Beyond the Paper

Machine Design Review

Yet another good review of our technology, on a site that "develops online media products that meet the needs of design engineers".

Free software for sharing DWFs

Autodesk Design Review is intuitive software that lets users mark up and measure DWF design files, without the original CAD program.

"Best yet, the software comes as a free download from autodesk.com/dwf-plugins. Other programs there include DWG TrueView, a standalone that translates DWGs to DWFs, and DWF Writer, a printer driver that converts to DWFs the output of any Windows application, including those in Microsoft Office, as well as SolidWorks, Pro/Engineer, Catia, and Acrobat files. The developers says Design Review is intended to let designers communicate and collaborate easily with customers, suppliers, and even the shop floor.

The most basic use of the software might have a designer using AutoCAD and a reviewer using Design Review. Opening a DWF file of interest in Design Review brings up the Navigator window. A Contents palette to the left-hand side of the window displays thumbnails of every image, document, 2D sheet, 3D model, and image in the DWG file."

The article also talks about

• Taking measurements on the shop floor
• Standard markup tools, including "A nifty markup tool called the Stamp"
• Reviewers can change a markup’s status
• Users can publish DWF files with animations, assembly instructions, and table data such as BOMs and parts lists.

Read the entire article here.

--Volker

Autodesk Japan received Nikkei Advertising Awards

We are pleased to announce that Autodesk Japan received "The 56th Nikkei Advertising Award 2007, The Nikkei Net Advertising Award, and the B to B category Excellence Award" with their localized version of an Autodesk Design Review banner advertisement for showing product characteristics in a convincing, artistic way.

Nikkei Advertising Awards are given to the pieces of works, which excel in presentation and contribute to company communication activities. In addition to Autodesk, Microsoft, NEC, Panasonic, Toyota, Asahi Beer and Nisshinbo received NIKKEI NET Awards.

To take a look at award-receiving DWF ad, see:

http://www.autodesk.co.jp/adsk/servlet/item?id=10210229&siteID=1169823

Way to go Autodesk Japan! Recognition that DWF goes beyond the paper is worldwide.

ShareSafe Desktop from Pinion Software

ShareSafe Desktop-Engineering Edition (SSD-Engineering Edition) was designed specifically to meet the file-protection needs of engineers and other technically oriented users.

This easy-to-use PC application  allows users to continuously protect their valuable data, no matter where it goes.  Users assign permissions that restrict what recipients may do with the data.  By default,  the software blocks use of the clipboard, screen capture tools, and saving changes.  Users may also assign time based access to files, for example setting a shred date, after which the file is erased from the recipient's computer. 

Pinion Software’s ShareSafe solutions support AutoCAD native file types and DWF viewing applications as well as dozens of other technical and business application files.

More details about this software can be found at www.pinionsoftware.com.

--Volker

Project Freewheel Collaboration: Check out Scott's DWF

On his It's Alive in the Lab blog, Scott Sheppard notes that the Project Freewheel collaboration capability lets you collaborate in real time, but it does not have to be that way. A sharing session persists on the web much like a web site or wiki. Scott loaded the Manufacturing Sheet Set that ships with AutoCAD into AutoCAD 2008. He updated various sheets to include terms and images related to Autodesk Labs. He published a DWF file and uploaded it to Project Freewheel. Days ago he started a collaboration session. Can you join his collaboration session and find them?

Join the LabsFun session on Project Freewheel

You register or login to Autodesk Labs. That way the session will know who you are. You use the Page selector on the left to select various pages of the DWF file. You will also need to pan and zoom around. When you find an item, you can use the Callout tool to markup the item you have found. You will get credit as the person who found the item, since the session knows you by your Autodesk Labs login. Scott wants to see how long it takes us to find them all. Your markups should automatically be in a different color.

With the ability to electronically collaborate from anywhere at any time, DWF goes beyond the paper.

Google for it!

Many of you already know that Autodesk's DWF file format is a registered file type on www.google.com, but I thought I mention it again anyway. That way, it remains fresh in our ever so overloaded brains and gives those, who do not know about it as yet, an opportunity to learn.

To cut the long story short - you can search specifically for DWF files with the Google search engine, when applying the following search syntax:

"AnySearchString filetype:dwf"

As an example, to return only Inventor related DWF you would apply the following syntax:

"inventor filetype:dwf"

Doing so would return these results: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=inventor+filetype%3Adwf

The same principle applies to other products such as "autocad filetype:dwf", "revit filetype:dwf", "civil 3d filetype:dwf" and so on.

I personally was amazed by the number of results when I learned about this DWF specific search first.

--Volker

Bigger, Better and Free

"Autodesk has been promoting its DWF format for nearly eight years. In the past, the company provided a free viewer for casual users who simply needed to look at 2D and 3D data, but required team members to purchase software if they wanted to be able to review and comment on designs. However, now with the release of the latest version of its Design Review 2008 software, Autodesk has made the program free, so that all stakeholders have access to fully functional software to view, measure, mark up, annotate, print, and round-trip designs.

All of Autodesk's products can publish CAD data as DWF files and marked-up DWF files can be saved from Design Review and sent back to the original CAD application (an AutoCAD-based product, Inventor, or Revit) where they can be opened and viewed in the context of the original CAD file.

The company also makes available a free DWF Writer application to create DWF files from any other Windows application with special plug-ins that provide enhanced capabilities when publishing DWF files from SolidWorks, Pro/ Engineer, and CATIA. There are also plug-ins for Design Review that offer import and publish capabilities for UGS' JT format and MicroStation DGN files."

Read the complete article, featured recently in "Desktop Engineering online", here.

--Volker

The "AU Beat" is on...

This article highlights our "Autodesk University 2007" podcast series. Short audio interviews help you gear up for this exciting event before you even leave home.

Podcasts feature Autodesk insiders, the world's top instructors, and other industry experts who share information that can benefit you, your company, and your career.

Come on in and check it out here.

--Volker

Check out the new "Autodesk Drawing Cleanup Utility"!

The Autodesk Drawing Cleanup Utility is an AutoCAD based tool that provides users the ability to quickly clean-up and structure DWG files to meet a company standard. The Autodesk Drawing Cleanup Utility is a user interactive CAD tool that provides visual feedback of user actions and greatly simplifies the process of structuring DWG data.

Read the entire article and get the download here.

Here's a thought: "Clean up your drawings before making DWFs. That way DWF users see data all on familiar layer names."

--Volker

Problems with Intel Graphic Chips

We have seen an increasing amount of error reports from users who use Intel Graphic chips. So far we have identified the following chips to cause problems with the Autodesk Design Review Application:

• Intel 945G; 1.4.0 - Build 4.14.10.4332
• Intel 945G; 1.4.0 - Build 4.14.10.429
• Intel 915GM; 1.4.0 - Build 4.14.10.4277
• Intel 865G; 1.3.0 - Build 4.14.10.3924
• Intel Springdale-G; 1.3.0 - Build 4.13.10.3510

Most display issues or failures could be resolved by simply updating the driver associated with the graphic chip to the latest available version.

This is another great example were your continued error reports or CER (Customer Error Reports) allow us to effectively deal with and solve your problems.

--Volker

Autodesk Design Review 2009 Beta 1 Live Now

We recently launched our public Beta for Autodesk Design Review 2009 and feedback has been very positive so far.  Great teamwork allowed us to include some of the feature requests submitted only a few month ago.

But even moreso, the complete new coding and redesign of our user interface led to old performance stats being a true thing of the past now.

I highly recommend for all interested customers to join our Autodesk Design Review 2009 Beta program. I am certain that you won't be disappointed by the improvements we made.

To enroll in the Autodesk Design Review 2009 Beta please go to: http://myfeedback.autodesk.com and select Sign up from the Active Zone Menu. You will then be asked to fill out a profile. Please use "COLORADO" in the Beta Code field (at the top of the sign up page) and select “Autodesk Design Review” as your product of interest.  You will be emailed a password for the general site once the Beta team has reviewed your application and approved you.

If you are already a member of the MyFeedback Beta community (http://myfeedback.autodesk.com) you do NOT need to sign up, instead login to the Beta community and click on the User button found at the top of the page.  Please add "COLORADO" in the Beta Code field and click Save at the bottom of your user profile. If you have forgotten your password, you can click on the Forgot Your Password link under Login menu and an email will be sent to you with your password or send an email request to [email protected].

--Volker