Microspot (http://www.microspot.col.uk) has updated the DWG Viewer for Mac OS X (10.4 or higher) to version 1.7.

DWG Viewer is a program based on Microspot's MacDraft Professional which opens AutoCAD DWG files created on Windows PCs. It opens the layouts as well as the model and allows you to show, hide or grey the individual layers and zoom in and pan around the document.

Mark-up tools are available to draw red ellipses around points of interest and add textual annotation. The resulting document can be printed and/or exported as a PDF file, so it can be sent to co-workers that do not have the DWG Viewer application.

Version 1.7 has a customizable tool bar for quicker access of menu commands and a new and an improved Layers palette, which gives more control of the visibility of the layers in multilayer documents. There are now customizable scales that can be used to fill in gaps in the standard scales and the rulers displaying decimal units now have 10 subdivisions rather than eight, making it easier to read off dimensions.

The size of the one to one scale is now displayed more accurately on screen giving more realistic looking sizes. Text handling has been improved and a Clipped Text Frame has been added to show when text is flowing outside the text box. What's more, the file formats supported have been updated to include AutoCAD 2010/2011/2012 DWG files, with additional support for linking and re-linking of BMP images.

Microspot DWG Viewer 1.7 is available from the Microspot web store or the Mac App Store. A demo version is available for download.

A CD version of Microspot DWG Viewer has a retail price of US$55. The download price is $49. Registered users may upgrade for free at the Microspot web site if they bought the product after Sept. 1 or for the upgrade price of $29 if they purchased the software after Sept. 1. Free upgrades must be claimed before Dec. 1.