Comparison
Vertex Systems gives away a free viewer with Vertex BD. It opens drawings on a Windows pc and lets you redline them with text, lines and symbols, even if you have no Vertex BD licence yourself. If someone has to check a drawing and put comments on it, you need nothing else for that. Alongside it, Vertex has Showroom and Sync, two ways to share a model in a browser with people outside the drawing office.
Field-Viewer starts at the other end: at the screen hanging by the workstation or going up the scaffolding. What counts there is not how much a viewer can do, but whether someone with work gloves on reaches the right detail in three taps, and whether the dimension they need is right there with it. Below you will also find, plainly stated, what we do not do.
What this table says about Vertex Viewer comes from Vertex's own product page and FAQ. If a feature is not there, we write that down instead of guessing.
| Feature | Field-Viewer | Vertex Viewer |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | The team in the workshop and on site: viewing, measuring and reading off, not drawing. | Vertex describes it as a tool for everyone, to open drawings and put comments on them, also without a Vertex BD licence. |
| Where it runs | On the screen at the workstation and on a tablet on site. You buy the hardware yourself. | A Windows pc, after installing the package you download from the site. For 3D in a browser, Vertex points to Showroom and Sync. |
| Model and 2D drawing linked | Tap an element in the model and the matching 2D drawing sits next to it, and the other way round just as well. | The viewer page describes opening drawings and redlining them. A link between the model and the drawing is not mentioned. |
| Measuring yourself | Tapping two points is enough for a distance, an angle or an area. | Not mentioned on the viewer page. Vertex Showroom does have measuring tools. |
| Layers on and off | Structure, services and finishes switch on and off separately, so only what matters for that job is left. | Not mentioned on the viewer page. For Showroom, Vertex writes that you hide the geometry that should not come along before you export. |
| Offline | Viewing, measuring and noting a comment work without a connection, and as soon as there is a network again it syncs. | A program you install locally on your pc. Showroom and Sync run in the browser. |
| Licence on the floor | Where the looking happens, no licence for the CAD package is needed. We agree the price together, per project or site. | Free. According to Vertex's FAQ you open and review Vertex models and drawings with it without a Vertex BD licence. |
| Files you open alongside | An IFC from another package or a pdf from a supplier sits next to the model, in the format it came in. | Vertex files, DXF and DWG. |
| What it does not do | No redlining with text and lines on the drawing itself: with us a comment goes to the drawing office as a report, linked to the part it concerns. No clash detection, no presentation tool and no hardware. | Vertex names viewing and redlining. Modelling or editing is not in the feature list; we did not find a sentence that rules it out explicitly. |
There are plenty of cases where you need nothing other than the free viewer that is already there.
Someone at the office or at a subcontractor has to be able to view a Vertex drawing, a DWG or a DXF. You download the installer from the Vertex site and there it is, without a Vertex BD licence and without a conversation with a supplier.
Vertex Viewer lets you put text, lines and symbols on a drawing, and tuck longer comments away in a notepad. Field-Viewer does not do that redlining on the drawing itself; with us a comment goes to the drawing office as a report, linked to the part it concerns.
Besides the viewer, Vertex also has Showroom and Sync, which let you share models, drawings and production data in a browser with people who have no licence. If everything stays with one supplier, that saves a contract and a point of contact.
Showroom runs, according to Vertex, on phones, tablets, pcs and VR headsets. That is presenting, and Field-Viewer is not built for it.
The difference is not in the number of features, but in where the screen stands.
Big buttons, generous tap zones and a view that already sits right per workstation, so nobody has to set something up first with their gloves on.
Tap two points and the distance is there. That saves a phone call to the drawing office for a dimension that is already in the model.
Tapping an element and getting the matching drawing next to it is the step that keeps coming back on the floor, certainly on a prefab element you have to read from both sides.
An IFC from the engineering office and a pdf from a supplier sit next to the publication from Vertex BD, without anyone having to convert something first.
No. Vertex Viewer is a desktop program for opening and redlining drawings, Field-Viewer is a screen on the floor where the model and the drawings sit together. Plenty of companies need both, each in a different place.
Yes. If something is not right, you send a report from the screen to the drawing office, linked to the part it concerns. If you want to work with text and lines on the drawing itself, Vertex Viewer stays the tool for that.
No. Field-Viewer shows what the drawing office publishes, so at the workstation or on site no licence for the CAD package is needed. Vertex writes the same about its own free viewer.
Vertex Viewer, Vertex Showroom and Vertex BD are products of Vertex Systems. This comparison is based on publicly available information as of 7 September 2026. If something is wrong, email us.
Sources
Would you rather see your own project on screen than an example of ours? Email us a publication from Vertex BD or an IFC file, with the pdf drawings alongside if you have them, to info@field-viewer.com. Too big for an email? Send a WeTransfer link instead.
Within two working days we set up a short demo in which you see your own model in the viewer: your elements, your dimensions, your drawings beside them.
We use what you send only to prepare that demo. We share your files with no one and we delete them afterwards.
Request a demo with your own project, no obligation. We will look together at whether Field-Viewer suits your team in Flanders, in your workshop or on your site.
Not ready for a demo yet? Leave your email address and you will hear from us when there is news about Field-Viewer. Not a newsletter, a few emails a year at most.
Thanks, you will hear from us as soon as there is news.
Thanks, we have your request. We will get in touch within two working days to arrange a demo.