Beyond the Paper

Autodesk Design Review Mobile - Now for Android!

You asked. We listened! The wait is over for our Android customers. The free Autodesk Design Review mobile app is now available on the Android Market! 

Similar to its IOs cousin, the Android version of the Design Review mobile app lets you work with your 2D and 3D design files on your Android phone or tablet.

  

We're very interested in hearing about your feedback about the app and cloud experience! Please send us your comments using http://feedback.autodesk.com/cloudservices.

Design Review Mobile, Autodesk Cloud, and now Android...just a few more examples of helping you go beyond the paper.

Autodesk Design Review Mobile - Ready, Set, Launch!

Design Review Mobile is now available on the iTunes app store! Be one of the first to download your copy today and begin viewing your Autodesk files from anywhere at any time. This free app lets you view and markup 2D and 3D design files directly on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.

This is just a part of the broader Autodesk Cloud launch that was just announced today. The official press release has details on all the new services!

Send us your feedback on either Design Review Mobile or the Autodesk Cloud, using http://feedback.autodesk.com/cloudservices. We look forward to hearing from you!

Design Review Mobile and the Autodesk Cloud, just a few more examples of helping you go beyond the paper.

DWF File Viewing Comes to the iPad

Judging from the amount of email we receive requesting the ability to view DWF files on your mobile devices, we think you'll be interested in learning about an iPad® app called McDwiff, by third-party developer Austin Silver Software.

Using the Autodesk Freewheel Web service, which requires an Internet connection, McDwiff enables you to open, view, convert, and print 2D and 3D DWF files on your iPad. (Of particular interest to some may be the app's Dropbox integration.)

For more information about the app, visit the McDwiff website. And if you try the app, be sure to leave a comment here to let us know how viewing DWF files on your iPad works for you.

McDwiff (and the Autodesk Freewheel Web service). Just another way Autodesk enables our customers to go 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.

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.

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.

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 2011 - Enhanced 3D Lighting & Field of View

Autodesk Design Review 2011 has once again improved the 3D viewing experience. In this video, I'll show you how 3D lighting has been improved, as well as how to use the new Field of View tool.

Please share any feedback you may have with us.

Thank you.