By: Michelle Rasmussen
The idea of multiple people working on the same drawing file often makes CAD Managers cringe. Yes, two heads are better than one. However, shared files have a higher chance of edits made by one user being overwritten by another user who might be making edits at the same time. This can be a nightmare for a CAD manager whose job it is to make sure all the edits make it into the final drawing files.
Luckily, the Drawing Compare command provides a way to quickly highlight the differences between two versions of the same drawing file or two different drawing files. It does this by creating a new drawing with objects that are unique to the first drawing on one set of layers (<layer name>_DWG1) and the objects unique to the second drawing on another set of layers (<layer name>_DWG2). This allows you to filter drawing layers to better visualize the differences. It also places a revision cloud around the changes, as shown in the image below. One drawback to the compare command is that only drawing objects are supported during the compare process with the following being ignored:
- Coordination models
- PDF, DFW and DGN underlays
- AutoCAD Map 3D GIS objects
- Images
- OLE objects
- Point clouds
How To: Compare Two Drawings
- In the Collaborate tab>Compare panel, click (DWG Compare).
- In the DWG Compare dialog box, select the two drawings you wish to compare, as shown in the image below.
- Click Compare.
- Review the contents of the comparison drawing.
