Beyond the Paper

Autodesk Design Review 2007 serves many industries

By now you've probably heard that Autodesk DWF Composer has been renamed to Autodesk Design Review. Our newest release, Autodesk Design Review 2007, has something for everyone. The "something" depends on what industry you are in. With this in mind, I took the marketing materials for this release and combined them into a table.

Autodesk Design Review 2007 New Features Table

I will be expanding on the new capabilities of Autodesk Design Review 2007 and Autodesk DWF Viewer 7.0 in the weeks ahead.

DWF items on AUGI Inventor wish list voting

http://www.augi.com/inventor/ballot.asp

The DWF-related items include:

You use the pull downs to indicate your preferences. So vote and let your voice be heard.

Answers to Questions about Autodesk DWF Composer name change

In a previous blog posting, I noted how Autodesk DWF Composer originally got its name. According to www.dictionary.com, compose is to make or create by putting together parts or elements. Autodesk is changing the product name of Autodesk® DWF™ Composer to a more descriptive name that highlights the benefits and functionality of the software—Autodesk® Design Review. Although the name is changing, you will still be able to compose DWF files from a variety of sources.

1. Why is Autodesk changing the name from Autodesk DWF Composer?
Autodesk conducted extensive research about the DWF Composer product brand. The results revealed that customers responded more favorably to a descriptive name that communicated the product benefits directly.

2. What is the timeline for the name transition?
Communication about the new name began on March 23, 2006. The new name will be fully in place for the next product release.

3. Will I still be able to upgrade my DWF Composer software to Design Review?
Yes. The name change does not affect upgrades.

4. Will my subscription for DWF Composer be valid for Design Review?
Yes. Your next upgrade will be named Autodesk Design Review 2007.

5. Are all of the Autodesk DWF product names changing?
No. Autodesk® DWF™ Viewer, Autodesk® DWF™ Writer, and Autodesk® DWF™ Toolkit, the core DWF, free product offerings, will continue with the current names.

6. Is Autodesk eliminating products as a result of simplifying branding?
No. This change reflects a name change only. The next release of Autodesk DWF Composer (version 3) will be named, Autodesk Design Review 2007.

7. Will the new names be translated into other languages?
No. Like other Autodesk product names, Design Review will not be translated into local languages.

Updated Autodesk DWG TrueView Now Available

In an earlier blog posting, I noted that we are removing the requirement to be an administrative user for some of our DWF-related applications. Although Autodesk DWG TrueView was not supposed to require admin rights to execute the application, a defect in the Autodesk DWG TrueView AutoCAD OEM installer caused this not to be the case. A new Autodesk DWG TrueView (build 3.0.0.139) has been released.

Download Autodesk DWG TrueView (a jillion megabytes - OK, I kid. I kid).

You can download the new Autodesk DWG TrueView in all of its available languages.

English
An updated Autodesk DWG TrueView is now available.

French
Un Autodesk mis à jour DWG TrueView est maintenant disponible.

Italian
Un Autodesk aggiornato DWG TrueView ora è disponibile.

German
Ein aktualisiertes Autodesk DWG TrueView ist jetzt vorhanden.

Spanish
Un Autodesk actualizado DWG TrueView está disponible ahora.

Japanese
更新済Autodesk DWG TrueView は今利用できる。

Korean
개정하는AutodeskDWGTrueView은 지금 유효하다.

Simplified Chinese
更新Autodesk DWG TrueView 现在是可利用的。

Traditional Chinese
更新Autodesk DWG TrueView 現在是可利用的。

Yes I used the Alta-Vista translation engine to come up with the translations. As an American, I am languagely challenged. Perhaps my hovercraft is full of eels?

Fill Patterns Too Light corrected in DWF PDK 1.3.0.15

Autodesk supplies some of our DWF partners in the commercial printing industry with technology that allows DWF files to be printed by reprographic software. This technology is referred to as the DWF Printer Development Kit (PDK).

A reprographic customer recently reported a problem where his dot-based fill patterns in his DWF file were not printing dark enough. Printing to same device directly from the DWG using AutoCAD yielded the expected results.

As it turned out, the DWF PDK was not drawing its dots large enough. The collection of smaller dots made the fill patterns appear lighter. This problem was corrected and tested in PDK 1.3.0.15. This PDK is now shipping with KIP Powerprint 6.6.2 and PLP PlotWorks 5.5.2 SP6. Océ Client Tools 1.6.4.002 uses DWF PDK 1.3.0.9 and does not yet benefit from our correction.

Although DWF allows you to go beyond the paper, getting the design data on the paper is also important.

Autodesk Web Site URLs for DWF

In addition to the Autodesk discussion groups, another place to obtain information is from the Autodesk web site:

• Autodesk DWF Viewer
  http://www.autodesk.com/dwfviewer
  This is the starting page for information about the free Autodesk DWF Viewer.

• Autodesk Design Review (formerly known as Autodesk DWF Composer)
  http://www.autodesk.com/designreview
  This is the starting page for information about Autodesk Design Review. A tutorial is available on http://www.autodesk.com/designreview-tutorial.

• Autodesk DWF Writer
  http://www.autodesk.com/dwfwriter
  This is the starting page for information about the free Autodesk DWF Writer.

• World of DWF
  http://www.autodesk.com/dwf
  This is the starting page for information about the Design Web Format itself.

• DWF Gallery
  http://www.autodesk.com/dwf-gallery
  This is a collection of sample DWF files submitted by Autodesk customers.

• DWF Customer Showcase
  http://www.autodesk.com/dwf-customers
  This is a collection of sample DWF files and associated success stories about Autodesk customers.

• Autodesk DWF Developer Center
  http://www.autodesk.com/dwf-developers
  This is the starting page for the DWF Developer Center. It has a variety of information as well as links that eventually lead to the DWF Toolkit.

• Autodesk DWF Toolkit
  http://www.autodesk.com/dwftoolkit
  This is a shortcut for navigating to the download page for C++ programmers to obtain one of the freely available DWF Toolkits.

Increase Precision for DWF files from Autodesk DWG TrueView

The default settings for Autodesk DWG TrueView 2007 generate a DWF file that is small in size but prints with full fidelity. Although this is adequate for many situations, some DWF files may lack sufficient precision for accurate measurement. The precision of a DWF measurement is controlled by the vector DPI of the DWF file.

There are six steps to increasing the vector DPI used by Autodesk DWG TrueView.

The vector DPI setting you wish to use is based on the scale of your drawings and the desired precision you desire with Autodesk Design Review. Tables are available for imperial and metric users to help you determine the appropriate vector DPI value.

View Buzzsaw files (including DWF) with Firefox

Autodesk Senior Manager of Application Services, Paul Gatty, alerted me to what he referred to as "the coolest Firefox extension ever." It's called IE Tab. From within the Firefox browser, IE Tab lets you render whatever pages you want using the Internet Explorer rendering engine. You just specify the Internet-Explorer-specific web sites you want to use the IE rendering engine for, and Firefox will render them correctly. This is especially usefully for those of you that have Firefox set as your default browser. Before IE Tab, every time you clicked on a Buzzsaw link embedded in an email, it would open Firefox, and you would get an unsupported browser error. With IE Tab, you simply specify:

https://*.buzzsaw.com/*

as an URL within IE Tab, and you are good to go. You can also switch rendering engines on the fly whenever you hit a page that isn't compatible with Firefox.

DWF Technical Evangelist, Brian Pene, also noted that the IE Tab also supports viewing of DWF files with the free Autodesk DWF Viewer. To make Firefox work with every DWF link you click from Firefox, simply go to the IE Tab settings and under the sites filter for the URL line type *.dwf and then click ADD. This will make the IE Tab the default for any links to DWF files.

Firefox users can download IE Tab from:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/

Life just got a little easier for Buzzsaw and DWF users who are also Firefox users.

DWF items on AUGI AutoCAD wish list voting

http://www.augi.com/autocad/ballot.asp

The DWF-related items include:

You use the pull downs to indicate your preferences. So vote and let your voice be heard.

DWF Toolkit 7.2 Handles All DWF files

The version of the DWF Toolkit software is not to be confused with the version number of a DWF file.

1. A DWF file has a file version. It appears at the beginning of every DWF file. It is visible by viewing any DWF file with any text editor such as NotePad. (Note: The rest of the DWF will not appear readable in the editor.) This version number informs a software application as to what attributes, properties, and geometric primitives to expect to find in the DWF file.

2. The DWF Toolkit has a release version. The toolkit is incorporated into DWF-related applications. For example, the DWF Toolkit version is listed in the About box of Autodesk DWF Viewer and Autodesk Design Review. This version number informs a software developer as to what capabilities and defect corrections are included in the package.

The two version numbers are not the same. This is a common misconception. The DWF Toolkit is an API with a version number that is independent of the DWF file version.

The DWF Toolkit is what Autodesk and Autodesk partners use to read and write many different versions of DWF files. The DWF file format version number only changes if Autodesk modifies the DWF file format itself. For example, the DWF 5.5 format introduced Block Refs. The DWF 6.0 format contained multiple pages. The DWF 6.1 format introduced 3D. The DWF 6.11 format allowed for composite DWF files which are a combination of 3D and 2D. The DWF Toolkit version 7.2 is the successor to DWF Toolkit version 7.0. (DWF Toolkit 7.1 was used by AutoCAD 2007 and not released separately.) DWF Toolkit 7.2 is recommended for all DWF needs regardless of the file version. It reads and writes a DWF file of any DWF format version.

Format/ Application	DWF 5.5 single sheet 2D	DWF 6.0 multi-sheet 2D	DWF 6.1 single sheet 3D	DWF 6.11 composite 3D/2D
DWF Toolkit 6.0	Read/ Write	Read/ Write
DWF Toolkit 7.0	Read/ Write	Read/ Write	Read/ Write
DWF Toolkit 7.2	Read/ Write	Read/ Write	Read/ Write	Read/ Write
DWF Viewer 5.0	View/ Print	View/ Print
DWF Viewer 6.5	View/ Print	View/ Print	View/ Print	View/ Print
DWF Viewer 7.0	View/ Print	View/ Print	View/ Print	View/ Print
DWF Composer 1.0	View/ Print	View/ Print
DWF Composer 2.0	Aggregate/ View/ Print/ Markup/ Measure	Aggregate/ View/ Print/ Markup/ Measure	Aggregate/ View/ Print/ Markup/ Measure
Design Review 2007	Aggregate/ View/ Print/ Markup/ Measure	Aggregate/ View/ Print/ Markup/ Measure	Aggregate/ View/ Print/ Markup/ Measure	Aggregate/ View/ Print/ Markup/ Measure
AutoCAD 2007	Underlay/ Publish/ Markup Manager	Underlay/ Publish/ Markup Manager	Underlay/ Publish/ Markup Manager	Underlay/ Publish/ Markup Manager
Inventor 11	Publish	Publish	Publish	Publish

The general summary is that DWF Toolkit 7.2, which was just released, handles all DWF file versions - even those generated by our latest products such as AutoCAD 2007 and Autodesk Inventor 11 DWF Extension. The DWF Toolkit stores the DWF file version in the DWF, using the lowest DWF file version number possible, based on the content of the file. By using the lowest DWF file version number, applications released with earlier DWF Toolkits can process the DWF file. It is only when new DWF capabilities are used that later DWF Toolkits are required.