iPhone

AutoCAD WS 1.2 Arrives On The App Store

Feb 23

We are proud to announce the second major upgrade to AutoCAD WS in less than three months. AutoCAD WS 1.2 is now available for download or on the App Store by clicking here.

The important additions for this release, based on requests from you, our users, include:

Multi-language support (Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish)
Drawing layouts
Snap Previews
Brush tool
Copy tool
Support for Imperial units (Feet and Inches)

Check out all the new features in this video about AutoCAD WS 1.2:

For more information about working with the new features in AutoCAD WS, go to our tutorial here.

As always we welcome your feedback and response to this new release.

How To Manage Folders in AutoCAD WS

Feb 09

The file manager in the AutoCAD WS mobile app is a simple display of the files in your online account. When you access AutoCAD WS through your PC or your Mac’s web browser you can add folders and move, rename or delete files. Any folders you create and changes that you make to your files will also show up in your mobile app.

Just point your PC or your Mac’s browser to www.autocadws.com and log in with the same email address and password that you use with your mobile device.

Click on Drawings to access the root directory of your AutoCAD WS account. From here you have access to some additional functionality that doesn’t exist in the mobile app.

New Folder

You can use the New Folder button to create and name new folders to organize your drawings any way you like.

Copy, Cut, Paste

Use the Copy, Cut and Paste functions to manage your online drawings. You can also move a file into a folder by clicking on it and dragging it over the folder you select.

Please note that you cannot copy drawings into a system folder like the one that holds your fonts. Also, you cannot move or copy a system folder.

You can access each of the commands to Copy, Cut or Paste by right clicking. For more information about right-clicking, check out this post from last week.

Delete

The Delete button in the AutoCAD WS web app is the only way to permanently delete files from your online account. Once you delete a file this way, you will not be able to access it again either through the web or the mobile app.

As with the other functions, you can select multiple files for deletion and you can also delete files by right-clicking and selecting Delete Selected.

View

Choose your preferred viewing mode from the available selection: Small Thumbnails, Large Thumbnails or List.

Rename

You can rename any file or folder by clicking on the file’s name in Thumbnail view or by right-clicking and selecting Rename Selected.

AutoCAD Facebook Fans and their Mobiles

Feb 01

A couple of days ago, we asked our AutoCAD Facebook fans which mobile platform they have and what kind of device they’d like to use for viewing, editing, and sharing drawings. Well, the results are in, and it’s clear our users are freeing themselves from their desktops and are interested in mobile CAD. If you haven’t downloaded AutoCAD WS mobile app for iOS devices yet, give it whirl.

Platform Showdown – Android Hot on the Heels of iPhone and iPad

Although Apple devices still represent the majority of responses (41%), Android is proving quite popular, with 36% of respondents commenting that Android devices – tablet or smart phone – was either what they already owned, or wanted to use. Windows devices came in a distant third, with 7% of the vote. And of course, there were a couple of old-school folks out there too who still want to use pencil and paper. Looks like the napkin sketch won’t go away just yet.

Smartphone vs. Tablet

Tablets are newer to the scene, and offer clear benefits for DWG file viewing with the extra screen real-estate. That said, as smart phones travel everywhere with us these days, they still have the lead—with iPhone being the most popular with our fans.

Here’s the surprise of the survey – almost 5% of the folks who commented were interested in the idea of a dedicated AutoCAD tablet designed specifically for our customers. A dedicated device that simplifies all the steps of your work, incorporates BIM functions, and takes advantage of the GPS and camera features of the mobile device. Interesting indeed…

Using a Laptop? Get AutoCAD WS Web App on Google Chrome Store

No matter what mobile device you have, you can start using the web browser version of AutoCAD WS with your laptop today. It’s available at www.autocadws.com (hey, that’s right here), and we just published our free AutoCAD WS app to the Google Chrome Store too.

We always like to hear from our customers about what they want to see in our products. If you’d like to contribute more feedback to AutoCAD WS product development, email us: feedback@autocadws.com.

AutoCAD WS – Best of 2010

Dec 30

As we wrap up an eventful 12 months, I thought it would be nice to revisit some of the important milestones over the past year.

We also want to thank you, our community of users, for embracing AutoCAD WS and engaging with us whether on Facebook, Twitter or the comments in this blog. We want to thank everyone who uploaded a drawing or took part in a poll. Your feedback is crucial to the continued development of AutoCAD WS.

So here is our AutoCAD WS review of 2010.

Project Butterfly Reborn as AutoCAD WS

Throughout its development, it was known internally as Project Butterfly. But as we got closer to the launch, Butterfly was rebranded to bring it in line with other Autodesk products.

So Project Butterfly became AutoCAD WS. Once we changed the name there was some speculation about the meaning of WS. There were several wild suggestions, but the answer has stayed a mystery.

AutoCAD WS Launched as Mobile App

We knew there was demand for a mobile version of AutoCAD, but even we were surprised by the size of that demand when we launched. Back in September AutoCAD WS was released on the App Store for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The impact was huge with AutoCAD WS becoming the top app in the Productivity segment in countries throughout the world.

Since that time the app has been downloaded over 700,000 times and combined downloads for the app and its update have passed the magic 1,000,000 mark for 2010.

We Moved To New Offices

In the middle of all the excitement surround the mobile app, the AutoCAD WS team moved in to its new home overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. We were proud to welcome Autodesk CEO, Carl Bass, to our offices which were designed and built using AutoCAD and AutoCAD WS.

We were also flattered when the hard work that went into designing our new workspace was acknowledged by one of the leading blogs on office design.

AutoCAD WS 1.1 Arrives

Less than three months after the AutoCAD WS mobile app was released, we were ready with a welcome update that included two major features requested by users.

Email support means that you can now open drawings that you receive as email attachments to your mobile device.

Also the update makes AutoCAD WS available even when the user is not connected to the Internet.

So, What’s Next?

Well, you’ve asked for all sorts of things. You want AutoCAD WS to support more products and you want it to be available on a range of different platforms, especially Android.

2010 has been a great year for AutoCAD WS and we guarantee that even more good things are planned for 2011.

The only thing that remains is for us to wish you all a Happy New Year!