Beth Powell of Beth's CAD Blog inquired about the history of Autodesk Design Review releases.
# | release | time frame |
---|---|---|
1 | Autodesk DWF Composer R1 | May 2004 |
2 | Autodesk DWF Composer R2 | April 2005 |
3 | Autodesk Design Review 2007 | June 2006 |
While we are on the topic of Autodesk Design Review, please note that 3D DWF files generated by AutoCAD 2007 or Inventor 11 cannot be opened with Autodesk DWF Composer R2. On the other hand, the 2D DWF files generated can be opened. Both the 2D and 3D DWF files can be opened with Autodesk DWF Viewer 6.5. The 3D DWF files generated by AutoCAD 2007 and Inventor 11 are openable by Autodesk Design Review 2007. A composite DWF file (combination of 2D and 3D) is treated as a 3D DWF file based on its 3D content.
generated by | format | viewable by Autodesk DWF Viewer 6.5 | viewable by Autodesk DWF Composer R2 | viewable by Autodesk Design Review 2007 |
---|---|---|---|---|
AutoCAD 2006 | 2D | yes | yes | yes |
3D | yes | yes | yes | |
AutoCAD 2007 | 2D | yes | yes | yes |
3D | yes | no | yes | |
composite (2D + 3D) |
yes | no | yes | |
Inventor 10 | 2D | yes | yes | yes |
3D | yes | yes | yes | |
Inventor 11 | 2D | yes | yes | yes |
3D | yes | no | yes | |
composite (2D + 3D) |
yes | no | yes |
This is the result of the DWF Toolkit - a technology that we share publicly and use ourselves. AutoCAD 2007 and Autodesk DWF Viewer 6.5 use a newer version of the DWF Toolkit than Autodesk DWF Composer R2. Autodesk Design Review 2007 uses the newer DWF Toolkit.
Late Breaking Note: According to DWF Toolkit developer, Sriram Gopalakrishnan, some backward compatibility logic was built into the DWF Toolkit to write out the lowest possible DWF file version. So, in theory, not all AutoCAD 2007 or Inventor R11 DWF files will be incompatible with Autodesk DWF Composer R2. Only in instances where newer 3D "features" are used will an incompatible DWF file be created.