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  #1  
Old 03-10-2004, 09:51 AM
pdimond pdimond is offline
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Free Viewer for OneSpaceDesigner

Does anyone know of a Free Viewer for OSD? There used to be FirstSpace but that is no more and the VRML files required were very large.

I have been doing some work with a company in the States and they have SolidWorks, I have OSD. They send me files that I can use with a FREE SolidWorks Viewer called eDrawings - It is brilliant. We have telephone conferences whilst both parties are able to view the model in question. Trouble is, that SolidWorks is getting all the praise from the rest of the team.

I know that CoCreate have got OneSpace.Net - but that takes time and money to set up. Probably well worth it for large projects. But for small ones lasting just a few weeks, something like the eDrawings Viewer is amazingly good.

The Problem now is, that my arm is being twisted by my managers that I should dump OSD in favour of SolidWorks that has this ability to let anybody 'view' the models I am working on!

Can anybody help?
Do CoCreate supply a FREE viewer that competes with eDrawings? If not why not?

Regards.

Paul
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  #2  
Old 03-10-2004, 01:28 PM
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clausb clausb is offline
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See the following previous threads for notes on viewers (most of them free):

Hope this helps,

Claus
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  #3  
Old 03-16-2004, 01:28 AM
pdimond pdimond is offline
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Thankyou Claus for the links to info already on this site. I have now looked at these and found them ALL to be lacking in some or all of the areas detailed below.

The part and assembly names are lost.
The assembly structure is lost.
The ability to selectively view parts is not available
Windows 2000 and XP not supported by Cosmo
Most do not have any measure capabilities.

Sorry to harp on about eDrawings, but that package copes with all of the above.

3D Access would I'm sure also cope - but as this can't be freely downloaded - it does not compete.

I feel that OSD is a great modeling package - it just seems a shame that we, the users, are unable to spread the word by allowing our customers/collegues to 'freely view on there own PC' the work we do.

A word of warning - You would not believe the speed of general acceptance of the SolidWorks product throughout our company. And this is directly due to eDrawings! And we use OSD!

Regards. Paul.
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  #4  
Old 03-16-2004, 02:41 AM
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clausb clausb is offline
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Paul,

I'm not a sales guy, but I'm sure you can get a good (company) deal on 3D Access. You might want to explore this possibility.

Apart from that, what is the minimum functionality you'd need in a free viewer?

Claus
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  #5  
Old 03-16-2004, 04:27 PM
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Lim Chee Beng Lim Chee Beng is offline
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Free viewer

I fully agree with Paul. In order to promote OSD, we really need a free viewer in the market. Just imagine what has Adobe done for pdf format, VoloView for dwg/dxf format etc. 3D Access with charges just stop new users from trying it. VRML viewer with file format exchange might create more problem in collaboration.
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  #6  
Old 03-17-2004, 12:25 AM
Harry Harry is offline
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Exclamation

I can not understand why Cocreate hasn't released a free viewer.

Like said by others, a free viewer promotes the use of the specific file type!
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  #7  
Old 03-18-2004, 07:10 AM
pdimond pdimond is offline
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Thanks for the interest guys,

Claus, A good (company) deal may be possible, but unless I can freely show my designs to my clients/customers then it is not worth following up!

The minimum functionality for a viewer is an interesting one.

In my opinion, it would have to have the following.

1. Free to download and use.
2. Display and manipulate parts and assemblies
3. Maintain the assembly structure and names.
4. Be able to selectively view/hide parts and/or assemblies
5. Print ability

A few extras like :- a measure facility; cut planes; adding notes etc would be nice (like that dreaded eDrawings has!!!!! ) but not necessarily 'minimum functionality'.

Incidentaly - the project I am working on - has a PDR in April - Guess which 'viewer' the project manager is demanding to show off the design? - Yep, you've guessed it .... eDrawings

Never mind - perhaps on my next project I will be able to show off CoCreate's '3D Access Lite'

Paul
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  #8  
Old 03-18-2004, 07:24 AM
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clausb clausb is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by pdimond

1. Free to download and use.
2. Display and manipulate parts and assemblies
3. Maintain the assembly structure and names.
4. Be able to selectively view/hide parts and/or assemblies
5. Print ability
Paul,

thanks a lot for your help in definining a minimum set of functionality. Actually, this sounds a lot like FirstSpace to me.

What exactly do you mean by "display and manipulate" parts and assemblies? What kind of manipulations do you need there?

Thanks,

Claus
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  #9  
Old 03-18-2004, 10:47 PM
Harry Harry is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by pdimond
[...]
Never mind - perhaps on my next project I will be able to show off CoCreate's '3D Access Lite'
[...]
What do mean by lite version? 3d access can be installed on every pc, ther is no pasword check for it.

Why doesn't CC make this official so you can spread the viewer legal?
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  #10  
Old 03-19-2004, 12:19 AM
pdimond pdimond is offline
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Claus,

What I mean by 'manipulate' is simply zoom in/out; spin; pan etc - I did not mean move parts around relative to each other - that's the job of the designer using OSD.

And yes, it does sound like FirstSpace - we used to have have a copy of that - and it was good.
There does not seem to be a link to download it from the CoCreate website? (please correct me if I am wrong)
Is it still current?
And was there a desire to move away from vrml files due to thier size - or am I getting my wires crossed?

Harry - I made that up about 3D Access Lite. I take your point about no licence requirement, but unless CoCreate allow it to be freely dowloaded from their website - by anyone - then I would feel very uncomfortable sending that around for clients/customers to use.

Paul.
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  #11  
Old 03-19-2004, 01:22 AM
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clausb clausb is offline
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Paul,

thanks for the clarifications, this helps.

I don't think we're distributing FirstSpace via the web site anymore. In general, I am not too familiar with the reasons for the discontinuation of FirstSpace, but I still wanted to discuss your requirements here so that I can use the results to spur an internal discussion on the subject.

Claus
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  #12  
Old 03-19-2004, 02:38 AM
pdimond pdimond is offline
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Claus,

Thanks again for your interest - and I really hope something positive comes from your internal discussion - very soon!

I also responded on this subject earlier this month, to a comment in the CoCreate Newsletter (to Ailbhe Coughlan). Apart from an acknowledgement - nothing more yet.

I feel that OSD is a great product - we have 5 seats here and another department has 1 seat of SolidWorks. We in the OSD camp are coming under great pressure to allow free viewing of our designs to customers/clients – we can’t respond in the same way that SolidWorks eDrawings can - and it make us feel totally inadequate.

My task to persuade our management that we need another seat of OSD is going to be very difficult indeed – they have not ‘seen’ OSD designs, but they sure have ‘seen’ the SolidWorks designs!

Paul.
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  #13  
Old 03-31-2004, 12:48 PM
Michel Gendron Michel Gendron is offline
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OneSpace.net and Model Explorer

I've tried OneSpace.net and it's possible to use Model Explorer to see the files. It's a 96Meg app to download, but if I remember well, every thing was done through Java. It's only in english, but it's doing every thing we need from a viewer, 3D and 2D if I'm right.

That software work in collaboration and in stand alone, but I think you always need to be connected to the server to access file and use Model Explorer. I'm not sure about that point. I didn't got enough time to test that.

CoCreate push a lot OneSpace.net. If we can (like FirstSpace) get reel stand alone viewer than can turn in a full collaborative software, I think that will be the door opener for OneSpace.net

I'm lucky, our customer still want dwg files to approve drawing. But a free viewer 2D/3D viwer for CoCreate will help us to justify our software usage over Autocad. (we have more than 75 customer and many got low speed connection).

That's my drop in the ocean of compassion.

Michel
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  #14  
Old 04-16-2004, 01:18 PM
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Ron Keeley Ron Keeley is offline
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Angry

I've asked for free viewers for 2D and 3D from CoCreate for many, many years, and we've had a few tastes of it, such as the FirstSpace product, but they just don't seem to last.

I also love eDrawings, and I've asked CoCreate numerous times to consider providing eDrawings output from their tools. About 4 years ago, I also asked a SolidWorks VP to allow eDrawings to become a defacto standard by opening it up to other CAD vendors. Alas, I haven't seen it come to anything. However, Geometric Software Solutions (GSSL) has produced a plug-in for producing eDrawings from Pro/E. SolidWorks also provides a plug-in for AutoCAD. Seems like CoCreate could work with GSSL to have them create a plug-in for CoCreate applications. Wouldn't that be cool?

Besides the interface and the cool way that eDrawings work, I really like that they are based on an open standards, openHSF (Hierarchical Streaming Format). Heck, if CoCreate wanted to, they could create their own viewer using HSF. While I would think that having CoCreate apps create real eDrawings, compatible with anybody that has an eDrawings viewer, at least having a small and free viewer with the aforementioned capabilities would be a real plus.

Having said all that - I still think eDrawings is the way to go!
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  #15  
Old 04-19-2004, 12:41 PM
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stefano_ME30 stefano_ME30 is offline
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3D_Access

I was downloading 12.01C update when I found the 3DAccess software.
I installed it and it works great!

I had only a fast surf, so cannot say alot but feeling was very good.

Only a fast ask, is there any setting for to disable any save command and/or model modification?

It is not a deal that viewer guy can export models in ACIS or other format or .pkg.

Many thanks and enjoy of nice work.

stefano
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