A Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee, New Jersey, inquired:
I heard that Autodesk Design Review supports AutoCAD drawings, yet it won't open my DWG. What's up with that?
Autodesk Design Review is both an application name and a product name much like "New Shimmer is both a floor wax and a dessert topping." When customers obtain Autodesk Design Review, they actually receive four applications:
- Autodesk Design Review 2007, to review, mark up, and measure DWF files
- Autodesk DWG TrueView 2007, to view and publish DWF from DWG files
- Autodesk Inventor View 1.0, to view and publish DWF from Inventor files
- Autodesk DWF Writer 3.1.1, to publish DWF from any non-Autodesk application
You can import a DWG into Autodesk Design Review and it will publish it to DWF on the fly. A DWF sheet is created for each paper space layout in the DWG. A sheet is also created for model space using the last saved view. The user can then markup and/or measure the resulting DWF file. The Autodesk Design Review application does this by invoking Autodesk DWG TrueView and having it publish a DWF file on behalf of the user. So for Autodesk Design Review to be able to import a DWG, Autodesk DWG TrueView needs to be installed.
Unlike DWG, DWF files do not require "object enablers." An object enabler is a freeware application that allows custom object data created in special versions of AutoCAD (e.g. Architectural Desktop, Mechanical Desktop) to be accessed outside the AutoCAD environment. Autodesk DWG TrueView 2007 comes with object enablers for Autodesk Architectural Desktop. Other object enablers can be downloaded from the object enablers download page of the Autodesk web site.
Thanks Richard for your inquiry.