Beyond the Paper

What's New with APIs in Autodesk Design Review 2011?

Design Review Software Engineer, Herbert He, mentions a few noteworthy changes to the 2011 Design Review APIs that aren't included in the current API documentation.

• New Animation Detection API
• New Lighting and Field of View Commands
• Moved APIs

New Animation Detection API
This new API enables you to detect if the 3D section as an animation section. This would be useful if the client code needs to control whether the animation commands are shown, or to provide some other feedback to the user based on the presence of animation.

EModelSection2.HasAnimation Property
Query whether the 3D section has animation.

Syntax
object.HasAnimation

Return Values
Return code Description
S_OK The property was retrieved successfully
E_INVALIDARG Invalid parameter passed
E_FAIL Current section is invalid

Remarks
If the 3D section has animation object, the value of the property is VARIANT_TRUE, else the value is VARIANT_FALSE.

New Lighting and Field of View Commands

Lighting Commands:
Two lighting commands were added in order to provide a more simplified lighting interface to the user (others were removed from the UI but are still available in the API). These new simplified lighting commands are available in the API.

1. NOLIGHTING
An additional possible value for EModelSectionType2.LightingOption, "No Light".
2. DEFAULTLIGHTING
An additional possible value for EModelSectionType2.LightingOption, "Default Light".

Field of View Commands:
Two field of view commands were added to allow the user to increase or decrease the field of view.

1. FOVWIDE
Only applicable to 3D sections, increase the value of field of view by 5 by default. For example:
 CompositeViewer.ExecuteCommand ("FOVWIDE");
   or
 CompositeViewer.ExecuteCommandEx ("FOVWIDE", 0);

2. FOVTELEPHOTO
Only applicable to 3D sections, decrease the value of field of view by 5 by default. For example:
 CompositeViewer.ExecuteCommand ("FOVTELEPHOTO");
   or
 CompositeViewer.ExecuteCommandEx("FOVTELEPHOTO", 0);

Moved APIs from the EPlotRenderer interface to the EPlotViewer interface

As a result of refactoring the Autodesk Design Review code base, all COM objects were removed from the EPlotRenderer module, relocating all EPlotRender APIs to the EPlotViewer module.

All existing code such as:

EPlotRenderer.IAdPage*
  and
 EPlotRenderer.CAdPage*

…needs to be changed to:
 EPlotViewer.IAdPage*
  and
 EPlotViewer.CAdPage*

Thanks for the update Herbert!

Embedding DWF Files: Do You Need New a CAB?

When embedding DWF files in a webpage, part of the embed code checks to see if the person viewing the webpage has Design Review installed on the computer. If not, the embed code automatically downloads and installs Design Review using a CAB file.

If you use this functionality, you may have noticed that the auto-installed CAB file hasn’t been updated recently. The embed code installs Design Review 2009, instead of the most recent version, Design Review 2011.

 
Using the Comments section below, please let us know:

1. How many of your customers are affected by this issue?
2. What revenue impact has this issue had to your company?
3. How important is an updated CAB file to your application?

As always, we appreciate your input!

Thank you.

Disable AutoUpdate - Autodesk Design Review 2011

In some cases Design Review’s AutoUpdate feature may conflict with corporate firewall settings, causing the program to open very slowly. The Autodesk Design Review 2011 Installation Guide shows Administrators how to avoid this scenario, by preventing Design Review from checking for updates at install time.

Individuals who installed Design Review 2011 that are seeing this “slow start” behavior can also prevent checking for updates, by modifying two Design Review registry keys, InitialCheck and DoNotShowAgain. Changing the value data from 0 to 1 for each of these registry keys disables the AutoUpdates feature.

 
Figure 1: Modified registry keys for Design Review 2011 disables AutoUpdate on Windows XP.

The location of these registry keys depends on the computer’s operating system. We have listed the locations for the most common OSs here:

Windows XP 32-bit
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate

Windows XP 64-bit
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Wow6432Node\Autodesk\Designreview\Settings\AutoUpdate
• HKEY_CURRENR_USER\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate

Windows Vista/7 32-bit
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AppDataLow\Software\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate

Windows Vista/7 64-bit
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AppDataLow\Software\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate

Note: It is recommended that you start the application at least once, else there is a good chance that the values of InitialCheck and DoNotShowAgain have not been created yet. If you decide to edit the registry prior to starting Autodesk Design Review 2010, you will have to create those keys manually.

Warning!
Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows registry could render your computer operating system unusable. Microsoft has provided a wealth of critical information you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/support.
Use the Microsoft® Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry as well as the system.dat and user.dat files as outlined in ARTICLE-ID: Q132332 "How to Back Up the Registry" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.

For network installs, Adminstrators can prevent Design Review 2011 from checking for updates by following the steps in the Autodesk Design Review 2011 Installation Guide.

Thank you.

Autodesk Design Review 2011 and Tablet PCs

When opening 3D DWF files on some less-powerful computers, Autodesk Design Review 2011 may stop responding, triggering a Customer Error Report. The issue is a known conflict between Design Review’s 3D rendering engine and an older, integrated graphics chipset from Intel. It seems more common on computers running Windows XP—most likely because those machines are older and are more likely to have the conflicting chipset.

Specifically, we’ve seen this behavior on Tablet PCs when trying to open 3D files from Autodesk Buzzsaw, to import 3D JT files, to embed 3D DWF files in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer, and when trying to change the display driver in Design Review 2011 in the Options dialog box.

If you experience this behavior, here’s the workaround.

1. Restart Design Review 2011.
2. In Design Review, click the application button > Options.
3. On the Model tab, in the View Settings group, from the Driver drop-down list, select Software (OpenGL)
4. Click OK.
    

Alternatively, you can disable the display adapter's hardware acceleration on the computer itself. If a solution is found, we’ll be sure to post it to this blog.

A word of "thanks" to Chris Blocher for writing the article for us.

Thank you.

Transparent Text May Not Print - Autodesk Design Review 2011

In Autodesk Design Review 2011, how to print transparent text isn’t very, well, transparent. A known issue in 2D drawings, transparent text may print to PDF, XPS, and paper as solid text.

For example, this drawing has a textual markup with 70% transparency. 

  
 
On output, the 70% transparency is ignored and the text prints as solid, obscuring the drawing.

Here’s the workaround to retaining the text’s transparency on output.

1. Apply the ADR_2011_Hotfix to Design Review 2011.
2. Start Design Review and open the 2D file with the transparent text.
3. Open the Print dialog box and click Advanced. The Advanced Print Options dialog box opens.
4. Under Pre-process Bitmaps, select Turn Data into a Bitmap Before Printing.
5. Click OK to apply the setting.
6. Click OK again to print the file.

The drawing’s transparent text will be retained.

Thank you.

Autodesk Design Review 2011 - UI Video

Autodesk Design Review 2011 offers a familiar way to interact with your 2D and 3D DWF files. In this video, we'll tour the Design Review window.

Video Link

Thank you.

Design Review/DWG TrueView: .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Required

When installing Autodesk Design Review 2011 and/or DWG TrueView 2011, customers report seeing this .NET Framework warning message which blocks installation.

 
That’s because the 2011 versions of both products, Design Review and DWG TrueView, do require Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 be installed on the computer before they can be installed. Even if a more recent version of the Framework is installed, such as .NET Framework 4.0, the warning message will be displayed until the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is installed first.

The solution is to download and install the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 from Microsoft website (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7&displaylang=en). Once that’s installed, you can install Autodesk Design Review 2011 and DWG TrueView 2011. (Note that .NET Framework 4 can be installed side by side with older Framework versions.)

Thank you.

Open DWF/DWFx Files in Google Chrome

From a browser perspective, for the longest time you were only able to view DWF/DWFx files in Microsoft Internet Explorer.  Last year, we provided version 1.0 of the Firefox Add-on for Autodesk Design Review to enable this functionality in Mozilla Firefox.

Time marches on. The latest update to the Firefox add-on, version 1.1, and a minor Windows registry modification can enable Google Chrome to view DWF/DWFx files too.

First things first.

• With recent versions of Firefox, Chrome, and Design Review (2009, 2010, or 2011) on your computer, download and install the Firefox Add-on for Autodesk Design Review version 1.1. (If you previously installed version 1.0 of the add-on, version 1.1 will update it automatically.)

Now for the registry tweak.

1. Open the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.dwf.
3. In the Registry Editor's right pane, double-click Content Type. The Edit String dialog box opens and Model/vnd.dwf is shown in the Value Data text box.
4. Change the capital letter “M” in Model/vnd.dwf to a lowercase “m” so it looks like this model/vnd.dwf
5. Click OK to update the value.
6. Exit the Registry Editor.

 
You can now open DWF/DWFx files in Chrome either by dragging and dropping them into the browser or by opening HTML files with embedded DWF/DWFx files.

Let us know how it works for you!

Warning!
Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows registry could render your computer operating system unusable. Microsoft has provided a wealth of critical information you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/support.
Use the Microsoft® Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry as well as the system.dat and user.dat files as outlined in ARTICLE-ID: Q132332 "How to Back Up the Registry" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.

A word of "Thanks" to Chris Blocher, who wrote the artcile for us.

Legacy JT Files in Autodesk Design Review

Design Review uses plug-ins to enable users to import non-DWF files into Design Review. Recently we learned that, although JT files being saved by Autodesk Inventor 2011 can be imported into Design Review 2011, nothing displays in Design Review. The canvas area appears empty. Several known types of JT content that cannot be viewed in Design Review have been identified in the existing JT plug-in Readme. However, this one was new to us.

Upon investigating this “empty JT file” behavior, we learned that is happening because the Autodesk Design Review JT Import Plug-in, which was developed back in 2008, hasn’t been updated since. As a result, any relatively recent JT files, including those JT files created using the default settings in Inventor 2011, cannot be imported properly into Design Review 2011.

For our Inventor 2011 customers, the workaround is to change the JT file Save As Options to use a lower file format version. Autodesk Design Review should be able to read JT files saved as versions 6.4 - 8.2.

 

After saving the JT file in the older format, you should be able to import the JT file into ADR.

Please share with us any feedback you may have.

Thank you.

Autodesk Design Review on the iPad?

Check out this article at Autodesk Labs and share your thoughts through the offered email channel, if you have an interest in this particular subject.

Thank you.