Printing DWF from Wipeouts Depends on the Windows Printer Driver

I am old. Every time I hear the term wipeout, I can't help but think about the August 1963 song "Wipeout" by the Safaris.

Listen to Wipeout (only 17 seconds worth)

For AutoCAD users, a wipeout object is a polygonal area that masks underlying objects with the current background color. This area is bounded by the wipeout frame, which you can turn on for editing and turn off for plotting. It works a lot like WhiteOut typing correction fluid.

Sometimes users have trouble printing a DWF file that was generated from a drawing file where a wipeout has been applied. I wondered why. I decided to investigate.

1. The first thing I did was create a simple DWG that had two items: a polyline and a text string. My model space looked like:
   

2. The next thing I did was go to Layout1 and create a wipeout area. The wipeout area covered the text. Layout1 looked like:
   

3. I then used the PUBLISH command to publish a 2D DWF file. When viewed in Autodesk Design Review (or the DWF Viewer), the DWF file matched the layout exactly.
   

4. I used the unpack.exe program to extract the 2D data from the DWF file and convert it to ASCII. This allowed me to see what was in the DWF file using any text editor. Normally DWF files are compressed binary data. The DWF file looked like:

   
   (W2D V06.01)
   (Creator 'AutoCAD 2007 (17.0s (LMS Tech))')
   (Created 1161211702 '10/18/2006 3:48:22 PM' '{404337FD-A46E-41A9-86B0-F93CF5FE8160}')
   (Modified 1161211702 '10/18/2006 3:48:22 PM' '{404337FD-A46E-41A9-86B0-F93CF5FE8160}')
   (SourceFilename wipeout.dwg)
   (SourceCreated 1161211513 '10/18/2006 3:45:13 PM' '{269D4BC8-A10F-4E20-A186-73B9549B2791}')
   (SourceModified 1161211674 '10/18/2006 3:47:54 PM' '{3B4CF6D1-985E-4558-AEEB-40AC45483F7C}')
   (Units '' 
           ((1199.988448 7.3474553246e-014 0 0)
           (-7.3478100591e-014 1199.9305154 0 0)
           (-0 0 1 0)
           (2147471467 7.6109992287e-011 0 1)))
   (Title Layout1)
   (Embed 'image/vnd.dwg;' 'AutoCAD 2007 (17.0s (LMS Tech))' 'wipeout.dwg' '')
   (NamedView 2147471467,0 2147483647,9652 INITIAL)
   (View 2147471467,0 2147483647,9652)
   (PlotInfo show 0 in 10.99999976 8.4999997597 0.42495126799 0.22810038619 10.57504898 8.2718994862 
           ((0.00083333333333 0 0)
           (0 0.00083333333333 0)
           (0 0 1)))
   (PlotOptimized 1)
   C 0
   (LineWeight 12)
   (LineStyle 
   (LineJoin round) 
   (LineStartCap round) 
   (LineEndCap round))
   (Layer 1 0)
   (Viewport '' 
      (Contour 1 4 2147482806,960 2147482806,8638 2147472728,8638 2147472728,960) 
        (Units '' 
                ((139.7700182 8.5587109286e-015 0 0)
                (-8.5584452701e-015 139.77435673 0 0)
                (-0 0 1 0)
                (2147472409.4 1300.5278897 0 1))))
      L 2147472766,7787 2147482768,1811
   (FontExtension 'Arial' 'Arial')
   (Font (Charset ANSI) (Family swiss) (Height 39) (Rotation 65535))
      (Text 2147476305,4653 hello)
   (LineWeight 0)
   (Viewport '' 
      (Contour 1 4 2147483647,0 2147483647,9652 2147471467,9652 2147471467,0) 
        (Units '' 
                ((1199.988448 7.3474553246e-014 0 0)
                (-7.3478100591e-014 1199.9305154 0 0)
                (-0 0 1 0)
                (2147471467 7.6109992287e-011 0 1))))
      P 5 2147472727,959 2147482807,959 2147482807,8639 2147472727,8639
          2147472727,959
      (Group4PNGImage 'PNG' 0 736,506 2147474845,3270 2147479258,6302 (2480 
       89504E470D0A1A0A0000000D49484452000002E0000001FA080300000071
       A5095B00000300504C544500000080000000800080800000008080008000
       .
       .
       .
       4E9AC04913386902274DE0A4099CB4F9FA5ED02470D2FE8B727A056C7203
       50884B837431CC7B0000000049454E44AE426082))
   (LineWeight 12)
      P 6 2147474845,6302 2147479258,6302 2147479258,3283 2147474858,3283
          2147474871,3270 2147474845,6302
   (EndOfDWF)
   
   

   A white PNG image (highlighted in blue) was displayed - just like whiteout.

So what you say? Well the moral of the story is that when printing DWF files that were created from drawings that contain wipeouts, your results will depend on the printer driver being used. If the Windows driver has a buffering mechanism so that it can draw the geometry and then overwrite it before the ink hits the paper, then you should get correct results. If the driver does not have a buffering mechanism, e.g., a pen plotter, then there's no way to remove the ink from the paper once it has already been applied. The driver also has to be able to process image data in the background color.

In terms of sending DWF files to commercial reprographers for printing, solutions like Océ Repro Desk, PLP PlotWorks, KIP Powerprint, or CADzation AcroPlot Repro use DWF technology that handles DWF files published from DWG files with wipeouts properly.