From Inventor 2008 to Design Review 2008 and Back
Think of the review work flow as a trip for design information. Not only do you want to send the design information to visit the reviewers, but you also want it to return with reviewer feedback. The best vehicle to use for that round trip is a DWF file.
Pack a Suitcase and Go
Typically, the round trip begins in a design program, such as Autodesk® Inventor® 2008. Publishing a DWF file from Inventor is like packing a bag for a trip. The designer has to determine what design information is necessary for the trip (model, drawing, presentation, Bill of Materials or parts list, representations, and so on). Once the design information has been selected, the designer packs, or publishes, the information into a DWF file.
DWF round-tripping with Inventor 2008 is only supported for (2D) IDW files. However, markup, measurements, or other reviewer notations added to 3D models or presentations can be returned to the Inventor engineer within the DWF file.
To publish design information from an open Inventor drawing
1. Choose File > Publish.
The Publish dialog box opens.
2. Optional:
• Choose to disable measurements, markup, or printing by unchecking these options.
• Uncheck Display Published File in Viewer.
• Choose Password Protection for the DWF file you are publishing.
3. If necessary, on the Properties tab, select which properties to include in the DWF file.
By default, Properties with Values is selected.
Note: If you choose the Custom publishing option, other tabs are available for additional control over the published content.
4. Click Publish.
The Publish Document dialog box opens.
5. Type a file name and click Save to publish the file to DWF.
Send your DWF for Review
Once the DWF file has been published, you can send it to your reviewers who will use Autodesk® Design Review 2008 to perform the tasks necessary to your review work flow, such as adding markups with notes and statuses. When finished reviewing the DWF file, the reviewer saves their changes, closes the DWF file, and either passes it along to the next reviewer or returns it to the designer, so that the markups may be considered against the original Inventor drawing.
Get it Back and Unpack
To review the marked up DWF file in Inventor, use the Markups Browser. The Markups Browser can show or hide individual markups, created in Design Review, over the Inventor drawing in the graphics window. The Markups Browser also displays any information about a markup, such as who created it, when it was created, and any associated status or history. The Markups Browser can also be used to modify some markup detail, such as its status or responding to a note. When finished reviewing the markups, any changes or replies are added automatically to the DWF file when it’s republished.
To review the markups in Inventor
1. Open the original IDW file from which the DWF file was created.
2. Choose File > Load Markup Set.
The Open Markup DWF dialog box opens.
3. Navigate to and select the DWF file that contains the returned markups and click Open.
The Markups Browser opens and the tree view lists the individual markups, by sheet for multi-sheet drawing files, that were added to the DWF file during the review process.
4. In the Markups Browser, double-click a markup to open the Markup Properties dialog box.
5. Optional: Change the Markup Status or respond to the markup by adding a comment to the Notes text box.
6. Make changes to the original Inventor drawing file as necessary to incorporate the received feedback.
At this point, the round trip is complete. The design information was sent into the review work flow and returned with feedback.
If desired, you can republish the file and send it out for further design reviews.
A word of thanks to Jonathan Geary, who wrote this article for us.
--Volker
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