One area of particular importance for designers and engineers is engineering change management. Careful product engineering can have a tremendous impact on product profitability and customer satisfaction. The message is not only to "design the right product" but also to "design it right the first time." Therefore, well-coordinated product planning at the start of each project will pay off later in a product’s life through faster time to profit and greater customer satisfaction.

Engineering change orders (ECOs), if poorly managed, can rapidly lead to cost overruns, errors, and delayed product launches. ECOs, particularly for complex products, can involve participation and sign-off of a large number of product groups and hold up product releases by several months. Or, if change requests are not controlled carefully, incorrect or obsolete product plans can easily be passed on to construction or manufacturing execution. The result will be scrap or rework and dissatisfied customers. Kevin C. Scott, vice president of architecture and design at Dallas-based Centex Homes, found that cost savings from faster design reviews across widely dispersed and cross-functional teams amounted to $250 per house, not an insignificant sum for a company that has delivered 30,358 homes. (For a more detailed discussion of Centex Homes’ use of DWF, please refer to the Case Studies section at the end of this IDC White Paper.)

Flexibility, Cost-Effectiveness, and Ease of Use
Collaboration can involve a large number of people with expertise in different areas. Leveraging the skill sets of CAD designers, conceptual artists, marketing and sales experts, business managers, and external resources can yield substantial dividends. DWF Composer supports this cross-functional collaboration by allowing users to interact in a role-specific manner. CAD designers have access to the full set of design review capabilities, but nonengineers can view the product in the "light geometry" mode available through the free DWF Viewer. This flexible approach helps users to set up their workplaces in accordance with their specific requirements and reduces the networking and storage costs without curtailing the users’ effectiveness.

Autodesk Introduction of DWF
As the leading provider of design and engineering software applications worldwide with global installations of about 5 million copies of its AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit®, and Autodesk Inventor® software products, Autodesk began to receive requests from its end users to address Internet-enabled product development collaboration within extended business networks. In 1996, Autodesk began to introduce DWF. This early entry into the collaboration and visualization market has since evolved into DWF Composer, a tool for speeding design review and transforming it from a manual process into a digital process, and DWF Viewer, a visualization tool that can be downloaded free of charge from www.autodesk.com/dwfviewer-download. The success of this approach can be seen by the more than 11 million downloads. Autodesk has also integrated DWF into its data management and collaboration solutions, including Autodesk Buzzsaw™, Autodesk Productstream™, and Autodesk Vault.

The following section provides a brief outline of the Autodesk DWF-based products and tools for sharing and collaborating on design data.

Design Review and Markup with Autodesk® DWF™ Composer

Autodesk DWF Composer addresses the design review process. It offers an all-digital way to review, mark up, and revise 2D and 3D designs without the original creation software. Users can accurately view and print DWF™, AutoCAD DWG, and DXF™ files; measure, redline, annotate, and automatically track the status of changes, and then round-trip them back into the design application for revisions.

Its key benefits are the following:

• Design team members can accelerate the review process with easy-to-use review, measure, and markup tools.
• Both CAD users and non-CAD users can participate in the review process digitally through easy-to-use design review tools.
• It provides a cost-effective solution for professionals who don’t use CAD or 3D design software.
• Users can view and plot the latest DWG files and publish them to DWF.
• Users can communicate comments digitally to expedite decision making and reduce the number of review cycles and use status tools and comment sections to move the design review to final.
• Users can minimize errors by integrating DWF into their companies’ workflows to communicate design changes quickly and concisely and to automatically track all markups, comments, and annotations.
• Users can easily track changes from start to finish by loading markups made with Autodesk DWF Composer in Autodesk design software Markup Set Manager, without reentering information.

The following sections offer a closer look at some of DWF Composer’s features and competition.

File Size
DWF Composer and DWF Viewer are built using file compression technology that can reduce native design file sizes so they can be efficiently transmitted over the Internet. For example, a CAD file of about 2GB can be compressed down to 204MB and transmitted via a cable modem connection within 40 seconds or less. And unlike raster-based file technologies such as JPG, TIF, or PDF, they retain the intelligent object-based design data of the original drawing.

Integrated Markups
DWF Composer offers smart shape tools and snapping technology to add polylines, rectangles, ellipses, and freehand sketching as well as text tools for the creation, placement, and editing of comments. Users can communicate the design review status with preconfigured stamps indicating various review stages from "preliminary" to "final."

DWF Composer also enables automatic tracking of markups and annotations in the markup tab of the AutoCAD Navigator window. The Markup Properties section displays information on who added markups or annotations as well as the date. This close connection between DWF Composer’s review and markup features with the AutoCAD product family allows AutoCAD designers to access and navigate through annotations in each sheet set and reject or accept each comment or, if necessary, initiate another round of reviews.

When asked about the top 3 capabilities of DWF Composer by value to his company, Bob Bernas, corporate CAD manager at Consoer Townsend Envirodyne Engineers (CTE Engineers) in Chicago, Illinois, listed markup and annotation tools as one of them. (For a more detailed discussion of CTE’s use of DWF, please refer to the Case Studies section at the end of this IDC White Paper.)

Viewing and Printing
Taking a page from competitor Adobe’s playbook, Autodesk allows anyone to access the DWF Viewer, which is available as a free download from www.autodesk.com.dwfviewer-download. DWF Viewer enables users to view and print 2D and 3D drawings, maps, and models in the compressed DWF format. With one-click publishing from Autodesk design software and other design applications, and the free Autodesk DWF Writer, users do not need to buy additional software.

The viewer retains the information of the original CAD model, including drawing scale, precise design coordinates, sheet details, and object, component, and markup properties — without the original creation software. It supports up to 60 million dpi — the precision required for accurate presentation and measurement of engineering designs. Also, the viewer uses the same high-quality rendering engine as AutoCAD. If this free viewer is used to its full potential, the cost savings can be substantial. Jorge Baptista, information systems director for the city of Lisbon’s Municipal Council, emphatically declared: "It is completely unjustifiable to install an AutoCAD license on a document reproduction machine just to produce prints or for a lawyer to check an area from time to time." (For a more detailed discussion of the city of Lisbon’s use of DWF, please refer to the Case Studies section at the end of this IDC White Paper.)

To seed the market for DWF acceptance, Autodesk is making the toolkit source code available free of charge to other developers. Overall, DWF is now supported by 24 ISVs, and more than 100 developers are using the DWF toolkit. Among these application developers are VISIARC, Brava!, and Océ.

DWF Composer is priced at $199 in the United States. In the European Community, the retail price is 200 euros.

Competition
Autodesk is not the only provider of Web-enabled visualization tools for the design and engineering market. Other providers include UGS with its JT format; Cimmetry (now owned by Agile Software) with its AutoVue product; Lattice3D with its Lattice3D Composer; and Adobe with its PDF format.

As the market matures, many viewing tools for large files are becoming integrated into MCAD/CAE/CAM and product information management solutions. However, free viewers do not necessarily allow users to handle CAD formats by multiple vendors. In an effort to open up proprietary technology environments, Autodesk and UGS recently announced their plans to provide integration between DWF and JT, which will allow about 10 million users worldwide to collaborate on each others' design and engineering projects.

Before opting for Autodesk’s DWF file specification, Scott of Centex Homes had looked at other CAD products and viewers. He found that DWF was ahead in the market and, with additional features, should lead the market for a long time.

CONCLUSION

The health of many design and engineering companies undoubtedly will depend on their ability to adapt their business processes to the demands of a rapidly expanding business environment. At the core of success is the capability to take advantage of new technology for faster product development, better control over development changes, and greater satisfaction of customer expectations.

Three Autodesk customers interviewed for this IDC White Paper have taken the first steps on the road to collaboration across the business network. They found that:

• DWF can open the door for enterprisewide cross-disciplinary collaboration using workflow to connect people and processes.
• DWF can bring substantial cost savings by providing free viewing of CAD drawings to the large number of non-CAD users who need access to this information but who do not want to purchase a full-size CAD seat. The savings could amount to $1,000 and more per seat.
• DWF is a strong competitor in the field of Internet-enabled visualization of design and engineering drawings and may well be in a strong market position for a long time.
• DWF technology facilitates life-cycle management by allowing project teams to share accurate, data-rich design information at any point in the product life cycle.

The enthusiastic acceptance of the DWF Viewer indicates that Autodesk is embarking on the right track with its support for Internet-enabled viewing, publishing, and collaboration tools. IDC believes that Autodesk’s efforts to make DWF an open standard will contribute greatly to the continuing success of the family of Autodesk design and engineering applications worldwide.

CASE STUDIES

City of Lisbon , Portugal; Lisbon Municipal Council
Our discussion partners at the Lisbon Municipal Council (CML) were:

• Jorge Baptista, information systems director
• Henrique Saias, CAD manager

The CML manages hundreds of architects, engineers, and designers as well as professionals other than designers who need to consult or print drawings in digital format. The CML has recently been restructured with the goal of centralizing countless departments into one IT department, called the Department of Administrative Modernization and Information Management (DMAGI). The goal of this overhaul was to better serve Lisbon’s citizens with less money and to get a better return on investment.

The city has been an Autodesk customer for over five years, primarily using Autodesk Civil 3D® and Map® 3D software products for its roads and topography, as well as Autodesk Revit software solutions for architectural design. Nine months ago, the CML decided to purchase 2,000 seats of Autodesk’s DWF Composer. The CML’s goals were to replace high-bandwidth TIF files, paper files, and faxes with one standard format that could be easily accessible to all employees and to save time wasted on changing formats and tracking multiple document versions. According to our discussion partners, DWF Composer was selected for its functionality, price, and ease of use and because it was a natural extension to the existing installed base of Autodesk software. The first 500 seats are now used in pilot programs at the departments of Public Works, Residential Buildings, Urban Rehabilitation, and Environment and Recreation, and another 500 will be deployed in the near future.

Asked to name the top 3 capabilities of DWF Composer according to their current experience, the two Lisbon officials listed the ability to carry out design reviews with non-CAD users, improved workflow with better tools for collaboration, and the markup and annotation tools, although they are not yet widely used this early in the pilot phase. They were particularly pleased about improvements in version control with noticeably fewer customer complaints logged in at their help desk. They also stressed that they are reaping benefits from the compressed file size with lower storage requirements and less impact on the network. As the pilots progress and tools and "best practices" evolve, they plan to put in place rules that should help improve the overall CML organization.

Although DWF Composer is easy to use, our two discussion partners stressed that, nevertheless, careful planning is required for the end-user training process. For example, the CML has set up a "forum" that is used for self-paced learning and that also acts as a clearinghouse for problem resolution and proactive advice. The CML’s reseller, Micrografico, was a big help in getting this organized. In CML’s experience, the key to a successful introduction of DWF Composer is to start with those employees who understand the processes and problems and then to build out from those users into the rest of the organization. With 500 live DWF Composer users, the CML seems to be on the right track.

Centex Homes , Dallas , Texas

Our discussion partner at Centex Homes of Dallas, Texas, was:

• Kevin C. Scott, AIA, vice president of architecture and design

Centex Homes, with 7,500 employees in the United States, is among the largest multimarket, single-family homebuilders in the country. Centex’s operations are divided into five geographic regions and two nongeographic special operations, namely distinctive houses. Overall, Centex has delivered 30,358 homes in 92 market areas in 26 states.

In the words of Scott, customer satisfaction is the number 1 strategic imperative. The company pursues this objective by designing products for a broad market and then offering customers the option to tailor these houses. The key to success for Centex is to manage this process both without errors to satisfy the buyers and efficiently to maintain high margins.

Centex has been an Autodesk customer since the 1980s and currently uses 240 seats of Autodesk Architectural Desktop, as well as AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT®, and Autodesk’s Buzzsaw® on-demand collaborative project management service, among others. Scott stressed that Autodesk is the only company to share its vision of the future with Centex and to collaborate closely on plans for future developments. Centex is convinced that Autodesk will build the best ideas and trends into its products. As Scott put it: "Autodesk listens and delivers."

Centex started using DWF Composer about one year ago in place of GIF and PDF files. As Scott said, "With a PDF or GIF, it’s like you’re getting a brochure of the design. DWF, on the other hand, is the design." The selection of Autodesk’s DWF Composer was motivated by the stability of the company and its expertise in the home construction marketplace and because it was a natural extension of Centex’s existing installed base of Autodesk software. The company’s design professionals have bought 500 seats of DWF Composer to date, and senior management has downloaded at least 300 seats of DWF Viewer. Interestingly, the use of DWF Composer is now beginning to expand from the design creation side of the house to senior management. Plans for the next year include another 250 DWF Composer seats for design professionals and 300–500 seats of DWF Viewer for senior management.

Asked to name the top 3 capabilities of DWF Composer, Scott listed design reviews with non-CAD users, markup and annotation tools — although he felt they needed to be a bit stronger — and support of the real-time nature of the design process. He also stressed the benefits from the compressed file size (i.e., lower storage requirements and less impact on the network). Asked about changes as a result of implementing an electronic design and review process, Scott cited 25% cost savings as a result of faster design reviews, amounting to $250 per house. Overall, he believes that DWF Composer makes the average user 20–30% more productive. In particular, he stressed the importance of addressing "design problems before they become house problems, giving access to the process to people who should have access by the stroke of a key" — something he said he never dreamed he would be able to do. Clearly, DWF Composer has found an enthusiastic and loyal advocate who does not plan to move his business elsewhere in the near term.

CTE Engineers, Chicago, Illinois

Our discussion partner at CTE Engineers of Chicago, Illinois, was:

• Bob Bernas, corporate CAD manager

CTE, with over 650 employees nationwide, is a full-service consulting engineering firm specializing in planning, design, and construction services for transportation, environmental, and architecture projects. CTE is a member of the AECOM family of companies, a global company providing design and management services in the transportation, facilities, and environmental markets with a total of 19,000 employees.

Our discussion partner at CTE described the top strategic challenges in the marketplace for his company in terms of operational efficiency — "this is the big one" — along with overall process improvement, increased productivity, cost control, revenue growth, and competitive advantage.

CTE has been an Autodesk customer for more than 15 years and currently uses AutoCAD, Autodesk Architectural Desktop, Autodesk Building Systems, Autodesk Civil 3D, and Autodesk MapGuide® software products. Four months ago, the company purchased 21 copies of DWF Composer and DWF Viewer. Before acquiring DWF, the company had used in-house products for review and markup.

Our discussion partner at CTE selected DWF Composer over competing products because of its functionality and its support for workflow and collaboration and because it was a natural extension of CTE’s existing installed base of Autodesk software. Mixed cross-functional groups use the 21 seats across projects. CTE managers were particularly pleased about the benefits of wider access to their ecosystem and the efficient use of networking bandwidth and storage.

Asked to name the top 3 capabilities of DWF Composer, our discussion partner listed design reviews with non-CAD users, markup and annotation tools, and 2D and 3D viewing and printing. He also stressed the benefits from efficient document exchange across the organization and from DWF’s accuracy and resolution. Although CTE managers have not yet been able to measure changes as a result of implementing the new electronic design and review process, they generally believe that design reviews are faster, errors have been reduced, and costs for paper and FedEx shipments have gone down.

DWF Composer is definitely helping CTE to improve collaboration, communication, and workflow. Our discussion partner was pleased with the ability to share drawings with remote offices and to save time in uploading and downloading files. He was particularly glad to replace the traditional handmarks on paper drawings, which were difficult to read and at times illegible with the new electronic markup tools. Asked what advice he would give Autodesk about DWF Composer, our discussion partner declared that the company should "listen to users and let customers know about DWF Composer," a clear signal that Autodesk is on the right track.

Finding the Ideal Medium for Lifecycle Management

Building and infrastructure construction, and product design and manufacturing are all intrinsically collaborative processes. From conception and design on through to project completion and ongoing maintenance, all points in the lifecycle of any building, product, or infrastructure element involve the work of fluctuating teams of designers, engineers, developers, clients, and contractors. Even as the Internet-based project-collaboration tools have made it easier to manage large-scale projects, the collaborative nature of the group endeavor remains unchanged.

Recent studies tell us that for each design creator there are on average 10 consumers of that design information within an extended team, both inside and outside the enterprise. Distributing design information to these team members, and soliciting feedback, has long been a major cost in building construction, infrastructure, and manufacturing projects. The Internet, project collaboration tools, and email have done much in this area by making it possible for architects, cartographers, and engineers to distribute CAD model data to other designers nearly instantaneously anywhere around the world. But while physical barriers to communication among the design profession have been effectively removed, what hasn't changed is the inability of designers to share the full scope of their published work securely, efficiently, and accurately with colleagues, clients, and partners outside the design profession.

Moving Away from Paper

The cost of working with paper adds up to millions of dollars in losses every year within building construction, infrastructure, development and manufacturing. Delays involved in physically distributing designs, the difficulty of keeping distributed workers up to date, and the inability to track feedback on paper often result in costly mistakes. Secondary and directly measurable costs for creating and delivering printed designs also remain.

Replacing paper-based processes with electronic processes utilizing standard CAD or GIS authoring software often leads to challenges both from a technological sense and in terms of cost/time. In the first instance, it is not practical for professionals who are not CAD users/ designers to purchase, learn, and use sophisticated design applications such as AutoCAD®, Autodesk Inventor®, Autodesk Map® 3D 2005 or Autodesk® Revit®. In the second instance, while paper plans can be printed and sent to dispersed team members, the process is time-consuming, inefficient, and not easily tracked. On a typical large construction project, for example, costs associated with courier services like FedEx can easily reach as high as $500,000. Moreover, any input or changes made to printed designs have to be physically sent back to the designer who then must compile, resolve, and reconcile the various versions. Errors are often introduced when document markups are missed. From a cycle-time standpoint, the traditional paper publish-distribute-markup-return-revise-republish process involves a four-day turnaround or longer.

An alternative method that has been gaining popularity in recent years is for designers to recreate the current paper process in an electronic form using formats such as TIFF, JPEG, CALS, HPGL, and PDF. The drawback is that these electronic paper formats can't capture the intelligence within a design, and don't resolve the costly process issues of tracking, workflow, and accountability. Because they are capable only of presenting 2D images of what are actually complex 3D models, electronic paper formats lack the attributes necessary to serve as an effective medium for sharing design information.

A new standard has emerged, however, that combines the convenience of electronic paper with the rich viewing, tracking, querying, plotting, printing, workflow, and security capabilities demanded by designers. Known as DWF™ (Design Web Format™), this file type was specifically developed by Autodesk as a medium for architects, engineers, and GIS professionals to quickly capture and securely distribute rich design data anywhere it is needed—both within the design profession and beyond. DWF, from the beginning, has been an open standard, providing the specifications and technology for any vendor to develop applications that utilize DWF.

Intelligence You Can See

The open, compact, and secure DWF file format enables the efficient distribution of rich design data to anyone who needs it. DWF protects the integrity of the designs, and allows for the precise publishing, rendering and printing of even the most complex 3D designs and models. In fact, unlike paper-centric file formats, DWF can convey the rich design intent of the original CAD model, thereby ensuring that the user is receiving exactly what the author intended. As a format that's ready for viewing, printing, plotting, or placing in a web page, DWF also has distinct advantages over traditional paper-based documents.

By using DWF files instead of paper-based designs, firms can reduce or eliminate many of the hard costs associated with communicating and sharing design data: courier and mailing services; the labor needed to print, organize, sort, and store large document sets; and materials such as paper and ink. More importantly, the DWF format reduces the time it takes to manage the design creation and review processes. Consider its principal attributes:

• DWF offers the benefits of high fidelity, accuracy, and precision, including 3D viewing capabilities, and up to 60 million dpi
• Highly scalable, DWF is an extensible print-ready format that supports multiple pages, passwords, and object properties
• DWF files are highly compressed so that huge design models can be easily shared through email or Autodesk® Buzzsaw®, and viewed with Autodesk® DWF™ Viewer, a small, free*, downloadable application
• With a single mouse-click, users of Autodesk® design applications (AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Map 3D 2005) can create DWF files without sacrificing design integrity or printability. It is far easier and faster to publish a multisheet drawing, map, or model into a single DWF with all the sheets and layers preserved than to create a multipage PDF one sheet at a time
• There is no need to purchase another software program since DWF publishing is integrated into Autodesk applications. Furthermore, with the free Autodesk® DWF™ Writer, anyone can create DWF files from any Windows®-based design application, by simply selecting Autodesk DWF Writer from their standard Printer Name drop-down list. The DWF Writer allows users of other CAD applications that do not offer built-in DWF publishing, such as Bentley® MicroStation®, SolidWorks® and Pro/ENGINEER®, to create DWF files
• With DWF, publishers of design data can select the specific design data, layers, views, and plot styles they want recipients to see
• The format supports multisheet drawing sets, so designers can build a complete set of complex design documents or layouts into a single DWF file in one easy step
• DWF files are secure, helping protect the intellectual property of the original design. DWF files include only what the designer intends to share. By default, the precision of a DWF is similar to a paper plot; authors can increase the resolution as appropriate for their audience. Layer information can be turned on or off; object properties or attributes are not included unless published by the CAD user. Password protection and encryption of the DWF file further ensure the security of the DWF files
• DWFs are also ideal for archival use, since they're essentially an electronic plot. Their compact file size require less network storage space than native CAD files such as DWGs and certainly less cabinet space than multiple paper copies of project sheet sets
• Beyond graphics, DWF files can contain rich information from the original CAD model, including drawing and viewport scales, precise design coordinates, assorted views, hyperlinks, sheet details, and XML-based object properties. This means that users can query object information like the dimensions of a door and the part numbers of materials to be used
• The DWF Toolkit enables developers to build applications that read and write multisheet DWF drawings. There's security in knowing that DWF has become an industry standard for design and engineering professionals, and that multiple vendors support DWF now and will continue to do so well into the future

In addition, when an extended team needs to provide input on a design, Autodesk® DWF™ Composer software provides a complete set of review tools that enable users to contribute comments and ideas to DWF files without altering the original data. This high-performance review, markup, measure, printing, and plotting application for digital design data makes it easy for entire teams to work with designs. Familiarity with the originating design application is not necessary, and learning to use DWF Composer is quick and easy for everyone, from construction supervisors and senior executives to engineers and contractors.

For team members who simply need to view or print DWF files, the Autodesk DWF Viewer is a free, downloadable application that provides the same rich visual and print fidelity as Autodesk's advanced design applications. Unlike alternatives such as Adobe® Acrobat® or SolidWorks eDrawings, DWF Viewer is a high-fidelity and high-performance viewer for sharing 2D and 3D drawings, maps and models. Clearly, with its ability to accurately capture rich digital design data in a compact, open, secure, and readily transmittable format, DWF—in concert with the Autodesk DWF Viewer and DWF Composer—is the ideal solution for sharing design information.

A Matter of Specialization: The Advantages of DWF over PDF for the Design Team

Increasingly, designers and project managers are concluding that using printed plans and delivery services to get team input during the design process is simply too expensive and time-consuming. Since many project teams today are already set up on collaboration sites, or are connected via basic email and web access, most architects, contractors, engineers, suppliers, and vendors can be reached whenever and wherever they may be. The question now is how to distribute designs to everyone in a format that will allow them to see and understand the true intent of the designer.

Actual working design files (DWG format) created with an AutoCAD software program can be impractical for a variety of reasons. Security of the designer's intellectual property is a concern with DWG because anyone with the AutoCAD application can edit the file or steal the design. Moreover, paying for everyone on the team to install and then learn to use a sophisticated CAD or mapping application itself would be costly. So, for many in the building, product design, and mapping industries, the choice for a standard design collaboration/management format has been narrowed down to two possibilities: DWF or PDF. Let's consider each format's features and capabilities.

File Format Features and Capabilities

Looking at DWF versus PDF file formats there are some commonalities between the two. Both formats produce self-contained files; support multiple pages, printing, and password protection; and have raster and vector graphic support. With the purchase of Acrobat 6 Professional, users can publish files from AutoCAD; preserve CAD layers; and perform redlines/comments as they can with DWF.

However, PDF falls short compared to DWF in terms of a number of key capabilities for the design industry. While DWF was designed specifically for sharing rich design data, PDF was designed for textual-based document exchange. Today, Autodesk provides a better format for distributing and sharing engineering design data with DWF. DWF provides

• Accuracy, Fidelity, and Data Richness: DWF is built to support real-world coordinate measurement and understands that the world is 3D, not 2D. DWF files can be produced at a much higher precision than PDF, which is required for accurate presentation and measurement of engineering designs
• Performance and Scalability: DWF files are normally much smaller than PDFs—a design saved in DWF will average 1/3 to 1/10 the size of a corresponding PDF. The benefits of superior compression are diverse. DWF files transmit faster through email and over enterprise networks. DWFs also take up far less space than PDFs, saving on storage costs and reducing disk demand. In addition, DWF viewing technology renders large models faster, and allows real-time manipulation of huge data-sets through the use of spatial indexing technology not available with PDF
• Productivity and Workflow: DWF supports advanced markup, measurement, and workflow features not available with PDF. DWF includes markup remarks, timestamps, history, and status information and supports standard engineering markup symbology to improve communication. DWF measurements reflect real-world units, rather than paper distances and on a viewport-aware basis without requiring user calibration. The Autodesk DWF Composer and AutoCAD applications fully leverage DWF intelligence with markup browsing and round-trip markup workflow
• 3D graphics: DWF provides 3D capabilities in order to best capture and communicate the design intent of engineering models, including model or assembly structure and component properties. Users of Autodesk design applications, including Autodesk Inventor® 9, Autodesk Architectural Desktop, and Autodesk® Building Systems, can now, or will soon be capable of sharing 3D DWFs with their project teams

DWF: Meeting the Unique Needs of Design Teams

As the analysis above shows, DWF has clear advantages over PDF. In fact, in the areas that are most crucial for accurately conveying rich design information—view and print fidelity, compression, and scalability for design data, and design intelligence including 3D—PDF falls short. Without these critical functions, the PDF format is not optimized for designers to leverage all the capabilities of CAD applications. And in the larger picture, PDF prevents designers from sharing the full intent of their work with the extended team.

DWF, on the other hand, is specifically designed to meet the unique needs and demands of the design profession, and to facilitate the sharing of design information with extended teams. As an evolutionary enhancement to current processes, DWF requires little, if any, learning curve and no investment in new publishing applications. Moreover, by leveraging the model information, object properties, automatic hyperlinks, and other details that give CAD designs their depth and complexity, DWF enables all members of the extended team to understand the intent of the CAD designer. The clear advantages of DWF over PDF include

• DWF functionality lets nondesigners see the full integrity of the designer's work with complete fidelity, including 3D designs
• DWF is noneditable, so it protects the designer's intellectual property and ensures that the user sees exactly what the designer intended
• With richer design data, the level of information and knowledge available within the team is elevated and the decision-making process improves
• The more compact DWF file sizes help to boost productivity and efficiency because they transmit and download faster, and allow for faster application functions such as pan, zoom, and print
• Total cost of ownership is lower for DWF in at least two ways:
  • DWF files can be created from Autodesk publishing applications at no extra charge, but to create PDFs from AutoCAD or other design creation applications requires the additional purchase of Acrobat 6 Professional
  • The smaller DWF file sizes place less of a burden on system, bandwidth, and storage resources, leading to cost savings over the long term

The Viewing Applications

Autodesk DWF Viewer vs. Adobe Reader

Just as the DWF file format has many advantages over the PDF format, so does the Autodesk DWF Viewer provide more benefits to design teams than does Adobe® Reader®. Both are simple, free applications that allow users to view and print their respective "published" formats, but there the similarities end. Autodesk DWF Viewer uses the same printing and rendering engines as Autodesk design products. DWF Viewer provides full visual and print fidelity for designs and drawings and easier navigation tools and enables users to print to original scale or specified scale. Not so with Adobe Reader. Moreover, while it is relatively easy for an AutoCAD user to create a PDF and quickly distribute it, much of the detail of the original file will be lost when published to PDF and viewed in Adobe Reader. Autodesk DWF Viewer, on the other hand, provides easy access to information-rich 2D and 3D design data to anyone who needs it. DWF Viewer includes the complex information embedded in design files, including detailed information about each sheet within the DWF file and access to object properties published from applications like Autodesk® Architectural Desktop and Autodesk Map 3D. Put simply, the depth and scope that are essential to accurate engineering and architectural designs simply cannot be rendered in the Adobe Reader.

The Reviewing Applications

Autodesk DWF Composer vs. Adobe Acrobat Professional

The same issues of designer intent and viewing/printing integrity also hold true in the case of the reviewing applications of Autodesk and Adobe, Autodesk DWF Composer versus Acrobat 6.0 Professional. Created to help speed the document review process, Acrobat 6.0 Professional offers similar redlining tools and pan and zoom capabilities featured in DWF Composer. Yet Acrobat Professional was built as a general application to serve the needs of business executives, creative professionals, and administrative staff across a range of industries. As such, it not only lacks the key plotting and visual rendering elements of DWF Composer and DWF Viewer, but it also lacks the specialized attributes that are vital to efficient design collaboration in the construction, mapping, engineering, and manufacturing sectors.

When redlining, marking-up, measuring, plotting, printing, or even creating new DWF files, Autodesk users are assured of the highest fidelity. What's more, Autodesk users get the same viewing capabilities as the software that the design was created in—with dynamic pan, zoom, and 3D orbit. Team members can measure design elements right from the data and be assured of accuracy.

The markup and revision processes are also dramatically improved with Autodesk DWF Composer. Users can create smart markups with tools that snap to the underlying objects, easing the speed of design reviews. More importantly, any markups made in DWF Composer can be brought back into the AutoCAD 2005 family of products, for the complete round-tripping of markups, annotations, and other changes back into the original application, streamlining the design review process. DWF Composer also supports advanced sheet set organization and workflow capabilities, allowing users to fully control the design review process with the team. Redlines and markup are saved back into a DWF file, along with detailed information including author, status, history, and remarks for each annotation. The designer can review markups directly within AutoCAD to determine how best to modify the original drawing.

For a more-detailed comparison between viewers, please see the Viewer Comparison Matrix available online at www.autodesk.com/viewercomparison.

Total Cost of Ownership

Because the Autodesk and Adobe solution sets share many attributes—free downloadable viewer applications, for instance—it would seem at first glance that there would be little difference in the value they deliver over time. A closer look, however, reveals significant differences. First, the file formats. As mentioned above, PDF files and DWF files created from the same design file are not even close in size: DWFs are on average less than one-third the size of PDFs. Considering that a large construction project can easily generate 150,000 documents, the much larger sizes of PDFs are likely to require added storage capacity, bandwidth, and system resources, inevitably resulting in greater costs. Also, DWF publishing is a native feature of all Autodesk design applications and is free to non-Autodesk applications with the Autodesk DWF Writer, a downloadable application available at www.autodesk.com/dwfwriter. To create PDFs from an Autodesk publishing application, however, the user must purchase Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional. Also, it must be added that the DWF Composer reviewing tool is far less expensive than Acrobat Professional and is fully integrated with the AutoCAD 2005 family of products. Lastly, it is important to note that Autodesk provides a fully open specification and technology solution, providing the ability for users to develop applications to read, write, create, view, query, and print DWF files. Autodesk is committed to making these developer tools accessible to customers and partners.

Summary

A feature-by-feature comparison of the DWF and PDF file formats, along with the Autodesk and Adobe viewing and reviewing applications, shows that only the Autodesk offering provides unique capabilities and advantages to building, mapping, and product design project teams. Only with DWF can designers capture and securely communicate the full extent of their work with colleagues inside and outside the enterprise. DWF files are smaller and require fewer resources to transmit, review, and store. Users of Autodesk design applications do not need to invest in any other application in order to create DWF files. The viewing application, printing engine, and reviewing tool for the DWF format are better equipped for the specific needs of the building and engineering industries because they allow for the viewing, markup, and printing of both 2D and 3D drawings, maps, and models. With regard to total cost of ownership, the Autodesk solution set is far less expensive than the alternative. In short, the DWF file format is the ideal medium for packaging, delivering, and collaborating on intelligent design information.

*This product is subject to the terms and conditions of the end-user license agreement that accompanies download of this software.

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