Anyway, Harry turned up again at last years AU, (at the 3:39 mark) where he reveals he is from Brooklyn, and that AU2008 was his "50th" AU. Apparently the DWF thing worked out OK for him.
Labels: DWF, Field, Harry, mp3, support
PermaLink Posted 10/15/2008 11:32:00 AM Comments (0)
The reason I bring this back up is a statement made by Mike Hudspeth in an article titled MCAD Modeling, in the September 2007 Cadalyst. The statement was...
Everything is 3D today. It's hard to avoid it. Even Adobe Acrobat, the industry de facto standard document-transfer format, is offering 3D capability...
I know Autodesk has been making strides in 3D capabilities with DWF, but this article flat out calls PDF the "de facto" standard for document transfer. So is DWF gaining or losing ground?
We primarily work with what I consider 2D drawings in Land Desktop and AutoCAD (no 3D solids), so we have little to no experience with portable 3D files in DWF or PDF format.
If you work with 3D files and share them using either method, please leave a comment with any thoughts you have on this matter. Thanks!
Labels: Cadalyst, Document sharing, DWF, pdf
PermaLink Posted 9/20/2007 06:36:00 PM Comments (1)
Since the DWF format has been gaining steam over the past couple of years, one of the requests I have seen a lot is for the ability to automatically create a DWF at the same time you save or close a drawing in AutoCAD. Starting with AutoCAD 2008, you can now do this.
In the OPTIONS command, on the Plot and Publish tab, there is an "Automatic DWF Publish" checkbox and a button to set various options for this tool. There are 3 main options.
1. When do you want AutoCAD to create the DWF?
- Save - Each time you save, a DWF is created/updated.
- Close - Each time you close the drawing, a DWF is created/updated.
- Prompt on Save - Same as above, but you are prompted.
- Prompt on Close- Same as above, but you are prompted.
2. Where do you want to save the DWF files?
- Same folder as the DWG file.
- A "DWF" folder relative the the DWG folder. In other words, if you drawing is in "R:\Jobs\MyProject", then the DWF files will be saved to "R:\Jobs\MyProject\DWF"
- A single, hardcoded folder, such as "C:\DWF"
3. What do you want to include in the DWF file?
- Model space
- Layouts
- Model space and the layouts.
The other options are similar to normal DWF creation, such as whether to include layers, whether or not to use a password, and whether you want a single DWF or multiple DWF files.
If you obsessed with keeping a current DWF file that matches your DWG, then creating a DWF at each save may be for you. However, if you have several layouts and/or a large drawing, count on some additional time each time you save. A more reasonable option may be to just have AutoCAD create the DWF when you close the drawing.
Warning: If you have this feature turned on and the last created DWF is open (say a co-worker is viewing it), then the DWF creation process inside of AutoCAD appears to work, but the DWF does NOT get updated. IMO - AutoCAD should warn the user that the DWF can not be updated. If your co-worker opens this DWF and leaves for the rest of the day, you can Auto-Publish the rest of the day and the file will never change.
Labels: AutoCAD 2008, DWF
PermaLink Posted 5/22/2007 07:09:00 AM Comments (0)
Have you ever needed to Xref (or reference) a PDF file? One way would be to save the PDF as a TIFF and reference the image. Of course there is the old way of inserting an OLE object referencing the PDF. Both have their drawbacks.
Here is another way. Download DWF Writer from Autodesk (it's free), then open your PDF in Acrobat (reader is fine) and plot the PDF to a DWF using the DWF Writer print driver. Note that multi sheet PDFs are converted to a multi sheet DWF.
Then use the reference manager or the ._DWFATTACH command in AutoCAD to reference the DWF file. (The ability to reference DWF files was added in AutoCAD 2007).
Now if there was just some way to create a reference to each sheet in the DWF all at once rather than having to repeat the ._DWFATTACH command for each one.
Labels: AutoCAD 2008, DWF, pdf
PermaLink Posted 4/25/2007 01:46:00 PM Comments (0)
The instructions for a silent install of Design Review 2008 are exactly as those posted for Design Review 2007.
How do you get the .MSI file out of the .EXE file that you download? Run the EXE, then when you get to the first install dialog, stop and search your %temp% directory and you will find a file named SetupDesignReview.msi
To review, here is the string to use in your BAT or script file.
MSIEXEC /i "\\server\share\SetupDesignReview.msi" /l*v %temp%\DesignReview.log /qb!
Labels: DWF
PermaLink Posted 4/09/2007 11:34:00 AM Comments (0)
Now that Autodesk has made Design Review available for free, you may be wondering, "do I need this?", "what is it?", "what does it do?", "why is it all of a sudden free?", "where can I get it?", etc.
I found an excellent review of this product at "Stress Free" that should answer all those questions and more.
Take a look at Reviewing Autodesk Design Review
Labels: DWF
PermaLink Posted 2/05/2007 01:15:00 PM Comments (0)
According to some reports, Autodesk Design Review (formerly DWF Composer) is now free. This Autodesk web page agrees. Other Autodesk web pages (here and here) do not say. I wonder why this is not being announced on the Autodesk DWF blog "Beyond the Paper"?
Oh, yea, do we get our $199 back that we spent on Design Review prior to today?
Labels: DWF
PermaLink Posted 2/01/2007 01:35:00 PM Comments (3)