Beyond the Paper

DWF Writer for 64bit ??

Though we have had many requests to offer the DWF Writer for 64bit, it is not certain that this is becoming a reality, yet.

At this point our DWF Writer for 32bit does not install on a 64bit system and no workaround is available.

The experts are still out to determine as to how useful such a printer driver will really be. Many believe that users are making it part of the design process - instead of using the built-in publish feature functionality offered in our Autodesk design applications - given they are part of the process.

I am a proponent of the 64bit DWF Writer but have still some distance to go before all hurdles are cleared. Needless to say that it would be extremely useful to hear from you.

Why do you think that we should offer a DWF Writer for 64bit platforms?

You can post your comments in this forum or email me directly at volker.joseph@autodesk.com. We are looking for your vote, telling us as to why you think that we should (absolutely!) introduce this printer driver.

It would also be helpful to understand as to what applications are used as part of your design process. And why, if you are using Autodesk applications, you think that the built-in publish features are not sufficient and require the DWF Writer for the design process.

DWF Writer for 64bit to the rescue!

--Volker

Number of Copies Irrelevant?

This subject has been raised several times over by customers as well as internal staff and I thought it would make for a great article.

So, the problem involves users of Autodesk Design Review who wish to print a DWF multiple times and increase the number of copies accordingly in the Print dialog window. Despite the setting, the printer only produces a single set.

Sriram Gopalakrishnan, one of our skilled DWF Engineers, recently replied to the very same issue as follows: "ADR queries the printer driver to see if it supports printing multiple copies. If so ADR lets the driver do it, if not ADR prints multiple copies by printing the same data multiple times. The latter is less efficient and hence is done only when the driver doesn't support it. In some cases we can get incorrect information from the printer driver. Your situation appears to be this. You may want to check to see if there is an updated driver. That might fix the problem."

I second Sriram's opinion, that this is likely to be system printer driver related. Many of the print issues we see are related to the driver and a simple update gets the user going again.

Have you seen similar issues? Did updating the system printer driver resolve this or other, similar issues? Share it with us!

--Volker

Autodesk and HP in the Spotlight

At the American Institute of Architects convention, Autodesk recently announced with HP that the latest version of Autodesk Design Review software is available with the new HP Designjet T1100 and T610 Printer series. The solution offers architects, engineers and construction professionals an integrated design review package and the flexibility to easily and efficiently print anytime. For firms such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), Autodesk and HP are helping professionals save time and resources and improve productivity, to complete projects on time and create a competitive advantage.

You can find the complete article here: http://www.sys-con.com/read/371295.htm

--Volker

Autodesk Design Review 2008: Installing Batch Print

In a previous blog article on Autodesk Design Review 2007, I wrote about the Batch Print capability. Batch Print for Autodesk Design Review 2007 was available on the Autodesk Design Review 2007 CD. For Autodesk Design Review 2008, Batch Print is available as an optional download from the Autodesk web site.

1. As originally installed, the Autodesk Design Review 2008 File menu has an entry for downloading and installing the Batch Print capability.
   

2. Invoking this menu item brings up a dialog.
   

3. Selecting Download from the dialog navigates you to the Autodesk web site.
   

4. By selecting the batchprint_designreview2008.exe link, Internet Explorer provides you with the option to Save or Run the installer.
   
   It is typical for a user to save the installer to the local hard drive and then run it from there.

5. The installer has only one step - Update.
   

6. After selecting update, the installer completes.
   

7. The next time Autodesk Design Review is invoked, the menu item for downloading and installing Batch Print has been replaced by the ability to use the Batch Print Wizard.
   
   By the way, if you have Autodesk Design Review open when you download and install the Batch Print Wizard, the menu item will not be updated. You need to close Autodesk Design Review and reopen it to see the updated menu item. We have a low priority defect logged for this issue.

The steps for using the Batch Print Wizard for Autodesk Design Review 2008 are the same for Autodesk Design Review 2007. See Autodesk Design Review 2007 Batch Printing.

In a previous blog article on Autodesk Design Review 2007, I noted how Autodesk Design Review supports the HP Instant Print capability. For HP devices that support this capability, when printing DWF files, you can allow the device driver to select the page size and orient the image to the paper to minimize paper usage. Autodesk Design Review 2008 continues to support HP Instant Printing, but in addition, has added support for this process to the Batch Print Wizard. You can now Batch Print and take advantage of HP Instant Printing.

As I have said many times, to go beyond the paper you have to be able to get to paper first. Batch Printing helps DWF files get there.

Newsgroup Questions: DWF files with Tiff Images

The Autodesk discussion groups have two ways of accessing them: using a web browser or a newsreader application.

Autodesk Design Review
http://discussion.autodesk.com/forum.jspa?forumID=140
news://discussion.autodesk.com/autodesk.design.review

Recently Autodesk Design Review discussion group member jkj297 (I believe his father is jkj296.) posed the question:

I am looking for information on how to print a .tiff image to scale. I am a new user and am wondering if it is possible to print a .tiff image to a specific scale or does it need to be converted first? What procedure is best to follow?

Autodesk Software Developer, Manjiri Nanivadekar, provided some additional information:

You can import a tiff into Autodesk Design Review by dragging and dropping into the canvas pane. Then open the print dialog, and set the scale to 100. This should print the actual tiff size. Note that if your tiff did not specify DPI or DPCM, your locale will determine the import unit.

User jkj297 then had a follow-up question:

If i use the "tools"..."unit of scale" option and set the scale to the same scale that the drawing was created at (i.e.,: 1:200) and then try to measure a known distance, Autodesk Design Review does not give me the correct result.

User SaxyWolf provided an answer:

Autodesk Design Review automatically scales the image to 1 unit is 1 inch. This is defined by what DPI (Dots Per Inch or pixels per inch) the tiff image was saved. If the drawing scale was 1"=200'...

Method 1, with a display of units:

1. Tools->Units and Scale
2. Set 'Drawing Units' to Inches.
3. Set 'Display Units' to Feet. Set 'Scale' to 1" = 200'

Method 2, The same effect but without units:

1. Tools->Units and Scale
2. Set 'Scale' to 1:200

If you are getting distances that are 12x what you want:

• Method 1: check to see that you set 'Drawing Units' to Inches.
• Method 2: check to see that you used 1:200 and not 1"=200'.

This level of information sharing from peer to peer, including Autodesk employees and non-Autodesk employees, is exactly what the discussion groups are intended for. Way to go people!

Project Freewheel: How does printing work?

On July 19 I posted a blog article describing how Project Freewheel worked in terms of its visual display.

Project Freewheel: How does it work?

Now that printing has been added, people have been curious as to how that works. It is very similar to what is done for visual display.

Continuing the steps from the original article, when a user clicks on the Print icon:

1. JavaScript on the user's computer gets the page size from the browser and makes a request to the Project Freewheel server for a new image.

2. Project Freewheel uses its rendering engine to convert the DWF file to an image file at 200 DPI (a browser limitation) for the requested paper size.

3. The Project Freewheel server returns the image to the user's browser.

4. JavaScript on the user's computer sends the image file to the local printer.

To go beyond the paper, you have to get to paper first. Project Freewheel now has that ability.

For the latest information on Project Freewheel, see Scott Sheppard's It's Alive in the Lab blog.

Project Freewheel: Printing Support Added

First came 2D. Then came 3D. Now you can print 2D and 3D DWF files without installing any software. Since Project Freewheel is web based, you can print DWF files from any operating system such as Linux or Apple OSX using the print capabilities of your browser.

Check out http://www.freewheel.labs.autodesk.com. You can try uploading your own DWF files. To go beyond the paper, you have to be able to get to paper first. This newest Project Freewheel addition helps with that.

For the latest information on Project Freewheel, see Scott Sheppard's It's Alive in the Lab blog.

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.

Autodesk Design Review 2007 Batch Printing

Autodesk Design Review 2007 includes a batch print capability. The help file documents several powerful steps to make printing multiple DWF files easy.

1. Print Several DWF Files at a Time
2. Save Print Settings for Several DWF Files
3. Start a Batch Print Job
4. Start a Batch Print Job from the Command Prompt

To save substantial time and effort, use Autodesk Design Review’s Batch Print Wizard to print multiple DWF files from multiple locations. When batch printing, you can assign printers and set printer options for each file. You can also save the batch print job with printer settings for use at a later time.

To start batch printing, you must have a DWF file open in Autodesk Design Review. This makes the batch print menu item available. The opened DWF file will not print unless you include it in the selection in the batch wizard.

To print several DWF files at a time

1. Open the Batch Print Wizard:

   a. Choose File Batch Print Wizard.

   b. Click Next.

   The Select DWF Files to Print window opens displaying all the local folders and the folders shared over the network.

   Tip: If at any time you want to return to a previous window, click Back. To cancel batch printing, click Cancel and click OK. If you have added any DWF files in the batch print queue, clicking Cancel prompts you to save them. Click Yes to save them or No to discard them.
2. Select the DWF files to print:

   a. Search for and select the files or folders containing DWF files that you want to print.

   Warning: You cannot set print options for a folder directly. You can only set print options for an individual file. If you want to set print options for a folder, add the individual files from the folder and set print options for each.

   b. Click the Add button to add them to the batch print queue.

   Note: You can remove the DWF files from the batch print queue by selecting them and clicking the Remove button. You can reorder the DWF files in the batch print queue by using the Up and the Down buttons.

   c. Click Next.

3. Choose printer settings:

   a. In the Choose print settings for the DWF files window that opens, select a file and click Print Setup.

   b. In the Print dialog box that opens, select the print options for the DWF file and click OK.

   c. Click Next.

4. Optional: To view a log file of the print job immediately after printing, click the View batch print log when job is complete check box.
5. Click Print. You are prompted to save the batch print job. Click Yes to save them as a .bpj file and to continue printing. Click No to not save the .bpj file, but continue printing.

   A Printing Batch Print Job progress dialog box opens, showing the progress of the batch printing. To cancel the printing, click Cancel Batch Print Job.

You can save the print settings for several DWF files in a batch print job (BPJ) file to print later.

To save print settings for several DWF files in a batch print job file

1. Choose File Batch Print Wizard.
2. Click Next. The Select DWF Files to Print window opens.
3. Select the DWF files you want to save and click the Add button.
4. Click Next. The Choose print settings for the DWF files window opens.
   Note: You can set print options for each DWF file by selecting it and clicking Print Setup.
5. Click Next. The Save or Start Batch Print Job window opens.
6. Click Save. The Save As dialog box opens.
7. In the File name: text box, type a filename and click Cancel to close the Batch Print Wizard and click File name: text box will have the filename of the first DWF file or folder in the batch print queue. The files are saved with a .bpj file extension. You can edit a BPJ file using any text editor.

To start a batch print job from the command prompt

Important: Before you begin, you must know the exact locations and file names for the Autodesk Design Review application (DesignReview.exe) and the BPJ file that you want to run. You will need this information to perform this procedure.

1. Choose Start All Programs Accessories Command Prompt.
2. At the command prompt, type cd C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Design Review\
   Note: If you installed Design Review to a different location, type that location instead.
3. Press Enter.
4. At the command prompt, type DesignReview.exe <BPJ Location and File Name>

   Replace <BPJ Location and File Name> with the actual BPJ location and file name. For example, C:\My Batch Print.bpj

5. Press Enter.

   The DWF files listed in the BPJ file are printed using the saved print settings.

To start a batch print job from the command prompt

1. Choose Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt.
2. At the command prompt, type cd C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Design Review\
   Note: If you installed Design Review to a different location, type that location instead.
3. Press Enter.
4. At the command prompt, type DesignReview.exe <BPJ Location and File Name>

   Replace <BPJ Location and File Name> with the actual BPJ location and file name. For example, C:\My Batch Print.bpj

5. Press Enter.

   The DWF files listed in the BPJ file are printed using the saved print settings.

For DWF to go beyond the paper, it has to get to paper first. The batch print capability of Autodesk Design Review 2007 helps make that happen.

Project Freewheel: Can I print my DWF file?

Can I print my DWF file with the Project Freewheel Viewer?
As I have mentioned many times in this blog, for DWF to go beyond the paper, it needs to get to paper first. Although not present when first unveiled, the Project Freewheel technology preview now includes printing.

For the latest information on Project Freewheel, see Scott Sheppard's blog: It's Alive in the Lab.