You can open a read-only display of a drawing using commands in Drawing Manager without having to open the full-blown design software. Although you cannot edit the drawing from Drawing Manager, you can view the graphics and properties assigned to drawing items. In some cases, this capability can save you time and effort.
For details of how to view a drawing, see View a Drawing in Drawing Manager.
You can use this viewing functionality on the current drawing in the database or on any of the saved versions for a drawing, too. However, a version, either current or saved, must exist in order to use this viewing capability. Versions are automatically created once the drawing is opened and changed for the first time; otherwise, the New Version command can be used to save a version.
Most of the commands to manipulate the view are also available. That is, you can zoom in on an area in the drawing, fit the drawing to the display space, pan across a drawing, and so forth. You can also use buttons on the Properties window toolbar to manipulate the display of properties for a selected drawing item or items.