Beyond the Paper

Updated DWF FAQ 7.01

I updated the blog-based DWF Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document. I included answers to some recent questions. Based on blog contributions from the DWF team, the FAQ is growing to be quite comprehensive.

Some of the new questions include:

1. Is Internet Explorer 7 supported?
   for Autodesk DWF Viewer 7.0 and Autodesk Design Review 2007?
   for DWF Viewer 6.5?
   for DWF Viewer 6.0?
   for Autodesk DWF Composer R2?
2. How can I tell if my DPI is set too low?
3. Is there a sample application for text searching?
4. How can I speed up the publishing of DWF files from AutoCAD?
5. Using AutoCAD, how do I publish DWF files with layer information?
6. What is the latest version of the DWF PDK?
7. How does DWF printing work for Project Freewheel?
8. Does line weight in paper space affect area calculations in Autodesk Design Review?

A link to the blog FAQ is always available in the left navigation section of the blog:

You may have to clear your browser cache to obtain the latest blog FAQ HTML page.

5 Things You Didn't Know About Me

Robin Capper recently tagged me in his article entitled:

5 [CAD] Things You Didn't Know About Me

There are two schools of thought on this. One is that readers just want the facts about the products. Hence I rarely include anecdotes about trying to find cough syrup in France or other personal experiences. The other is that a person's blog should reflect his personality. Readers want to feel like they are hanging out with the author. To date, I have mostly stuck with the former, but this posting will reflect the latter. So here goes:

1. In 1978 I almost lost my college academic scholarship for writing a Trojan Horse program that simulated the Multics login session and captured the user's password. Luckily I had already turned in my program to the Computer Administration department (as a sample of something bad that could happen) before it was unscrupulously used by a fellow student who got his hands on it.

2. I wrote the original CGM driver for the HOOPS graphics system. Prior to working for Ithaca software, I had no experience with computer graphics, C, or the PC (I was a Multics/Unix guy). But other than that, I was perfect for the job. Cornell graduates Carl Bass, Jeff Kowalski, Brian Mathews, and Milt Capsimalis taught me most of what I know about 3D graphics. As Milt used to say "I taught Scott everything he knows. I just didn't teach him everything I know."

3. I was the guy who had to break it to the AutoCAD R14 development team, mostly Unix programmers, that we weren't going to support Unix anymore - only Windows. Most of the developers did not know me yet, since Ithaca Software had only recently been acquired by Autodesk. I started the conversation with "Hi. I am Scott Sheppard, and I am a Unix programmer..." I think some developers burned me in effigy.

4. Autodesk CEO, Carl Bass, and I share the same birthday. He is a few years older, so my turn to be CEO does not come up for a few years.

5. Teaching a class at Autodesk University 2006 was my debut at public speaking. The public speaking thing takes some getting used to. It is not my strength. Typing is so much easier. This probably puts a crimp in that CEO plan.

I am now tagging John Cronin and Melanie Stone Perry. Owen Wengerd was probably right when he pointed out this 5 things deal "sounds suspiciously like bloggers patting each other on the back." I admit that this posting has nothing to suggest that DWF goes beyond the paper.

Dedication to Work via Personal Plates

I guess personal plates in Arizona are all the rage. I have had my AUTODSK one for two years.

In September John Magyar of Orange Blade Consultants demonstrated that he is a Buzzsaw kind of guy.

Creating a Cross Section with Autodesk Design Review

Senior DWF Product Manager, Hilde Sevens, taught an Autodesk University 2006 class entitled "Share 3D Autodesk Inventor Designs, Animations, and Assembly Instructions with Your Extended Team." In her class, Hilde shared some tips related to viewing mechanical data with cross sections.

Sometimes creating a section is what makes you best understand an assembly. Autodesk Design Review supports the creation of section views by using the three planes or by selecting a surface to use as a plane.

1. Click on the Cross Section icon in the Standard Toolbar to view the available sectioning planes

2. Select a plane from the drop down menu.

3. To create a cross section using a specific surface on the assembly, select the Section a Surface option from the Cross Section drop down menu and select the surface you want to use on your assembly.

4. You can dynamically drag the cross section using the tripod in the canvas. You can also rotate the Cross Section or move the section along an axis using the tripod.

5. When you are done with the Cross Sections you can remove or inactivate them in the Cross Sections Palette Using the Right Mouse Click Menu.

Also of note, if you are examining a very complex model, you can create up to 6 Cross Sections per 3D Model Section in a DWF.

Thanks Hilde.

Trick for DWF Compare using Custom Symbols

In April of last year, I published an article entitled Tips for Custom Symbols in Autodesk Design Review with information on markup from Solutions Engineer for Autodesk Collaboration Solutions, Jason Pratt. One of the tips in the article involved being able to compare two versions of the same DWF using a trick.

In a recent example supplied by Jason, he had two DWF files of the same name in different directories:

Revised: C:\revised\Caron.dwf
Original: C:\Documents and Settings\prattj\Desktop\Caron.dwf

The detailed steps to perform the comparison include.

1. Load the revised C:\revised\Caron.dwf into Autodesk Design Review.

2. 
   Select the ability to import custom symbols from the Autodesk Design Review stamps pull-down menu.

3. 
   Choose the original DWF file, in this case located on Jason's Desktop, to import as a custom symbol.

4. 
   Import each sheet as a symbol. In Jason's case, he got one symbol for each sheet in the Caron.dwf file.

5. 
   Now Autodesk Design Review has a new set of custom symbols. There is one symbol per sheet. So for, example, when looking at sheet "A0.3 Existing Site Plan" in the revised Caron.dwf, Jason can insert the "A0.3 Existing Site Plan" custom symbol. When he does this, he now has the revised sheet from the DWF along with the items from the original sheet as markup. This allows him to easily see what has changed between the two versions of the A0.3 Existing Site Plan sheet.

Thanks Jason.

Avatech Solutions: Product Browser

Avatech Solutions Director of Software Development, Matt Mason, reports on his CAD Application Development blog that Avatech has released its Product Browser application. Product Browser is an add-on product to Autodesk Productstream. Users require a valid Productstream Explorer license and Autodesk® DWF Viewer™ 7.0.

Avatech Press Release

Product Browser has been added to the list of DWF Partner applications that I maintain on this site. We are now up to 222 DWF-related applications from 99 companies. Who will be the 100th?

Project Freewheel: Down for Maintenance until Friday Noon

The Project Freewheel production service is currently down. This is a planned outage that will allow us to move our technology preview to a more robust and reliable environment. We are targeting to get the service back on-line by Friday at Noon. Thank you for your patience and your ongoing interest in Freewheel.

[Project Freewheel is back up.]

For the latest information on Project Freewheel, see Scott Sheppard's It's Alive in the Lab blog.

AutoCAD: Using the Sheet Set Manager

Vice President of Autodesk Labs, Brian Mathews, taught an Autodesk University 2006 class entitled "Building Custom DWF-based GIS Applications for Mobile Field Force Workers." In his class, Brian shared some tips related to the AutoCAD Sheet Set Manager.

The Sheet Set Manager (SSM) was added to AutoCAD 2005 and allows you to organize and work with an entire project worth of DWG files. While the SSM has many productivity benefits, of particular interest is one-click publishing to DWF. Some professionals find the SSM doesn’t fit their workflow or data architecture, but for those who have a workflow compatible with the SSM it provides many productivity benefits:

The SSM has publishing settings that are similar to those used by the PUBLISH command, but with extra choices. These can be found in the SSM Sheet Set Publish Options… dialog box:

The SSM includes an option to convert its sheet list into a PUBLISH action where you can use the PUBLISH command to more precisely control which Page Setup settings are used for each sheet. There is a bug with the Sheet Set Manager when you try and use Page Setup overrides: you’ll get several single-page DWF’s rather than a multi-page DWF when you ask for a multi-page DWF. The solution is to convert the SSM DST project to a PUBLISH DSD job.

While PUBLISH job definitions are stored in ASCII DSD files (and are thus scriptable), the Sheet Set Manager project is stored in an un-scriptable binary DST file.

Thanks Brian.

New Autodesk blog: From the Ground Up

Autodesk continues to be the bloggiest CAD company in the world. GIS Application Engineer Chris Berends, Civil Engineering Technical Presales Consultant Ove Cervin, and Civil Engineering Technical Consultant Jack Strongitharm have a

From the Ground Up

blog that features a European perspective on design and out of the box thinking with Civil 3D.

When a [Civil 3D] problem comes along,
You must whip it.
When something's going wrong,
You must whip it.
Now whip it into shape.
Shape it up. Get straight. Go forward. Move ahead.
Try to detect it. It's not too late
To whip it. Whip it good.
   "Whip It," DEVO.

Chris, Ove, and Jack will demonstrate how to whip civil engineering problems from the ground up. Welcome Chris, Ove, and Jack to the Autodesk blogosphere.

www.pfbreton.com: Project Freewheel in action

Lighting consultant and lighting simulation specialist, Pierre-Felix Breton, shares his 3D models with his clients using Project Freewheel.

• Trinity Church

• New York Times Building

The ability to share designs, both 3D and 2D, without having to install any additional software helps get design data to people via electronic means. DWF and Project Freewheel make that possible. This is faster and goes beyond what can be done with traditional paper.