As mentioned in an earlier post, Autodesk Design Review originally got its composer name from the ability of a user to compose a DWF file. This is normally done by opening two DWF files and dragging and dropping sheets from one DWF file to another. A DWF file can be composed from sheets generated by Autodesk design software and sheets from other software (e.g., Microsoft Excel, Word, Project). This often happens as part of preparing a package for review.
The name of a sheet in a DWF file comes from the design application that publishes the DWF file. For example, in AutoCAD, the sheet name comes from the layout name in the drawing file. Some users have asked that Autodesk Design Review create the sheet name from the DWF file name instead.
Senior Architect and DWF Technical Evangelist, Brian Mathews, points out that the sheet naming was chosen with the dragging and dropping operation in mind.
The name of a sheet comes from the AutoCAD layout. Since the source DWF file may have multiple sheets, and since the destination DWF file may have multiple sheets, it is less useful to use file names to name sheets. Otherwise if a user pulled in several sheets from the same DWF file, all of the sheets would have the same name. There would be no way to distinguish them. The naming of sheets is based on the layout name is far more unique and flexible than file names.
Although it is common to drag and drop sheets from one DWF file to another, dragging can be used to reorder sheets within a given DWF file. In the Content window, the user simply selects a sheet and drags it to a desired location. If a user wishes to duplicate a sheet within a DWF file, he simply holds down the control key, selects the sheet, and then drags it to the desired location. A copy of the sheet is placed there. The user can then rename the sheet as desired. The control drag operation is a convenient way to duplicate a sheet.
Subscribe