Frequently Asked Questions

• What is eDrawings for Pro/ENGINEER? How much does it cost?
• What is eDrawings Professional for Pro/ENGINEER? How much does it cost?
• What's the difference between these eDrawings products and ProductView, and ProductView Express?
• How does eDrawings fit in with PTC's visualization strategy?
• Can files viewable by eDrawings be viewed within or managed by Windchill?
• What operating systems are supported for eDrawings?
• What Pro/ENGINEER versions are supported by eDrawings?
• How does my customer get eDrawings or eDrawings Professional?
• What applications are required to publish eDrawings files?
• Is technical support offered for eDrawings?
• Is there anyway to prevent anyone from measuring my eDrawings?
• Will eDrawings Professional be node-locked to specific hardware?
• Do I have to have Pro/ENGINEER installed on the same machine that I install eDrawings Professional?

What is eDrawings for Pro/ENGINEER? How much does it cost?
eDrawings for Pro/ENGINEER is a simple, viewing and publishing application for "fire and forget" communication of 2D and 3D CAD data. "Fire and forget" is an ad hoc, asynchronous form of rapid collaboration for which there is no administration required and which lacks release tracking and security. CAD data is published and viewed using the eDrawings format; distribution of the information (both the viewable file and the viewing executable) is via e-mail. eDrawings for Pro/ENGINEER is free, and may be downloaded from www.ptc.com/go/edrawings.

What is eDrawings Professional for Pro/ENGINEER? How much does it cost?
eDrawings Professional for Pro/ENGINEER extends the functionality of eDrawings for Pro/ENGINEER to also provide tools for markup and measurement, by publishing eDrawings as review-enabled. Publishing review-enabled eDrawings is like embedding a markup pen in your document. Anyone who receives review-enabled eDrawings, can markup and measure it with the free eDrawings viewer, without having to purchase eDrawings Professional for Pro/ENGINEER. In addition, eDrawings Professional includes advanced viewing capabilities such as dynamic component translation, and dynamic cross sectioning. eDrawings Professional includes the Publisher add-in for Pro/ENGINEER and AutoCAD. The latest list price for eDrawings for Pro/ENGINEER can be found on the Geometric Software Solutions Co. website.

What's the difference between these eDrawings products and ProductView, and ProductView Express?
ProductView is the industry's premier visualization tool, enabling a multitude of capabilities (ranging from asynchronous, to synchronous real-time collaboration), on product data of virtually any type. A distinct advantage of ProductView is its tight integration with PTC Windchill solutions and Pro/ENGINEER as well as to 3rd party PDM and CAD systems.

Key capabilities of ProductView include:

• View different formats of digital product data, including 2D, 3D, ECAD, documents, and images without the need for the authoring application
• Accurately measure (from B-Rep geometry) section 3D models, compare 3D parts and 2D drawings, and assemble parts and complex product structures
• Perform searches across various data types (part names and attributes), color-code search results, and view data according to the color-coding
• Collaborate on centrally organized digital product information through markups and real-time collaboration
• Extract product data from your CAD system for re-use in the extended enterprise (e.g., dimensions and tolerances for manufacturing)

Because it offers less functionality than ProductView, the eDrawings product is easier to deploy and its user interface is more streamlined that that of ProductView. However, ProductView is recommended over eDrawings for customers who need data management capability or are interested in more expansive collaboration (e.g., on a variety of product documents, and/or in real-time).

ProductView Express is a free, downloadable tool limited to the visualization of specific Pro/ENGINEER file format types (including parts, assemblies, and drawings). It does not allow the markup, measure, or real-time collaboration capabilities of ProductView, nor is it based on ProductView technology. Unlike the eDrawings products, ProductView Express does not allow direct viewing of CAD models created in other CAD systems besides Pro/ENGINEER.

How does eDrawings fit in with PTC's visualization strategy?
In contrast to rich visualization tools such as Windchill ProductView, on occasion, a rapid type of "fire and forget" collaboration, involving merely the publishing and viewing of lightweight CAD files is all that is necessary. Thus, eDrawings is a reasonable solution for this scenario. However, eDrawings is a subset of the functionality offered by ProductView. For example, ProductView supports viewing and markup of over 200 different MCAD, ECAD, Image and document types. Furthermore, ProductView is integral to Windchill providing access control, viewing, markups, and real time collaboration in a data managed, secure manner.

Can files viewable by eDrawings be viewed within or managed by Windchill?
eDrawings files cannot be viewed within Windchill. However, if desired, the eDrawing files can be stored in Windchill, as can any other file type.

What operating systems are supported for eDrawings?
Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 or later are supported.

What Pro/ENGINEER versions are supported by eDrawings?
Pro/ENGINEER 2000i², Pro/ENGINEER 2001, Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire and Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 are supported.

How does my customer get eDrawings or eDrawings Professional?
eDrawings for Pro/ENGINEER is available at www.ptc.com/go/edrawings. For more information on how to purchase eDrawings Professional for Pro/ENGINEER, please contact your PTC Sales Rep or PTC Value Added Reseller, or visit http://www.geometricsoftware.com/edrawings/proe/default.asp.

What applications are required to publish eDrawings files?
To publish eDrawings you must have either Pro/ENGINEER 2000i², Pro/ENGINEER 2001, Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire or Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0, SolidWorks 2003 or higher, AutoCAD 2000, or AutoCAD R14.x.

Is technical support offered for eDrawings?
No, there is no technical support offered for the free version of eDrawings for Pro/ENGINEER. However, Geometric Software Solutions Co. will provide support for eDrawings Professional for Pro/ENGINEER.

Is there anyway to prevent anyone from measuring my eDrawings?
To protect your design data, measurement may be permanently disabled at the time of creation.

Will eDrawings Professional be node-locked to specific hardware?
eDrawings Professional can be purchased as either node-locked or floating.

Do I have to have Pro/ENGINEER installed on the same machine that I install eDrawings Professional?
No, you do not require any additional software to be installed for viewing eDrawings, although you will need Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks or AutoCAD in order to publish eDrawings directly from inside these applications.