Beyond the Paper

Composing Sheets in DWF files

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.

What is quantity takeoff?

Some blog readers have read my bio and noticed: "Scott recently accepted the position of Engineering Project Manager for our DWF-based quantity takeoff application that is under development." They want to know what is quantity takeoff?

Professors Kevin R. Miller and Thomas H. Mills have written a paper with some interesting background material called Teaching Paperless Detailed Quantity Take-off and Estimating. Quantity takeoff is an activity performed by General Contractors, Subcontractors, Cost Consultants, and Quantity Surveyors as part of the construction process. It involves counting the number of items associated with a particular construction project, determining the associated materials and labor costs, and formulating a bid (or estimate) as part of the bidding process. Quantity takeoff is also applied to the pricing process.

Today the quantity takeoff process is typically done manually using a printout, a red pen, and a clicker. A digitizer is often used for taking measurements from paper. Autodesk is seeking to streamline the process electronically using DWF. Imagine if software could answer questions like: "How many doors do I need for the 3rd floor? What fire ratings do they require? How many square feet of carpet do I need?"

A key market driver in the building industry is the concept of the Building Information Model and leveraging data throughout the construction life cycle. Creating a quantity takeoff solution extends customer investment in digital design data to other project members such as estimators. Providing a solution that generates a set of takeoff elements (counts, measurements, conditions that affect cost) enables estimators to more quickly and more accurately perform takeoff for bidding or pricing.

Carl Bass' Autodesk University 2005 presentation is available for download. You can select a large or small Windows media file based on your available bandwidth:

Autodesk U Large WMV (465MB)
Autodesk U Small WMV (147MB)

At 40 minutes into the presentation, Jonathan Knowles and Carl provide a demo of quantity takeoff. This gives you a sense of how data can be culled from a DWF file as the basis for creating a bid or price.

DWF files are published by all of Autodesk products. Creating a solution that allows customers to perform project-critical tasks such as takeoff allows users outside of the original design team to benefit from digital design data. This is made possible by the geometry and metadata in a DWF that can be counted and/or measured. Autodesk's takeoff solution will do for quantity takeoff what Autodesk Design Review did for the design Review process. So Autodesk's takeoff solution will provide another example of DWF going beyond the paper.

DWF Attach - Don't quote me on that

AutoCAD 2007 has a new DWF Attach command where a DWF can be inserted as an underlay. This command has been positively received by the AutoCAD community. There have even been suggestions to evolve the command further.

Autodesk discussion group member, Chuck Han, noted that AutoCAD 2007 will crash if a DWF file is specified on the command line using quotation marks. If you use:

-DWFATTACH

and specify the path and file name as:

"http://localhost/details.dwf"

you get an AutoCAD 2007 exception. If you specify the path and file name WITHOUT the quotation marks:

http://localhost/details.dwf

then there is no problem.  This exception is inconsistent with other AutoCAD commands such as:

-INSERT

which does allow quotation marks around the path and file name. While this problem might seem trivial, it is an issue for some programmatic (specifically, ObjectARX) situations.

Thanks for the tip Chuck! I will pass your issue on to the AutoCAD team.

How do I find items on this blog?

In February, there were 18 posts to this blog. In March, there were 39. With this post, there have been 36 in April. When you navigate to http://dwf.blogs.com, you see the most recent 10 posts. A common question I get is, "Since I can only see the most recent 10 posts, how do I see the older posts?"

There are several ways you can do this.

	DWF FAQ: Prior to starting this blog, I maintained a DWF Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document. One of the goals of this blog is to replace that 68 page Word document. The left navigation section of this blog includes a DWF FAQ image that is hyperlinked to a new DWF FAQ HTML page. The HTML page is a set of hyperlinks to answers to frequently asked questions. Many of the questions are hyperlinks to answers that are previous postings to this blog. So if you have a particular question in mind, this is the place to start. The DWF FAQ is organized around: FORMAT RELATED QUESTIONS DWF Usage DWF Security DWF Precision USER INTERFACE CUSTOMER QUESTIONS DWF Publishing DWF Viewing AutoCAD Drawing (DWG) Viewing DWF Markup DWF Measurement DWF Printing REPROGRAPHICS INDUSTRY (bluepinter) QUESTIONS Sending DWF Files to a Shop Processing DWF Files at a Shop APPLICATION PROGRAM INTERFACE (API) SOFTWARE DEVELOPER QUESTIONS DWF Embedding DWF Programming
	Calendar: Perhaps you are looking for a post and you know on which day it was originally posted. You can select a day of the month and see all postings for that day.
	Search: You can use the Google search engine to find specific text strings in postings on this blog.
	Categories: The original DWF FAQ was organized around DWF Format Info, DWF Publishing, DWF Viewing, DWG Viewing, DWF Markup, DWF Measurement, etc. The categories for this blog are the same. What a coincidence. :-) So if you are looking for information regarding a particular aspect of DWF, you can view the set of previous postings by these categories. The Weblog category refers to postings about this blog itself (such as this one) or other fun items.
	Recent Posts: The posts on this blog sometimes get long. Fear not - most of the time they have pictures that contribute to their length. This section provides hyperlinks to the 10 most recent posts.
	Archives: The archives are a handy way to get most of the site into one document. The archives are organized by month. You can see a whole month's worth of posts with one click of a hyperlink. Using the Internet Explorer File->SaveAs capability allows a complete local copy (including the images) to be saved to your local computer for browsing while not connected to the internet. At this point in time, you can save the entire blog locally with 3 clicks and 3 SaveAs commands.
	Shortcuts: Before I added the DWF FAQ image at the top of the left navigation section, I created this list of shortcuts. The FAQ is one of them. These are also hyperlinks to particular postings that I found the need to revisit often. You can use "DWF FAQ" to access the FAQ without scrolling back to the top of the page.
	RSS Reader: The goal of this blog is to answer all of your DWF-related needs. First time visitors get a taste of the most recent 10. Regular visitor usually read the last post daily. Other users use methods like RSS feeds to receive posts regularly. I use the free RSS Bandit for my RSS feeds. The subscribe link appears at the bottom of the left navigation section (FEEDS section).
	My Yahoo!: You can add the RSS feed to your My Yahoo! page. This allows you to read postings as you read other news items of interest on Yahoo!. For your convenience, a link to add Beyond the Paper to your My Yahoo! appears in the FEEDS section.
	Google: You can add the ATOM feed to your Google home page or Google Reader. This allows you to read postings as you read other news items of interest on Google. A link to add Beyond the Paper to Google appears in the FEEDS section.
	Rojo: Rojo means "RSS with mojo." That's their secret ingredient for creating the best RSS feed reader on the web so you can discover and read news and blogs as efficiently as possible. An image to add Beyond the Paper to your Rojo page appears in the FEEDS section.
	Newsgator: You can create a personal newsgator online page loaded with content. An image to add Beyond the Paper to your newsgator page appears in the FEEDS section.
	Pluck: You can create a personal Pluck page loaded with news. An image to add Beyond the Paper to your Pluck page appears in the FEEDS section.
	Bloglines: You can create a personal Bloglines page loaded with the freshest news about the things you love. An image to add Beyond the Paper to your Bloglines page appears in the FEEDS section.
	Netvibes: You can create a personal Netvibes page loaded with news about the things you want. An image to add Beyond the Paper to your Netvibes page appears in the FEEDS section.
	FeedBurner: FeedBurner helps bloggers, podcasters, and commercial publishers get more value from the content they create. FeedBurner feed management technology delivers subscription services for publishers large and small so they can grow their reach. The FEEDS section has a hyperlink to take you to http://feeds.feedburner.com/BeyondThePaper.
	MSN Messenger Alerts: You can subscribe and receive summary alerts on Microsoft Instant Messenger. You can also receive an email message if you wish. There is an image with a hyperlink in the FEEDS section.
	Mobile Phone: In minutes, you can set-up a mobile space that's available worldwide on a web-enabled phone, PDA, or desktop PC. Each mobile site is outfitted with easy-to-use mobile channels including chat, blog, mobile feed reader, surveys, journal, forum, calendar, guestbook, bookmarks, email and more. In the FEEDS section, there is an image with a hyperlink to add Beyond the Paper to your WINKsite.
	Email: If you prefer not to use a browser, an RSS reader, or instant messenger to view these blog postings, you can have them sent to you via email. A sign up form is available at the bottom of the FEEDS section. This capability is provided by FeedBlitz. There is a way to unsubscribe if you change your mind later. (No way.)
	Blog Badge: If you are creating your own web site and wish to include an image as a hyperlink to this blog, please see adding a Beyond the Paper badge to your site.

Regardless of how you access Beyond the Paper, this is the place to get answers to your DWF questions. Without informed users, DWF cannot go beyond the paper.

Publish DWF from Revit for Commercial Reprographers

Now that more and more reprographers can process DWF files, the most natural way to supply commercial reprographers with files to print is DWF. Some customers have legacy reprographers running old software or old equipment that only understands HPGL. Several Autodesk Revit users have tried sending HPGL to these out-of-date reprographers by using the “capture to file” option of the Revit Print command. Unfortunately there are many flavors of HPGL generated from many different Windows HPGL drivers. We are seeing situations where reprographers aren't able to print every flavor of HPGL correctly. For example, using an HP755 driver with Autodesk Revit to create HPGL files that will be printed on an Océ TDS800 device via Océ Repro Desk has produced undesirable results. So your best option is to use DWF and either help your reprographer modernize his process to support DWF or select another reprographer who can. See my blog post for a list of partner products that can help your reprographer run the right DWF-compatible tools (some are even at no cost to your reprographer). Also we've found that the majority of US Reprographics Network members or ReproMAX members can print your DWF files efficiently, accurately, and at no extra charge.

Updated HP 4500 driver for DWF printing

Autodesk and HP worked together to implement the HP Instant Print feature. With HP Instant Printing, you let the device pick the paper size and orient the image to reduce paper waste. If you have an HP Instant Print compatible device, an HP Instant Print icon appears in your user interface for Autodesk DWF Viewer and Autodesk Design Review. You just click this icon to print your DWF file, and HP does the rest.

HP recently released a new HP Designjet 4500 series of devices. There are printing issues with the driver that ships with the device. An updated driver is available:

Download updated HP 4500 driver.

This updated driver that improves the DWF printing experience with the 4500 series.

Improve 3D Geometry in DWF files from AutoCAD 2007

The smoothness of 3D DWF models was improved in AutoCAD 2006 using the FACETRES variable.

For AutoCAD 2007, the smoothness of 3D DWF models is improved by changing the value of the 3D DWF Precision (3DDWFPREC) system variable. The setting for 3DDWFPREC ranges from 1 to 6. Unlike FACETRES, 3DDWFPREC is specified as an integer. Values like 5.5 are not allowed. Higher settings greatly improve the appearance of objects in the Autodesk DWF Viewer. The default value is 2.

3DDWFPREC is a global setting that affects all objects in the 3D model. Therefore, higher values have the potential of resulting in very large 3D DWF file sizes.

3DDWFPREC setting	Resulting DWF file size	Image
1	5KB	3ddwfprec1.png
2	5KB	3ddwfprec2.png
3	5KB	3ddwfprec3.png
4	5KB	3ddwfprec4.png
5	12KB	3ddwfprec5.png
6	67KB	3ddwfprec6.png

Setting the value as high as 4 has a modest effect on increasing the smoothness of the surfaces in the resulting DWF file with little increase in DWF file size. Setting a value of 5 has a noticeable visual impact with a moderate impact on DWF file size. Cranking up 3DDWFPREC to 6 yields the smoothest surfaces, but the resulting DWF file is indeed larger.

How Does Autodesk Design Review Streamline Building Projects?

Three heads are better than one. Senior Product Marketing Manager, Jennifer Toton, Senior DWF Product Manager, Diane Li, and Senior Buzzsaw Product Manager, Joan Allen have worked together to document How Does Autodesk Design Review Streamline Building Projects? Autodesk Design Review is the new name for Autodesk DWF Composer.

Download DesignReview07_collab-bldg_F.pdf (254.8K)

Yes the file is available as a PDF. No war here. PDF works well for text. Nothing in this document needs to be measured. :-)

In what languages is Autodesk DWF Writer available?

Autodesk DWF Writer is Autodesk's free DWF publishing application.

• Autodesk DWF Writer acts like a Windows printer to capture data to create 2D DWF files.
• Autodesk DWF Writer captures OpenGL commands to create 3D DWF files.

Autodesk DWF Writer is intended for use with non-Autodesk design software. Autodesk design software has the ability to publish DWF files built-in. In what languages is Autodesk DWF Writer available?

• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Czech
• English
• French
• German
• Hungarian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Polish
• Portuguese (Brazilian)
• Russian
• Spanish

In what languages is Autodesk DWG TrueView available?

Autodesk DWG TrueView is Autodesk's free DWG viewing application. It has the ability to view design data in AutoCAD 2007 DWG format (or earlier DWG versions) and publish 2D or 3D DWF files. In what languages is Autodesk DWG TrueView available?

• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Spanish