CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
5 April 2005
Product News
Spicer ViewCafé® Release 3.3 Enhances View-Markup
Spicer Corporation enhances its online view-markup line-up with the release of ViewCafé® 3.3. The new release offers an adaptable license structure, JRE independence, new cache preloading and 3D model publishing, and support for the latest CAD formats.
ViewCafé's new license structure gives integrators greater flexibility and control over Client access to specific sets of formats and functionality. Only the tools and document formats designated by a user's license level, Standard or Technical, are available. The Standard license is targeted at typical office imaging applications; users can view, annotate and print raster images, text formats and other non-technical documents. A Technical license is required for engineering applications, where the user needs to load and display CAD drawings, load and manipulate 3D models, or use layer management tools and measurement tools.
Release 3.3 streamlines and reduces ViewCafé client-side maintenance and administration with improvements in Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version independence. The ViewCafé system runs with any combination of Client and Server JREs, version 1.3.x or higher. Enhanced JRE compatibility greatly simplifies distribution and management of software on the Client and on the Server and improves coexistence with other Java-based applications.
Also new in ViewCafé, integrators can now preload 2D and 3D documents, fonts retrieved from the server, and thumbnails into the cache before Clients access the documents. Preloading the cache speeds up access to documents; all of the pre-processing that normally occurs before a document can be sent to the Client is done prior to placing the document in the cache. Users accessing a pre-processed, cached file will be able to view the document much faster.
3D model publishing allows integrators to create cached versions of 3D models, generate a reduced level of detail version of models, and render a model as it is loaded. Publishing can speed up initial display times for large 3D models and, in many cases, allows faster interaction with the model. Published models are stored in the document cache.
ViewCafé 3.3 introduces support for several new formats, including:
• AutoCAD 2004 and 2005
• AutoDesk Inventor
• DWG Embedded ACIS 3D read and render as 2D data
• DWF 6.0
• PDF 1.5 (Acrobat 6)
Additional improvements in Release 3.3 include:
• Far East font enhancements (with a focus on DWG, DWF, and DGN)
• HPGL/RTL and HP ME10 format enhancements
• New tools: The Retain Transformations tool maintains view changes across multiple pages of a document, while the Magnify Area tool zooms in on a small section of the image using a magnifying window.
ViewCafé is a Web-based, JavaT 2-powered document viewing, markup and collaboration tool, which enables businesses to access, share, distribute and cooperatively review documents across the organization and throughout the extended enterprise using a standard Web browser or a stand alone application.
To try the ViewCafé online demonstration and to learn more about the integration, security, and customization features and benefits of Spicer Universal Viewers, visit http://www.spicer.com . Or call 519.748.2462, or send e-mail to info@spicer.com .
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