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The Fun Side of Collaboration in AutoCAD WS

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Here’s a light-hearted look at collaboration in AutoCAD WS that shows just how powerful and versatile its collaboration features are. Below you will see a video where we use AutoCAD WS to share games like Tic-Tac-Toe and Sudoku.

The AutoCAD WS collaboration feature allows you and your collaborator to see each other’s cursor in real time as you move it around the screen adding markups or making changes. We also have a built in chat functionality that you can call up to help you emphasize a point or gain consensus for a decision or even just to say “Hi!”.

AutoCAD WS offers a collaborative environment that incorporates real-time changes and chat. It allows you to work with clients and colleagues as if they were sitting in the same room with you.

Once you embrace the power of collaboration within AutoCAD WS, it’s not a huge leap from there to a whole new world of fun where anything you design can be shared, so that you can work (and play) with it together.

Ilai Rotbaein, a product manager for AutoCAD WS, put together this video to demonstrate the value of collaboration and showcase the fun side of AutoCAD WS.

If you come up with something fun using AutoCAD WS, why not use the Get Link To Share function on the Output tab and publish it on our Facebook page so everyone can have a go.

Accessing AutoCAD WS From Your Desktop

We’re constantly thinking of new ways of making AutoCAD WS more accessible and easy to use. One of the good things about FTP or DropBox is that it allows you to access the contents of your account as a simple folder on your desktop. Today we’ve released a feature that allows you to do just that with AutoCAD WS.

With this new feature you can create an AutoCAD WS folder on your PC or Mac that you can use to upload files by simply placing them in that folder. These files will be immediately available to you from your Web browser, iOS or Android device. Downloading a file from your account is equally easy -- just copy/paste or drag & drop the file(s) from the folder to anywhere on your computer.

Sounds interesting? -- here’s how to learn more. We’ve added a new tutorial with step-by-step instructions on how to create an AutoCAD WS folder on Win XP, Windows 7 and OSX.

We’ve also made this short video showing you how to set this up and show how easy it is to upload and download files to an AutoCAD WS folder.

5 Tips for the AutoCAD WS Mobile App

We hope you enjoy these five tips for getting the most out of the AutoCAD WS mobile app. If you have a tip you would like to share with other users let us know and we’ll include it in a future blog post.

1. Share as Read Only

When you share a file, you can set the permissions so that the file can’t be edited or downloaded. This read-only version of the file is a working alternative to saving your work as a PDF and sending it as an attachment in an email.

2. Sync Changes to AutoCAD

After you have been working on a drawing in the field you can sync it back to your desktop by downloading it through the web app or the online tab in AutoCAD. You can even share the file from your mobile app and then download the DWG from the email you receive.

3. Offline indication

Every file in your online account that has been saved locally on your mobile device carries a time stamp indicating the last time it was synced. This time stamp will let you know that your file is available offline.

4. Introduce a Friend to AutoCAD WS

If you want your friends and colleagues to enjoy the benefits of the AutoCAD WS mobile app, simply share a file with them. They will receive an email notification that the file is shared with them and an invitation to download the mobile app. Once they download and install the app the shared file will already be in their online account.

5. Editing Text

To edit text in your drawing, simply select an object and select the Edit Text icon from the toolbar. You may need to scroll the toolbar to find the icon.

Please note that only text objects are currently supported, not Mtext objects.

What Does Real-Time Collaboration Look Like?

Real-time collaboration is one of the great step forwards that AutoCAD WS has enabled, but I know that some of you have still not experienced this cross platform feature that allows you to work with anybody else on a computer, iPhone or iPad.

This post will try to show you exactly what real-time collaboration looks like and how it can help you. If you understand the importance of collaboration in your work, you’ll also know that you can’t always be in the same place as the people you’re working with. Whether you’re working from home, visiting a building site or just conducting a phone meeting you can look at the same drawing as you colleague or client and share changes in real time.

To start collaborating, share a drawing with one or more people. Then arrange for you and your collaborators to have the shared drawing open at the same time. To learn more about sharing, read our tutorial here: http://www.autocadws.com/tutorials/sharing-drawings/

The first thing to understand is that there are some differences depending on the platform each side is using.

Let’s investigate:

PC to PC (or Mac to Mac)

If both collaborators are using the web interface by connecting to www.autocadws.com through their PC or Mac’s browser then they will experience the highest level of real-time collaboration.

  • View Cursor -- You will see each other’s cursor in real time and see objects as they are drawn and markups as they are added.
  • Synced View -- You can pan and zoom in sync so that if one person changes the in-screen view it will also change for the other in real time.
  • Hide Others -- If it’s too distracting to have someone else control the pan and zoom while you are both working on the same drawing, you can click Hide Others which will disengage your views while retaining the real-time updates from each side.
  • Real-time Chat -- You can also chat in real time using the AutoCAD WS in-app chat feature.

PC to Mobile and Mobile to Mobile

The main difference when collaborating with someone on a mobile device is that there is no cursor to see.

Changes and updates are still made in real time, but the view is not synced so you can each pan and zoom independently.

Provided you have internet access, you will still be able to collaborate in real time with your colleagues or clients to make and record decisions together.

Transcript

At the end of every collaborative session, all participants receive an email detailing the changes that were made. You can read more about Documenting your meetings here: http://www.autocadws.com/blog/documenting-your-meetings-with-autocad-ws/
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