Beyond the Paper

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.

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.

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 2010 Fails to Launch

We now had several customers who experienced and subsequently reported the following.

Autodesk Design Review 2010 does not start at all. The timer appears for a second when double clicking  the icon or executable, but nothing else. Users also noted that the DesignReview.exe does not appear in the process list of the Windows task manager.

Oddly enough, the problem came down to a conflict with Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended and it's feature "Capture CAD Modules".

All customers that did have both, Autodesk Design Review 2010 as well as Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended installed could resolve the issue using these steps:

• Go to the Windows Control Panel
• Select the Uninstall feature
• Choose Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended
• Select Modify
• Expand Adobe 3D
• Choose "Capture CAD Modules"
• Select "This feature will not be available"

Please let us know should you be affected by the above, meet the criteria but cannot resolve the issue by using the outlined steps.

Thank you.

Autodesk Productstream 2009 Support for Autodesk Design Review 2010

Autodesk Design Review 2010 is not compatible with Autodesk Productstream R2009 or Autodesk Vault R2009.

This update will enable product compatibility for you.

Installation Instructions:

1. Download the hotfix to a temporary directory on a workstation.
2. Extract the contents of the zip file to the temporary directory.
3. Double-click on TS1103527.msp to install the hotfix.
4. Repeat installation on all workstations.

Feedback, comments or concerns? We'd like to hear about it.

Thank you.

Autodesk Design Review through Citrix on the iPhone

The iPhone blog features an article about "Citrix Receiver for iPhone Enables Windows PC Remote Access" and it appears that Autodesk Design Review is in the midst of things (and on the posted screenshot).

You can find the complete article here.

Awesome!

Missing Toolbars with DWF Preview in Productstream Professional

You made use of the Autodesk® Design Review 2009 preview feature in Productstream® Professional 2009 and noticed that even though the DWF file displayed, some of the toolbars were missing.

This is a known issue and we have enclosed a workaround for you.

Note: To perform this procedure, you need to have Administrator rights in Productstream Professional.

• Open the Configuration Editor in Productstream Professional 2009.
• Locate the GuiViews section and the DefaultPreviewDWFView component in the Configuration Editor.
• Change the value of the attribute, EnableADRToolbars to 1 in the DefaultPreviewDWFView component.
• Save the configuration.
• Restart Productstream Professional 2009.
• To enable the additional toolbars, right-click at the top of the DWF preview in Productstream Professional 2009 and select the desired toolbar from the shortcut menu.

As always, please let us know whether you have any feedback, comments or suggestions.

Thank you.