DWF and DWFx in Autodesk Design Review 2008

When working with DWF and DWFx in Autodesk Design Review 2008, you will notice a subtle difference:

1. Open a DWF file. Pan and/or Zoom. Close the DWF file. Simple. Straight forward.
2. Open a DWFx file. Pan and/or Zoom. Close the DWFx file. Autodesk Design Review asks you if you would like to save your file.

The natural reaction to item 2 is "Why? I didn't make any changes!" This behavior is not as mysterious as it seems if you realize that your DWFx file has been converted to DWF. This actually happens with all file types (except .dwf) that Autodesk Design Review allows you to open or import - not just DWFx.

Format Type	File Extension	Command	Processing
DWF	.dwf	Open	Leaves as DWF
Microsoft XPS-compatible DWF	.dwfx	Open and Import	Converts to DWF
Autodesk Animator	.flc .flic .fli	Open	Converts to DWF
Bitmap	.bmp	Open	Converts to DWF
Cals	.cal .cals .cg4 .gp4 .mil .rst	Open	Converts to DWF
DGN	.dgn	Import	Converts to DWF
GIF	.gif	Open	Converts to DWF
IG4	.ig4	Open	Converts to DWF
JPEG	.jpg .jpeg .jpe .jfif	Open	Converts to DWF
JT	.jt	Import	Converts to DWF
Paintbrush	.pcx	Open	Converts to DWF
PICT	.pct .pict	Open	Converts to DWF
PNG	.png	Open	Converts to DWF
RLC	.rlc	Open	Converts to DWF
TARGA	.tga	Open	Converts to DWF
TIFF	.tif .tiff	Open	Converts to DWF

So in item 2, Autodesk Design Review is asking you if you want to save the DWF file that was converted from your DWFx. A future version of Autodesk Design Review will work with DWFx files natively without the conversion. In turn, a future version of AutoCAD will support Auto Publish, Attach, and markup round tripping of DWFx.

For AutoCAD 2008 users who have a desire to share design data with users who only need to view and print - who also do not have the free Autodesk Design Review 2008, DWFx is a viable alternative to traditional DWF files. For AutoCAD, Inventor, and Revit users who need design data to integrate between Autodesk design applications and Autodesk Design Review, DWF is still the answer for now.

WORKFLOW 1: As mentioned in Introduction: How does the electronic review process work?, the traditional process is:

1. AutoCAD user publishes DWF.
2. AutoCAD user sends DWF to the Autodesk Design Review user for review.
3. Autodesk Design Review opens DWF.
4. Autodesk Design Review adds mark up items.
5. Autodesk Design Review saves DWF as a DWF.
6. Autodesk Design Review sends DWF back to the AutoCAD user.
7. AutoCAD user loads DWF into AutoCAD using Markup Set Manager. The markup items from the DWF align with the objects in the DWG.
8. AutoCAD users updates the DWG based on the markup items in the DWF. If necessary, the process can restart at step 1.

WORKFLOW 2: If the AutoCAD user publishes a DWFx file instead:

1. AutoCAD user publishes DWFx.
2. AutoCAD user sends DWFx to the Autodesk Design Review user for review.
3. Autodesk Design Review opens DWFx.
4. Autodesk Design Review adds mark up items.
5. Autodesk Design Review saves DWFx as a DWF.
6. Autodesk Design Review sends DWF back to the AutoCAD user.
7. AutoCAD user can load the DWF into AutoCAD using Markup Set Manager; however, the markup items from the DWF do not align with the objects in the DWG.

A DWF file published from AutoCAD has a DSD (data source dictionary) file. This file provides the necessary information to allow the items in the DWF to align with the objects in the DWG. It contains information such as the parent DWG name and model or layout used to publish the DWF. As it is not defined by the XML Paper Specification (XPS), the DSD file is not currently included in a DWFx file. This will be addressed in a future AutoCAD release. In WORKFLOW 2, all participants in the process can view, print, or add additional markups to the DWF file using Autodesk Design Review. The AutoCAD user just can't load the resulting DWF into AutoCAD. Everything else about the DWF is as one would expect.

WORKFLOW 3: If the Autodesk Design Review user saves a received DWF file as DWFx:

1. AutoCAD user publishes DWF.
2. AutoCAD user sends DWF to the Autodesk Design Review user for review.
3. Autodesk Design Review opens DWF.
4. Autodesk Design Review adds mark up items.
5. Autodesk Design Review saves DWF as a DWFx.
6. Autodesk Design Review sends DWFx back to the AutoCAD user.
7. The AutoCAD user cannot load the DWFx into AutoCAD using Markup Set Manager.

AutoCAD 2008 only recognizes the .dwf extension when loading files with the Markup Set Manager. Support for .dwfx will be addressed in a future AutoCAD release. In WORKFLOW 3, participants who do not have Autodesk Design Review, but have Microsoft Windows Vista (or an XPS Viewer on another operating system), can view and print the DWFx file including the markup information. Users with Autodesk Design Review could repeat the process by opening the DWFx, adding additional markup items, and saving the DWFx file as a DWFx. So this workflow allows people without Autodesk Design Review to see the markup information. It's just that the DWFx cannot be loaded back into AutoCAD.

Support for DWFx will broaden with future versions of Autodesk design application as well as Autodesk Design Review. For this first implementation, DWFx allows design data to reach an untapped set of users who do not have Autodesk Design Review. These users can view and print the design data using the DWFx file with Microsoft Windows Vista or another operating system where they have installed a Microsoft XPS Viewer.

--Scott

Comments

[Jeremy T]

In regards to importing a TIFF file in your table...I am wondering if there was a change between Design Review '07 & '08 in the way that the program handles/displays those files.

There appears to be a fuzzy/or double line happening now when I view the linework in a TIFF file, which clears up when I zoom right in. These are usually scanned in 24x36 TIFF images from an OCE scanner an I did not have this problem at all with Design Review '07.

Thanks,
Jeremy in Michigan

[Sriram Gopalakrishnan - Autodesk]

Yes, this is a known issue. However, I don't know when we'll have a fix though.