Beyond the Paper

Revision Clouds

Ever wondered what happens to markups, such as revision clouds..?

Shaan Hurley captured the content nicely in one of his recent blogs at http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2007/04/revision_clouds.html.

--Volker

DWF Files from AutoCAD Map 3D

When you publish to DWF, you create an electronic version of the map that can be displayed using Autodesk Design Review. All layers and styles are published, with no loss of information. If you have joined data to  layers in your map, the joined data is also published. You can include graphical elements, including any draped raster files, as well as attribute data.

If your map has a coordinate system assigned to it, AutoCAD Map 3D includes that coordinate system for each sheet in the published DWF file.
Users who wish to create a multi-page DWF have to create a map book; the steps for publishing a map to DWF and publishing a map book to DWF are slightly different, but you set DWF publishing options the same way for both.

In any case, DWF files from AutoCAD Map 3D are useful for the following:

• Publishing complex maps that use a variety of feature sources to a compact file that can be used in the field. All information from the original map, including stylization, is represented.
• Sharing maps with people who don’t have a copy of AutoCAD Map 3D. These people can download the free viewer to see the maps.

As long as you have assigned a coordinate system to all the maps in your DWF file, the publishing operation will automatically convert the coordinate information to latitude/longitude coordinates, when it comes to Georeferenced DWF. Please note that users must use the Publish command to create a georeferenced DWF file, plotting to DWF will not work.

Autodesk Design Review 2008 can automatically navigate to a specific location when you enter coordinates, and displays coordinates of any location in the map when you move your mouse over that location.

Field workers can center the map to the coordinates provided by the integrated GPS device on their system and display the “my coordinates” icon within the map. Mind you, that requires that your system has GPS capability or is connected to a GPS device. Please note that GPS devices must use the NMEA 0183 protocol.

Note that earlier versions of the DWF Viewer do not support georeferenced DWF.

DWG File Association & Autodesk DWG TrueView

Ever wondered why Autodesk DWG TrueView 2008 appears to only associate the *.dwg file extension for the current user?

Even more so, that the file extension is not associated when another user logs on. And if the user runs the application, it will repair the missing association and work correctly. Say what?

To cut a long story short: AutoCAD development clarified the issue in a recent discussion group post. Autodesk DWG TrueView works the same as AutoCAD does - the file association will not be set until the user profile is launched, at which point the association will be established. Once the association is made, the user can use Autdoesk DWG TrueView to publish DWF files by double-clicking on a DWG and using the publish command.

Hope this explains the issue, especially for administrators who are trying to establish file associations before launching a user's profile.

--Volker

DWF Text Search III

Well, it seems that we are back to the subject of "Text Search". Mind you, we had many many requests from customers to introduce such functionality and it appears that there is some movement in the great halls of Product Design.

As a matter of fact, Product Design are asking for your input, so here it goes: "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 navigate to the text.

We know this. The item is on the wish list. It is being considered for an upcoming release and we are in the process of researching text search further.

What is your priority for search text in 3D canvas? e.g. True text as part of drawing, not metadata such as part number, properties and etc.

We’d like to get a better idea of what your files look like. It’ll be very helpful if you can send us some sample files with 3D text on them."

It would be great, if you could let us have any feedback or even files you may wish to contribute to the subject matter. Feel free to send me an email directly, should you prefer to keep your content and files out of public view.

Thank you!

--Volker

Visual Studio 2005 & MSIE7 causing DWF Script Errors

Users reported script errors when opening a DWF located on a network drive, when using the Visual Studio 2005 Web Browser Component on a PC running Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.

Errors are similar to the ones shown below:

   

It took us a while to figure this one out. It appears that this is really a Microsoft issue and further discussions with Microsoft and additional testing showed that there are two possible workarounds or solutions for this particular problem:

1. Add registry entries per Microsoft Knowledgebase 934366, or
2. Add the server name (ex. file://server) to the Trusted Sites list in the MSIE7 security settings

Either one of these two solutions will resolve the problem for Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Vista or Windows XP.

There is nothing we can change in Autodesk Design Review 2008 to address this issue.  The shown changes for MSIE 7 will address this issue for customers using MSIE7 with Autodesk Design Review, DWF Viewer or DWF Composer.

The root problem here is that Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 behavior for network shares changes when the "Allow active content to run in files from My Computer" option is checked or enabled.

Users may check this option to eliminate the warning message that happens when dragging & dropping a file from a local drive letter.  The subsequent behavior for network shares is unexpected and inconsistent with how MSIE6 worked.

--Volker

Number of Copies Irrelevant?

This subject has been raised several times over by customers as well as internal staff and I thought it would make for a great article.

So, the problem involves users of Autodesk Design Review who wish to print a DWF multiple times and increase the number of copies accordingly in the Print dialog window. Despite the setting, the printer only produces a single set.

Sriram Gopalakrishnan, one of our skilled DWF Engineers, recently replied to the very same issue as follows: "ADR queries the printer driver to see if it supports printing multiple copies. If so ADR lets the driver do it, if not ADR prints multiple copies by printing the same data multiple times. The latter is less efficient and hence is done only when the driver doesn't support it. In some cases we can get incorrect information from the printer driver. Your situation appears to be this. You may want to check to see if there is an updated driver. That might fix the problem."

I second Sriram's opinion, that this is likely to be system printer driver related. Many of the print issues we see are related to the driver and a simple update gets the user going again.

Have you seen similar issues? Did updating the system printer driver resolve this or other, similar issues? Share it with us!

--Volker

Color Choices

Many users of Autodesk Design Review would like to choose their own colors when it comes to markups, backgrounds, highlight color or similar. However, they seem to be at a loss when having to take action.

Autodesk Design Review 2008 offers users to change the following color settings:

• Background Color
• Paper Color
• Dynamic Highlight Color
• Selection Color
• Sheet Hyperlink Color
• Model Edge Color
• Gradient Background Color
• Selection Color
• Additions & Deletions

Colors can be changed through the "Tools" > "Options" setting and are divided up as shown in the image.

Colors are changed in a similar way each time and detailed steps on how to select a predefined or  creating a custom color can be found in the Help section of the product.

--Volker

Autodesk and HP in the Spotlight

At the American Institute of Architects convention, Autodesk recently announced with HP that the latest version of Autodesk Design Review software is available with the new HP Designjet T1100 and T610 Printer series. The solution offers architects, engineers and construction professionals an integrated design review package and the flexibility to easily and efficiently print anytime. For firms such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), Autodesk and HP are helping professionals save time and resources and improve productivity, to complete projects on time and create a competitive advantage.

You can find the complete article here: http://www.sys-con.com/read/371295.htm

--Volker

Autodesk Design Review Performance Issues

We are well aware that this particular subject is very high on all user's mind. However, we did make some progress and Autodesk Design Review 2008 overall performance improved significantly when compared to Autodesk Design Review 2007.

That, of course, does only cover a number of possible use cases, files and everything else related to this tricky subject. Our engineering team still has some distance to go and we are working very hard to get it closer aligned to everybody's expectations.

If you wish, you may share any issues you find or even submit your use case to us. That would allow us to include the data into our QA process and make sure that we do improve in the right areas. Please send me a direct email, should you prefer to keep this information away from public view.

I found that switching off the hardware acceleration improved the application's speed and overall performance, especially when it comes to larger files or 3D related viewing. One example being, Autodesk Design Review 2008 fails to open a  complex 89MB file, but opens it just fine, once hardware acceleration has been disabled.

Here are the steps to do so:

• Right click on your desktop and select "Properties"

• Select the "Settings" tab
• Choose the "Advanced" button

• Select the "Troubleshoot" tab
• Adjust the "Hardware Acceleration" slider to your liking

• This method works for all Windows Operating Systems and graphic boards.

I will provide another update when available.

--Volker

Autodesk Design Review Video

Software Solutions Evangelist Brian Pene created this very cool video titled:

"See how Autodesk Design Review goes beyond 2D markup and measure, allowing full connectivity and access to even the most complex 3D CAD models and designs. Collaboration and communication around CAD designs and data has never been easier!"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3977183848551098237&pr=goog-sl&hl=en

The video is also available as a download through here.

Enjoy the show!

--Volker