So, imagine how surprised I was to find the official AutoCAD WS Android application is available for free in the Android Market. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But it’s real, so it’s well worth getting your hands on the AutoCAD application before Autodesk changes their mind and starts charging for it.

Trying Out AutoCAD WS

AutoCAD allows you to access files stored on your AutoCAD WS account online, which you can create for free using the application. This means you can upload files to your online AutoCAD WS account using your desktop and automatically sync to your smartphone and to the accounts of your clients and co-workers. It’s a simple process to email an invitation to share documents and this ensures everybody has the latest version.

If you want a wider variety of example files than the applications offers, Autodesk have plenty of example files here.

Other than using AutoCAD WS online, the next easiest way to get drawing files on your phone is probably to email the file to yourself and save it to your SD card, but if you prefer some other way then suit yourself.

Editing Files With AutoCAD WS

Obviously, a phone CAD application is never going to be as easy to use as a desktop version. Screen size on a phone is limited, so your document view is smaller and tool options are harder to reach. Keep in mind that small edits are the intention of the application, rather than this being your primary document editor.

Android’s pinch zoom and pan gestures are perfect for viewing large and detailed drawings, such as are normal in AutoCAD. You might find yourself wishing your desktop had a touch screen so you could do the same there.

Limitations Of AutoCAD Android Application

My main gripe with the AutoCAD application is that it’s huge, taking up just under 20MB space on my phone upon installation. Even after moving it to the SD card, it hogs a huge amount of space on your phone. Which, for some Android phones, is just not feasible.

Alternatives & Complementary CAD Applications

Droid 2 CAD allows you to take location points with your GPS and export them for use in a CAD document later, which could be extremely useful when surveying sites. AndCad, RedStick Site CAD and AutoQ3D CAD are all CAD applications which allow you to edit DWG files, but are only available as either a demo or paid application. However, with the official AutoCAD application available for free, paid alternatives look far less attractive as options.

For a desktop CAD alternative, take a look at LibreCAD and make sure you check out our guide on how to convert DWG files to PDF.

What do you love or hate about the AutoCAD application? How well does the mobile application suit your line of work? Let us know in the comments.

AutoCAD is a very well rounded tool, attributing to its popularity.  For technical drawing and all that, it is the best.

Unfortunately, no matter how useful or full featured a program; it is rare to find one that is perfect.  AutoCAD is no exception.  One major feature lacking from AutoCAD is the ability to export a drawing to a PDF, the standard almost across the board for business documents.

Never fear, with DWGgateway you will be cranking out PDF’s of your drawings in no time to add to a report or to just send up to a boss or client.

You can download the software here.  It’s not too big and therefore shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to download.

After you have the software downloaded, you should check that AutoCAD is installed on your machine because the software will not install if it is not.

Double click the install and the process should begin as any other install.

After the splash screen you should be prompted with the following screen:

Select all of the versions of AutoCAD on your machine that you want to install DWGgateway to and then hit “Next.”

Next, you will get the standard license stuff, hit “Next“ and then “Install.”  After a speedy install, you will a confirmation screen.  Hit “Finish“ and you’re all set.

Now for what the program’s good for, making a PDF in AutoCAD.  Open up a drawing.  Go to the top and press “File“, then “Plot.”

After that, you should get a dialog like this:

Under “Printer/Plotter,” choose “DWG to PDF.pc3.”

Hit OK and the program should ask you to input a file name for your PDF and to choose where to save it.  Type what you would like the file to be called and navigate to the directory you want to save your file to.

Click “Save“ and the file will be saved as a PDF in the indicated directory.  When the process is done, you should get a little bubble at the bottom right to let you know the process was successful.

Another nice feature of the software is the ability to use your version of AutoCAD to open any previous or future DWG file versions.

Say for example you have AutoCAD 2004.  You can use DWGgateway to open AutoCAD 2007 files without upgrading your license or software.  Very useful if you want to wait a while to upgrade your AutoCAD or if you are in a tight spot and really need to view some files that were saved in a different version.

Overall, making a PDF with DWGgateway is simple and intuitive.  The small app does not seem to affect performance, so for an AutoCAD user, it is invaluable.  The added benefit of being able to open DWG files from different versions of AutoCAD is just icing on the cake.

You can download LEGO Digital Designer for both Mac OS X and Windows. When you start it up, you’ll see that you have the option to build virtual lego designs using factory, mindstorms, or creator. For each of the three options, you can choose to use a starter design, free build from scratch, or open a model you’ve previously saved.

To start designing, you just select bricks from the brick palette and start placing them down on the surface with your mouse. The bricks are grouped together by type, so you can expand a group and then select the type and color of brick you want to use. Then just place it wherever you would like.

Placing the bricks can be a little tricky at times. Sometimes the bricks just don’t seem to go where you want them to go. To help get things into the right place, you can move the view around with the right mouse button.

Just press and hold down the right mouse button, and then move the mouse around to rotate the view. If the design has fallen off the screen after you’ve rotated it, you can hold the shift key down while you also hold down the right mouse button. This allows you to move the entire viewport up, down, left, and right.

There are a number of selection tools available in the toolbox.

• Single Selection tool ““ Select a single brick at a time
• Multiple Selection tool ““ Select multiple bricks at a time
• Connected Selection tool ““ Select a single brick, and all bricks connected to it will be selected as well
• Color Selection tool ““ Select all bricks of the same color of the brick selected
• Shape Selection tool ““ Select all bricks that have the same shape of the brick selected
• Color and Shape Selection tool ““ Select bricks that are the same color and shape of the brick selected

There is also a LEGO Factory Gallery, where you can see designs that others have made and uploaded. You can download the designs and customize them any way you want. All of the designs in the gallery are free to download.

Download the LEGO Digital Designer to build virtual legos today, and simulate all your childhood memories!