Beyond the Paper

Can I Still Use Project Freewheel with Design Review 2012?

With the new version of Design Review released last week, several customers have asked whether or not the existing ShareNow add-in will continue to work with Project Freewheel--the Autodesk service that enables your team to collaborate on designs using just about any operating system or device that has Internet access.

The short answer is, yes! For more information, about how to start using the ShareNow add-in with Autodesk Design Review 2012, check out the video below.

Be sure to visit the Autodesk Labs Project Freewheel website to learn more about this terrific service.

Project Freewheel...just one more way Autodesk takes the design review process beyond the paper.

What's New in Autodesk Design Review 2012?

Autodesk Design Review 2012 is now available for download from our website!

Still the best way to view, mark up, print, and track changes to Autodesk 2D and 3D design files, we're especially proud of Design Review 2012 because of the customer requests we were able to address in this release:

• Sharing symbol catalogs, workspaces, and program settings is easier than ever
• Workspaces have been improved to include view settings, markup formatting settings, as well ribbon and Quick Access toolbar changes
• Automatic file recovery can now save your work-in-progress if there's a computer crash
• You can now paste copied images directly onto 2D sheets

Here's a video showing these features and more.

Download your free version Autodesk Design Review 2012 and let us know what you think!

Introducing Autodesk Product Support e-Services

Vice President of Autodesk Product Support, Roberto Sigona, speaks about available options for self-help technical support; including Autodesk knowledgebase, blogs and community forums.

 

Video Link

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.

Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D: 64-bit Version Released!

When we asked the question, “DWF Writer for 64bit??”, the response was very positive. Encouraged by that enthusiasm, we’re proud to announce that Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D is now available for these 64-bit versions of Windows:

• Microsoft® Windows® 7 (Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, Home Premium)
• Microsoft® Windows® Vista® (Enterprise, Business, Ultimate [SP1 or later])
• Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (SP2 or later)

As a system printer driver, you can select “Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D” as the printer to publish DWF files from many Windows programs, such as:

• Adobe® Acrobat® 9
• Bentley MicroStation V8i
• Google Chrome 5.0
• Microsoft® Excel® 2007, 2010
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 8
• Microsoft® PowerPoint® 2007, 2010
• Microsoft® Word 2007, 2010
• Mozilla Firefox™ 3.6.3

You may have noticed the “2D-ness” in the title of the Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D (64-bit) . Our customer research suggests that the DWF Writer is used primarily to publish 2D supporting design documentation. As a result, the 64-bit DWF Writer does not offer 3D support at this time. (Users of Autodesk programs, including AutoCAD-based products, Inventor and Revit, should use the built-in DWF publishing capabilities to create DWF files.) Also worth noting is that the 64-bit version is English-only.

Please download Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D (64-bit) and let us know what you think by adding your comments below. 

We look forward to your feedback!

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.

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.

Autodesk Design Review 2011 - Using 2D Measurements

Autodesk Design Review 2011 enables you to measure a drawings published objects. In this video, I'll review the available 2D measurement tools.

Please share any feedback you may have.

Thank you.