Item: AutoCAD Web
Rating: 4
Author: Tim Dorscher

Overall Satisfaction with AutoCAD 360

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It was used as a test to allow remote members to view our drawings on a mobile device and make markups and or changes as they saw fit on site. More architectural sites are requiring us to use mobile devices rather than paper copies of the plans so this was a way to enable us to meet that requirement.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Real time feedback on drawings from a site.
Real time updates on dimensions while site dimensioning.
Faster iteration times when working on a remote location.

Cons

Editing features are difficult to use even for seasoned ACAD users. More confusing for trades not familiar with the program.
Drawing features are frustratingly limited and overly complicated to use. It looks like they tried to go for simplicity but in the end made it more difficult to even draw a line then it should be.
Requires a stylus so I suggest an MS Surface device or perhaps an iPad Pro. Any other tablet does not have the resolution needed to properly use this program. Drawing or editing with your finger is pretty near impossible. Maybe it was the size of our members fingers but we were foundering until we tried with a proper device and stylus/Pen combination.
If you use ACAD in your daily routine then AutoCAD 360 will be frustratingly limited in it's use and ability.

Return on Investment

None as we abandoned the software.

Alternatives Considered

We have not used any other products.

Other Software Used

AutoCAD

Likelihood to Recommend

It is a great viewer for native DWG files and having the "ability" to mark up and edit on site is great in theory. In practice, it becomes significantly more difficult than creating a PDF file and making notes on it using other readily available and free apps. The learning curve was too steep for most of our field team to work effectively with it. Even those who had many years of CAD under their belt struggled and went back to marking up a PDF file. This "failure" required less investment in hardware overall and users were able to complete their tasks more effectively. The drawback to reverting back to a PDF was that the changes then had to be captured, sent and then completed by others as opposed to the simplicity of doing it once while on site.

AutoCAD Web Feature Ratings

Comments

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Great for Viewing DWG files remotely but editing/drawing will frustrate even seasoned ACAD users