eDrawings Viewer Getting Started Guide

Collaborate more effectively with everyone involved in your product development by using eDrawings software, the first email-enabled communication tool that dramatically eases the sharing of product design information.

eDrawings eliminates the communication barriers that designers and engineers deal with daily. It gives you and your extended design team the tools necessary to visualize, interpret, and collaborate with 2D and 3D product design data.

What is eDrawings?

eDrawings is a product design communication tool for sharing representations of both 2D drawings and 3D models. When viewed with the eDrawings Viewer, these files provide intelligent interpretation tools (3D Pointer, Virtual Folding, and Animated Drawing Views) that help the recipient easily understand and navigate the data they receive.

SOLIDWORKS assembly review without a license

Once created, an eDrawings file may be sent to anyone via email. To eliminate the frustrations normally associated with 2D and 3D design data, the viewer may be embedded directly in an eDrawings file. Anyone on a Windows PC can immediately view these files without additional CAD software or viewers.

Why Use eDrawings?

Using eDrawings can increase the number of people available to open and review design documents. Rather than opening SOLIDWORKS and consuming a license, the eDrawings Viewer is a free tool that carries many features and benefits.

eDrawings provides information to stakeholders, clients, or vendors that would typically be locked within your organization or passed in screenshots. Rather than sharing static images, eDrawings can remove the ambiguity that comes with sharing files with non-CAD users and help your team make more informed decisions at all levels of the approval chain.

Features and Benefits of Using the eDrawings Viewer

• Built-in Viewer: View and print native SOLIDWORKS and many other supported file types.
• Drawing Layout: Open individual views in a drawing and arrange them as desired, regardless of how the views were arranged in the original drawing. eDrawings automatically arranges the views intelligently and enables printing and exporting of any subset of a drawing.
  

  Using eDrawings Professional to review a drawing

• Hyperlinking: Click on any annotation, and the corresponding view is immediately highlighted.
• Point and Click Animation: Quickly interpret and understand any SOLIDWORKS drawing by dynamically viewing the 3D model as it automatically rotates through each drawing view.
• 3D Pointer: Easily identify and match geometry in multiple drawing views, allowing easier interpretation when comparing the same location within different views.
• View Design Analysis: Easily share design analysis results created from SOLIDWORKS Simulation and SOLIDWORKS Plastics software.
  

  SOLIDWORKS Simulation results in eDrawings

• Play SOLIDWORKS Animations: Watch your animation created within SOLIDWORKS or view the standard animation of the model transitioning between different views.
• View Mass Properties: Read the mass properties of your document, including overall mass, density, volume, surface area, and material.
• Enable Markup: Allows the insertion of text, shapes, dimensions, and pictures into the document.
• Password-Protect Files: Take advantage of password-protecting your document to safeguard your model.
• Dynamic Section Views: Section the model with any of the standard planes, or use a model face as a reference. Drag the plane on the screen to change the position of the cross-section.
  

  Creating section views on the fly

• Move and Explode Components: Manipulate your assembly within eDrawings using the move components command. Use free drag or the triad to position and rotate your components.
• View Model Configurations: View and switch between the different configurations of your model.
• Take Measurements: The measure tool is available in eDrawings to interrogate the model just like you would with SOLIDWORKS.
• Export to Other Formats: Take advantage of eDrawings files for rapid prototyping and sharing purposes by saving files in STL, TIFF, JPEG, or BMP formats.

Why Upgrade to eDrawings Professional

While the free version of eDrawings is enough for most of the collaboration businesses need, there are reasons to move to eDrawings Professional. Users with an HTC VIVE virtual-reality headset can enjoy full scan walkthroughs of their 3D models. In this mode, you can easily examine each part in assemblies and remove components one by one.

eDrawings Augmented Reality mode

Furthermore, with the inclusion of the eDrawings Apple and Android app, your designs can come alive with Augmented Reality (AR). AR mode lets you place your designs in the real world to quickly and easily view them in the context of their environment without any complicated configuration.

Understanding the eDrawings Interface

eDrawings generally has the same user interface regardless of the file type you are viewing. However, there are a few key differences when looking at a 3D CAD file or a 2D drawing. Below, we’ve outlined the critical areas of the user interface to help you navigate the eDrawings Viewer.

3D CAD Model Interface

eDrawings Viewer CAD model interface

1. The standard toolbar gives access to file operations as well as additional tools or help documentation.
2. The document tabs show all open documents and allow quick switching between open documents and the name of the currently active document.
3. The heads-up display toolbar is the home for tools used to navigate the graphics window. These include zooming, panning, and rotating, as well as changing the model display.
4. The options and help buttons provide additional information and settings for eDrawings.
5. A collection of tools used to interrogate the model. Here, you can reset the model view, move, measure, and animate the display.
6. Another collection of tools that provides access to file properties, configurations, and assembly component display. You can use this toolbar to access the markup tools that can provide feedback to the design team.

2D Drawing Interface

Many of the options available in the 2D drawing interface overlap with the 3D CAD model interface. Some unnecessary options are removed, and two key tools are added. The two major differences are outlined below.

eDrawings Viewer 2D drawing interface

1. The Layers and Sheets commands are added. These control the visibility of layers in the document and allow you to switch between drawing sheets.
2. There are additionally three new buttons that let you get an overview of the drawing, activate the pointer tool, and generate drawing layouts.

eDrawings Supported File Formats

The good news for SOLIDWORKS users is that native SOLIDWORKS file formats can be directly opened, viewed, and navigated with eDrawings. However, there are a variety of additional supported CAD and document file formats that can be used with eDrawings.

• EXE: These files are self-extracting eDrawings executable files that contain the eDrawings Viewer and eDrawings file. Running the file opens the viewer as well as the document.
• HTM: Opening a file in this format opens in a web browser. Functionality is limited in this format, and the eDrawings viewer must be installed on your PC to use this format.
• DXF/DWG: DXF and DWG are standard, neutral file formats. These can be opened in eDrawings prior to sending to a laser cutter or waterjet to review manufacturing information.
• Native eDrawings Files: Native file formats include .EPRT, .EDRW, and .EASM that are typically exported from SOLIDWORKS. They contain all necessary information to open in eDrawings and can work as a lightweight option to share assemblies and drawing packages with external users.
• 3rd Party CAD: eDrawings has the ability to directly open non-SOLIDWORKS files to review, measure, and manipulate. This includes CATIA, Autodesk Inventor, Creo, NX, and Solid Edge.
• Neutral Files: Neutral CAD formats, including STEP, IGES, and Parasolid, will open in eDrawings.

Discover More Than eDrawings

eDrawings is an incredibly powerful, free tool that adds immense value to your toolkit. Whether you need to share design data with internal stakeholders, production team members, or your clients, eDrawings makes it easier than ever to open, view, and manipulate native SOLIDWORKS files.

Complex pipe routing with SOLIDWORKS Premium

However, there are times when you need to do more than just review and markup. Sometimes, you want to quickly modify a dimension, create additional drawing views, or generate a formal change request. All that and more is available to you within the SOLIDWORKS portfolio, and TriMech is here to help you explore your options.

To learn more about requesting a free trial of SOLIDWORKS, click here.