eDrawings

Review by eFreeware

eDrawings is a paid Android app from SolidWorks for viewing CAD data on a phone or tablet. It opens native eDrawings files as well as SolidWorks parts, assemblies and drawings, and it handles a long list of other 2D and 3D formats besides. The main reason to consider it is simple: it lets you look at and pass around design files without sitting down at a CAD workstation.

The app has been on Google Play since August 2013 and has passed 100,000 installs, with a 2.5 average across 2,844 ratings. It costs $1.99, carries no ads, and offers in-app purchases for a Pro upgrade. The developer is SolidWorks, which matters for how faithfully the formats are handled.

What you can open, and from where

The format list is the heart of the app. On the 3D side it reads EASM, EPRT, SLDASM, SLDPRT, IGES, IGS, JT, STEP, STP and IFC files. For 2D work it handles EDRW, SLDDRW, DWG and DXF, along with files associated with them. If your work involves a mix of CAD packages and neutral exchange formats, that spread covers most of what turns up in a project folder.

Getting a file into the app is meant to be equally flexible. You can open designs from email attachments, from cloud storage services such as Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive and Hightail, from web and FTP sites, and from network folders. The developer frames the app as an email-enabled communication tool, and that is the workflow it is built around: files arrive, you look at them, you send them on.

That orientation is worth noting because it shapes who the app is for. It is not only for people who model parts for a living. The developer pitches it as a way to share design information with colleagues who do not use CAD software regularly, so a project manager or a client can open a file and understand what they are looking at. Sample files are included, which gives you something to open before your own designs arrive.

Moving around a model

Navigation relies on multi-touch gestures: you pan, zoom and rotate 2D or 3D data with your fingers. Standard 3D views can be animated, and you can switch to full screen and double tap to fit a model to the display. For quick checks on a phone, that set of gestures is about what you would ask for.

The viewing features go a little beyond plain rotation. Drawing sheets can be browsed, so a multi-sheet 2D drawing is navigable rather than a single flat image. Exploded views are supported for eDrawings files published from SolidWorks, which is useful when you need to show how an assembly comes apart without rebuilding that view yourself.

None of this is complicated, and the developer describes the interface as intuitive and easy to use. The gestures are the sort of thing most people pick up quickly on a touchscreen, and the value here is convenience rather than depth: a model you can spin with your thumb is easier to explain in a hallway conversation than a screenshot.

Measuring, sectioning and markup in Pro

The free download is not the whole app. A Pro upgrade bought through in-app purchase adds the tools that turn viewing into review. Measurement covers distance, angles, lengths, point-to-point checks and more. Cross sections can be viewed dynamically in the XY, YZ or ZX directions from either side, and the section plane can be dragged to where you need it.

Markup is the other half of that upgrade. You can add text notes and freehand notations to a design, then share the marked-up eDrawings file with others for review and further comments. Markups are saved inside the file along with their history, so a round of feedback does not have to live in a separate email thread.

Together those features describe a review loop: someone measures or sections a model, marks up what needs attention, and sends the annotated file back. That is a different job from simply looking at a design, and it is the part of the app the developer treats as a paid extension rather than part of the base package.

What the app asks of you

The measuring, cross-section and markup capabilities sit behind the in-app purchase, so anyone whose work depends on commenting on designs should factor that in. The base app is a viewer; the Pro tier is where the collaboration tools live.

The app is also bound to the CAD world it serves. It is built around eDrawings and SolidWorks files first, with the neutral formats as a supporting cast. If your files come from that ecosystem, the fit is natural. If they do not, you are relying on the interchange formats to carry the geometry faithfully.

The most recent update is worth mentioning for a different reason. Along with bug fixes, the developer removed augmented reality functionality from the app. Anyone who used the AR marker feature in the past will find it gone. It is a small sign that the app's feature set can shrink as well as grow.

Who gets the most from it

The clearest fit is someone inside a product development process that already runs on SolidWorks. An engineer checking a part before a meeting, a supplier reviewing a drawing, or a manager who needs to see an assembly without learning CAD software all fall inside what the app is designed for. The email and cloud-storage routes mean the file can reach them wherever it already sits.

I would read that as a reason to check the format list against your own files before paying. If your work is mostly SolidWorks and eDrawings data, the app is aimed directly at you.

For anyone outside that world, the appeal is narrower. The app is a focused tool for viewing and reviewing engineering designs. That focus is the point, but it also defines the ceiling.

A viewer for teams already on SolidWorks

eDrawings is worth the $1.99 if you regularly need to open SolidWorks or eDrawings files away from a desk. It covers the native formats and a broad set of 2D and 3D alternatives, pulls files from email, cloud services and network locations, and gives you touch navigation that makes a model readable on a small screen. The Pro upgrade adds measuring, cross sections and markup, which is what turns it from a viewer into a review tool.

I would recommend it to engineers, designers and project staff working in a SolidWorks-centered process who need to check or share designs on a phone or tablet. If your files come from elsewhere, compare the format list with what you actually receive before buying, and treat the Pro purchase as part of the cost if markup matters to you.

What's new in version 34.4.0011

Bug Fixes Removed AR functionality