I have been involved with the team that developed Autodesk Impression and have had a ton of fun with the product and love hearing from the customers about how much easier and fun it makes their work. So now Cadalyst's Ron LaFon has wrote a detailed review of Autodesk Impression and looks like he too has become a fan of the product. I also read recently of a review for Photoshop that actually at one point recommended using Autodesk Impression for architectural renderings after all isn't Photoshop for photos.
Turn your 2D DWG and DWF files into attractive renderings
A few highlights from the review:
"Autodesk Impression is both easy to use and understand. It offers the ability to save files in popular graphics formats and print your images easily"
Autodesk Impression is moving at light speed and has a private group of customers discussing with the team on the future releases and you too can register for this at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com. For those already with a MyFeedback account just make sure you have selected Autodesk Impression in your profile as well as yes to beta or feedback projects.
Personally my opinion on Impressions benefit is the fact that unlike some other products trying to accomplish a rendering in a design process as a out of the loop extra disconnected process, Impression fits into the design process by accommodating the files DWG and DWF and changes without having to redo the entire file. For example if the design changes (they always do) you can simply update the Impression file by reading the latest DWG file or applying the saved style, but if you did this in another product you would have to go through the exporting a new postscript file and setting up all the rendering or if using manual methods like markers you have to plot a new file and start over from scratch making. What is a few minute process in Autodesk Impression can be a few hours or days in other product or process to get the same output and time is money.
Here are some real examples of Autodesk Impression by customer Ged Trias who has mastered the product and been very active in helping guide Autodesk in the future of the product by providing feedback.
Another Autodesk Impression customer making great use of Impression is Lisa Town.
And an excellent example from Howard Munsell.
Check out the Autodesk Impression Online Community
Cheers and make a lasting Impression!
Shaan