AutoCAD 2019 – Shared Views

By Miles Nicholson 

The Shared Views feature makes it easier for you to share your designs with others whether internal/external to your company without releasing your original drawing files. This feature is intended to replace the commonly used workflow of publishing DWF or PDF files and then emailing them.

Instead, views and data are extracted from your drawing, stored in the cloud and a shareable link is generated that allows the design to be viewed in a browser and commented on from any web enabled desktop, tablet or mobile device.

The recipients of the link can view, review, measure, comment and mark-up the design from the Autodesk Viewer in their web browser, and they can share their feedback with you. You can access the feedback from within AutoCAD Electrical.

Shared views automatically expire after 30 days, but you can extend or terminate the link at any time.

Creating a Shared View

You must be signed in to your Autodesk account and be an AutoCAD subscription member. If you’re running off a multi-user subscription license, your administrator may control whether you have access to Shared Views.

• View name

The default name of the shared view is the same as the drawing, but you can change it.

• Views to share

You can share the current view only - the extents of the model tab or a layout tab, whichever is current, or you can share views of the entire drawing including the model tab and all layouts. Any named views in the drawing for the model or layouts can also be accessed in the Autodesk Viewer.

• Create 2D views only

The Create 2D views only check box controls whether only 2D views are created or whether 3D views will be created as well.

• Share object properties

When Share object properties option is checked, properties will be extracted with the shared view. Like the AutoCAD Electrical Properties palette, these properties can be listed by the recipients when they click on objects in the Autodesk Viewer. Note that processing views will take longer when properties are shared.

Background Publishing and Notification

Clicking on the View in Browser link in the notification bubble opens your browser and displays the shared view in the Autodesk Viewer.

From the Autodesk Viewer, you can inspect the view, add comments and get the temporary link to share with others.

Recipients of the link will also be able to view the design in the Autodesk viewer, respond to comments and add comments of their own.

Mark-ups can be made on the drawing.

Shared Views Palette

Sorting and Managing Views

You can sort the list of views by Title, Date created or Expiration date. You can also filter the view list from the search control. 

Select […]

• View in browser:              displays the view in the Autodesk Viewer
• Copy Link:                            copies a link to the clipboard so you can share it with others
• Extend:                                resets the view to expire in 30 days
• Delete:                                 deletes the view; shared links will no longer display the view

Viewing Comments and Responding

You can expand any view in the list to read/write comments and reply to any comments received from others with whom you have shared the view.

Clicking to the right of the thumbnail displays comments and a thumbnail of the area commented on. Clicking Back returns to the list of views.

Conclusion

This utility certainly makes it easier to share design with others who don’t have AutoCAD or AutoCAD with specialised toolsets providing them with the ability to mark-up and comment on your designs. If however the internal/external client is willing to open a DWFx or utilise Autodesk Design Review, then a DWFx may still be the best way to publish & mark-up drawings because you can load the mark-up set into your drawing and the mark-ups (red lines/comments etc) will appear over the top of your drawing rather than a view on a palette.