AUTODESK IMPRESSION is simply a post processor for DWG or DWF files that allows designers to quickly produce hand sketched or painted output. Through the use of CAD elements like blocks, lines and layers – areas that needs to be coloured, filled sketed and populated graphically can be identifed very quickly. This is ideal in landscaping & arcthitecture specifically

for conceptual and draft design presention.

Here are the benefits of the Autodesk Impressions as posted in the Autodesk Subscription page:

• Generate Great-Looking Images—Fast. Presentation graphics are about winning business. Your images have to sell your projects. With Impression you can easily apply graphical styles to your CAD files using prebuilt styles or customized styles that you create—from pencil styles to watercolor fills.
• CAD Compatible – Because Impression understands CAD data, the illustration process is much faster than with general-purpose graphics applications. Open any DWG or DWF file in Impression. Impression recognizes blocks, layers, hatches and other CAD-specific data.
• Easy to Learn and Use – Impression is designed so that anyone in the office can learn the application in minutes and can get great results right away.
• Quickly Create Multiple Design Iterations – Quickly update your presentation graphics when designs change or apply your signature style to all the drawings that you produce.
  Integrate Into Existing Workflow – Impression fits easily into your existing workflow and is interoperable with many popular graphics applications.

AUTODESK VAULT Another autodesk software free for downloadis the Autodesk Vault. It lets you coordinate working documents and synchronizes design-related efforts. Autodesk vault is a data management tool that can be intergrated to most Autodesk Software. It uses a checkin/checkout concept that ensures only one person is editing a file at a time.

Hagerman wrote an article the reason why implement Autodesk vault make sure to check the link to read more about it. Meantime here is the listed benefit that I took from the subscriber page.

• Access & Version Control: Permission-based secure check-in/check-out of design documents ensures that team members are always working on the correct version.
• Organize & Re-Use Design Data: With fast, powerful search capabilities you can quickly find elements of design work for reference or re-use.
• Work-in-Progress Tracking: Securely maintain a ‘history of design’ that safely stores all versions of the design evolution for reference and accountability.

Well, as I’ve said this two softwares can be freely downloaded if you are an Autodesk Subscriber. I think Autodesk is rolling this softwares out free of use so they can hear the feedback of the cad community. So I’m downloading the “Autodesk Impression” and I’ll see if this will be useful.