Beyond the Paper

Mill Creek Systems Announces Detail Manager Plus with DWF support

Product Marketing Manager, Gabrielle Friedly, reports that there's a new DWF partner in town.

Mill Creek Systems announced the availability of Detail Manager Plus - web edition. The solution is based on a common/shared CAD detail library where users can easily and safely use existing CAD details rather than redrawing them or "borrowing" them from other projects. This saves time searching for existing CAD details and provides a means to standardize and control the use of CAD details via detail approval database fields. DWF files are used as part of the web interface.

We are always happy to share good news from our partners regarding DWF.

Using DWF with HP Instant Print? See your name in lights...

When Autodesk DWF Viewer 7 or Autodesk Design Review 2007 encounter an HP printer that supports the HP Instant Print feature, an additional print icon appears in the application. This capability was first supported on Autodesk DWF Composer R2.

Using the HP Instant Capability, the device selects the paper size and rotates the image to minimize paper waste.

Autodesk is looking to collect feedback from customers who are using the Autodesk DWF Viewer or Autodesk Design Review and an HP Designjet printer with the HP Instant Print feature for printing their files on their local printer. Customers will be featured in an Autodesk-HP customer success story that will be shared at Autodesk University, among other places. They will also get strategic press coverage. If you are interested, you should email [email protected].

New Autodesk Blog: The Dirt

I'm digging in the dirt.
Stay with me I need support.
I'm digging in the dirt
To find the places we got hurt.
...Peter Gabriel, "Digging in the Dirt."

Autodesk ISD Civil 3D Technical Evangelist, Pete Kelsey, has a new blog entitled "The Dirt."

http://petekelsey.typepad.com/

Check it out. Welcome Pete to the Autodesk blogosphere.

DWF Text Search: The Local Story

In response to my DWF Text Search article, Senior Technical Writer, Chris Blocher, provided the following article.

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Sure Buzzsaw, DWF iFilter, and Google can index DWF files on servers and the Web, but what about your local DWF files?

The local solution is to take advantage of a perk provided when either the Autodesk DWF Viewer or Autodesk Design Review 2007 is installed on your computer. When these programs are installed, you can use the Search tool on the Start menu, in Microsoft Internet Explorer, or in Windows Explorer to locate text in DWF files.

Note: The steps below are for a clean install of Windows XP Professional. The steps might vary slightly for your Windows setup.

To search for DWF files and their contents using Windows Explorer:

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Display the Search Companion.
   • Choose View > Explorer Bar > Search.
   • Click Search.
   • Or, press Ctrl+E.
3. If necessary, click All Files and Folders.
4. Optional: In the All or Part of the File Name text box, type .dwf (This limits the search to DWF files.)
5. In the A Word or Phrase in the File text box, type the term you want to find.
6. From the Look In drop-down list, select a location to search.
7. Optional: To set additional conditions (Date, Type, Size, and Advanced Options) restricting the search further, click More Advanced Options.
8. Click Search. DWF files that contain the search term(s) are listed.

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The ability to electronically find text in a DWF file is one of the ways DWF goes beyond the paper. This is so much easier and accurate than thumbing through a stack of e-size printouts and eyeballing for text.

Autodesk® DWF™ Writer - The New Universal Driver?

Joe Mooring of PLP included a DWF-related item in the latest PLP newsletter.

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Autodesk® DWF™ Writer - The New Universal Driver?

One of the many challenges we encounter in the wide-format AEC world is the selection of a single Windows print driver that will function properly regardless of the application from which you are printing. For example, while a particular HP Designjet driver may produce excellent HP-GL/2 files from AutoCAD, the same driver may produce unacceptable output from Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Project, or Bentley MicroStation. The undesirable effects of driver incompatibility may include incorrect scaling, incorrect image placement, incorrect paper selection, missing data, missing images, and in some case stray vectors or "digital garbage."

Several PLP customers are now using the Autodesk® DWF™ Writer as their universal driver. This free download from Autodesk quickly creates a Windows printer that allows you to create a DWF file from any Windows application. If you are using PlotWorks to control your wide-format device, the output from the Autodesk DWF Writer may be redirected through a PlotWorks Print-to-Queue port directly to the print queue.

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Thanks to Joe Mooring and the team at PLP.

3D DWG results in 2D DWF via Import or Drag and Drop :-(

When an Autodesk DWF Composer user received an AutoCAD drawing (DWG file), he had to fire up the Autodesk DWG viewer, publish the DWG as a DWF file, and then load the DWF file into Autodesk DWF Composer to perform markup and measurement. Now Autodesk Design Review 2007 (new name for Autodesk DWF Composer) allows a user to import a DWG. Autodesk Design Review 2007 converts the DWG to DWF on the fly by invoking Autodesk DWG TrueView 2007 on behalf of the user. The resulting DWF file is automatically loaded into Autodesk Design Review 2007 for markup and/or measurement.

When a user imports a 3D DWG or drags and drops a 3D DWG into Autodesk Design Review 2007, the file is converted to a 2D DWF on the fly. This is contrary to some customers' expectations. American TV viewers may recall the lady's watch commercial with the line "I was hoping for a Longines." "I was hoping for a 3D DWF."

Senior Product Manager, Diane Li, notes that when Autodesk Design Review 2007 invokes Autodesk DWG TrueView 2007 and requests that it publish a DWF, the default settings are used. For all AutoCAD OEM products, such as Autodesk DWG TrueView, the default is 2D DWF.

Under many circumstances, the publishing of a 2D DWF is not a bad thing.

It is common for an Autodesk Design Review user to immediately proceed with markup upon loading the converted DWG. A 2D DWF file is well suited to this process. Although this approach does not let the user orbit the design before commencing markup, it does save the step of using the snapshot tool. Automatic conversion from 3D DWG to 3D DWF has been added to the wish list for an upcoming release. A work around for now is to load the 3D DWG into Autodesk DWG TrueView 2007 and specifically publish a 3D DWF.

Autodesk Design Review Tutorials

Autodesk Senior Technical Writer, Chris Blocher, notes that there are Autodesk Design Review tutorials available on the Autodesk Web site:

http://www.autodesk.com/designreview-tutorial

The site provides you with the ability to select a tutorial based on your industry.

(Yes I know there is a subject-verb agreement error in the sentence above. This is not my graphic. It was taken right from the tutorial.)

Thanks for the tip Chris.

Roundtrip markups with Productstream and Autodesk Inventor DWF Extension

Autodesk Senior Product Line Manager, Grant Rochelle, posted this article on his Under the Hood blog:

Roundtrip markups with Productstream and Autodesk Inventor DWF Extension

Check it out!

Cimmetry AutoVue Release on the Linux Platform

Cimmetry Systems Corporation announced the availability of AutoVue v 19.1 Client-Server, a web edition for Linux servers. AutoVue 19.1 for Linux servers provides organizations world-wide with the ability to view, markup, digitally mockup, and collaborate in real-time on hundreds of document types, including DWF. Though AutoVue 19.1 does not support the very latest DWF files, it does provide support for DWF file versions: 6.0 (AutoCAD 2004), 5.5, 5, 4.x, 3.x, and 2.x. Now our Linux users have an alternative to the Project Freewheel Viewer.

DWF Text Search

When it comes to text search, we know what you want. While viewing a DWF file, you want the ability to type in a text string, hit enter, and have the Autodesk DWF Viewer take you to the destination sheet and zoom in on the text. We know this. The item is on the wish list. It is being considered for an upcoming release.

In addition to this, there are ways to take advantage of text search now.

1. 
   Buzzsaw is one of Autodesk's service offerings in the area of Collaborative Project Management. As DWF files are uploaded to Buzzsaw sites, their contents are indexed. An index is the way a search engine can find things quickly without making you wait while it searches. It already has a list of files that contain the text - the index. When you ask it to search for a text string, the server simply shows you the files from its premade index. Buzzsaw servers use a DWF iFilter (technology that creates the index) to keep track of text strings in DWF files. The text includes any text. This means file names, sheet names, layer names, property information, text that was entered as part of the design. If there is text in there, the iFilter will find it.

2. 
   IFilterShop shop offers a DWF iFilter. You can use this to index DWF files on your own servers. IFilterShop is an Autodesk DWF Partner.

3. 
   Google - perhaps you have heard of them? A few of you clever readers noted in the DWF Bookmarklet article that Google is indeed indexing all of the DWF files on the worldwide web. This allows you to locate design information using part numbers, product names, or any other piece of text. News of the search capability has even made its way to
   Google is also an Autodesk DWF Partner.

So while we toil away developing the next release of DWF-related products, search away.