PDXpert PLM Software
Product Lifecycle Management
General-purpose file viewers for multiple file formats
PDXplorer™ can view a PDX package, which can contain design files. These files (package "attachments") can be viewed by the following file viewers. For information about PDX packages and PDXplorer, see:PDXplorer free viewer for PDX packages (IPC-2570).
There are trade-offs between using free file viewers and purchasing a commercial viewing application.
A dedicated (limited-format) file viewer is often offered by the format's publisher. Some considerations:
- The ability to read the creating application's file format may be perfect, especially if the viewer relies on the original application's rendering engine.
- File format changes may be more quickly incorporated into proprietary viewers, and an updated viewer is often released at nearly the same time as the updated application.
- It's in the publisher's interest to encourage widespread use of a proprietary CAD/CAM file format, and therefore a dedicated file viewer is often free to acquire, with no on-going maintenance fees.
- Managing many individual file viewers can be a problem in companies that use a large number of different CAD and CAM applications.
On the other hand, a general-purpose (multiple-format) file viewer is usually published by a third party. Points pro & con:
- A general-purpose file viewer can be somewhat simpler to install, particularly if a wide variety of common file formats are needed and/or it must be deployed across many workstations.
- Substantial reverse-engineering effort is often required to understand proprietary file formats, so general-purpose viewers are expensive to create and maintain. For example, Cimmetry's basic engineering viewer, AutoVue 2D Professional, is over US$700 per user; their full-featured AutoVue Electro-Mechanical Professional costs over US$3,600 per user.*
- Viewer publishers have their own development and release cycles that may not coincide with CAD application file format changes. At least occasionally, there's a risk that your file viewer will be incompatible with your latest CAD files.
- Most general-purpose file viewers support between 100 and 300 file formats. This can be very convenient, but there's a good chance you'll be paying for formats that you'll never use.
*NOTE: Although we haven't found Oracle's prices on their website, Cimmetry's on-line store showed the price as US$726 and $3654 a few years ago, with no apparent quantity discount.
Check the specs: Even after paying those license fees, there's no guarantee that a general-purpose viewer will support the specific file format you need. In fact, you may need two or more different viewers for your particular design environment. If you use a less popular CAD or CAM application, you'll probably use the application publisher's compatible viewer, or will need to save the CAD file in a more common viewer-compatible format.
Here's a selection of general-purpose file viewers which can read a broad variety of raster- and vector-based engineering and business formats:
Note: Allegria Software, Inc. may still offer ForReview but, last time we checked, their website (http://www.allegria.com) was no longer active.
This application note was relevant to the PDXpert software release that was current at time of publication. Product changes since that time may affect its utility. We'd be happy to assist you in assessing the applicability of this note to your situation.