Beyond the Paper

Slick! ViewPlus v2.0 supports 3D DWF files

Robert Pantangco reports that CAD Systems Unlimited, Inc. has just released Slick! ViewPlus v2.0. One of the new features included is viewing support for 3D dwf. A 15-day product evaluation is available from

http://www.slickwin.com/slickviewplusdownload.html.

Slick! ViewPlus is priced at $99 per end-user license. Volume pricing is available. For more information, please contact [email protected].

AutoCAD: Using the PUBLISH command

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 PUBLISH command.

The PUBLISH command was introduced in AutoCAD 2004. It allows you to:

• Select a set of source DWG files. Their respective Model space and/or Layout pages are added to the list of sheets to publish to DWF.
• Reorder or Delete the sheets in the list to publish. The page order in a Multi-page DWF will match the order in the PUBLISH list box. You can re-arrange the order by selecting or multi-selecting sheets in the list and dragging-and-dropping them.
• Use either the page settings (PC3) defined with the Layout (default) or override with a given page setup. For example: your layouts might be defined as color on E-size but you can have PUBLISH override with a B-size Black-and-White PC3 file.
• You can save your Publish job selections for future use in an ASCII DSD file. Both the PUBLISH command and the DSD job settings are scriptable.
• With one-click you can "run" your PUBLISH job and make either a single multi-page DWF or multiple single-page DWF files (depending on your Publish Options settings).

Drag-and-Drop
You can Drag-and-Drop sets of DWG files into the PUBLISH dialog from Windows Explorer. This makes it easy to batch publish an entire directory of files to DWF. Once in the list, use Drag-and-Drop to reorder the sheets.

Publish Options
When using the PUBLISH command there are two different places that determine the settings used for the DWF. First the PUBLISH dialog has a Publish Options... button which includes basic settings. Second, the DWF6 ePlot.PC3 file has the more advanced settings. Some settings may conflict between these two locations (such as Layer inclusion). In the case of a conflict, the PUBLISH Options... settings take precedence when using the PUBLISH command.

Introduction: How does the electronic review process work?

A Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee, New Jersey writes in:

Can you show me step by step how the electronic review process works for Autodesk Design Review. What is this round tripping that Autodesk marketing literature refers to? Is it some kind of hallucinogen? How do I know that the original design really changed? Can I save shipping costs by using email?

Boy, Mr. Feder, you sure do ask a lot of questions for a guy from New Jersey.

AutoCAD, Revit, and Inventor allow a user to publish a DWF file. An Autodesk Design Review user can mark up that DWF file and return it. The AutoCAD, Revit, or Inventor user can then view those markups in the original design application and make changes to the original design data. This process is referred to as round tripping since the design data starts with the author, goes to a reviewer, and makes its way back to the author. It is a complete cycle.

The markups created by Autodesk Design Review are stored in the DWF file. These can be viewed by other Autodesk Design Review users or even users of the Autodesk DWF Viewer. But more importantly, a design application user can view and work with the markups. Let's look at a simple AutoCAD example.

1. 
   The designer starts by creating his drawing (DWG file). For our purposes, he has a line and a circle. He does this in model space.

2. 
   To see what the drawing will look like when printed, the designer looks at the drawing in Layout1. For our purposes, the Page Setup command has been used to specify the DWF6 ePlot pc3 file and select an 8.5" by 11" sheet size. The designer is happy with what he has, so he saves his drawing.

3. 
   The designer publishes a DWF file. Note that the Layout tabs check box is checked so that Layout1 is used when publishing. The designer emails the DWF file to the reviewer.

4. 
   The reviewer views the DWF file in Autodesk Design Review. The DWF file looks just like Layout1 in the drawing (DWG file). It has an 8.5" by 11" virtual piece of paper. This what the DWF file would look like if printed.

5. 
   The reviewer knows this is the initial version, so he stamps it as PRELIMINARY. He would like a change made to the line, so he calls it out. He marks the status of the callout as "For Review." Autodesk Design Review highlights "For Review" items in blue to distinguish them from other markup items (such as the PRELIMINARY stamp). The reviewer emails the marked up DWF file to the designer.

6. 
   The designer uses the Markup Set Manager to load the DWF file into AutoCAD.

7. 
   The designer can see the markup items in Layout1. He can toggle the visibility of the markup items using the Markup Set Manager.

8. 
   The designer makes the change to the drawing. He does this in model space. He saves his drawing (DWG file).

9. 
   When the designer looks at his changed drawing in Layout1, he can see the effect of his change. He marks the status of the markup as "Done." He republishes the DWF file using the Markup Set Manager . He emails the DWF file to show his changes to the reviewer.

10. 
    The reviewer views the republished DWF file using Autodesk Design Review and can verify that the design has been changed. He can easily see that the status of his markup is marked as "Done" since Autodesk Design Review highlights these items in yellow.

The ability to electronically round trip design data is one of the reasons DWF goes beyond the paper.