What Can DWF do for you?

One of the central aspects of visualization with the Vault products is the usage of the DWF viewing format. You may not be aware of many of the capabilities available with DWF so I will just list some of them here:

• DWF / DWFx published by Autodesk CAD software


• 2D Viewing


• 3D Viewing


• Exploded Views and Assembly instructions


• Sectioned 3D viewing


• Measure / Markup / Print


• Overlay markup data in CAD applications


• Control amount of detail in a DWF


• Disable "Measure” and “Print”


• Locked down settings useful for customer and vendor interaction


• Integrated email transmittal


• Free Autodesk Design Review (comprehensive viewing software)


• Free "Print" to DWF (for formats other than CAD)


• Merge multiple documents into one DWF file (CAD, Specification and spreadsheet for example)
  

If you haven't seen how this viewing technology works in action, you can find an interactive overview of the free Design Review HERE.

Also... for those who missed it, I recently presented a Data Management User group and covered the topics of Vault Security and DWF if you would like a more in depth look with demonstrations included. The DWF content is in the second half of the presentation that you can access HERE.

Contributed by Ben of the Tata Technologies CAD Geeks

DWF's take too long with your large designs?

Have you ever checked a large assembly into Vault and had to wait a while for all of the DWF files to be published into the Vault. One of the additions to the 2010 Vault Collaboration and Vault Manufacturing products in the inclusion of the new "Job Processor" feature. This allows users to queue up publishing jobs as another process on any computer with the Vault Collaboration client software installed. Here is an example of a DWF file being published "behind the scenes":

Another capability of the Job Processor is to update properties of files in the Vault. In many cases users may want to edit file properties directly within the Vault, but these changes still need to be reflected in the title blocks of drawings as well. The Job processor can update any file properties, and then publish the DWF file whenever a lifecycle state changes (to released for example). Here is an example of a "Rev Number" file property that will automatically be updated when the process below completes:




As a user adds a lot of work to the Job Processor, a Queue is maintained to allow management of the update and DWF publishing progress:


This will allow us to track the progress of any large publishing jobs.

Contributed by Ben of the Tata Technologies CAD Geeks

Vault and Productstream - Automatic DWF Publishing Options

New DWF publishing options are available for users of Vault and Productstream 2009, but they are currently hidden in an XML file that must be edited to make changes. The Publish Options.xml file contains many DWF options for Inventor 2D and 3D files as well as AutoCAD. This file allows us to disable measure, markup, and printing of Vaulted DWF files. It can also be used to change the facet resolution of 3D files, and background color of 2D Inventor drawings that are published as well as a host of other options.

Take a look at this Autodesk Whitepaper for a list of all the options:
http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/publishing_options_for_autodesk_vault_2009.pdf

Here is a video example of the difference a change in 3D model facet resolution can make:
Watch Video Here

Contributed by Ben of the INCAT CAD Geeks

Adding DWF Into a Microsoft Word Document

I placed a blog not to long ago about adding the dwf technology into a PowerPoint. Not all of us have to do presentations, so why not work with dwf files inside of Microsoft word document. This can be used in quotations, specification writing or anything else you associate or would like to associate your cad data with. It's something that just may separate you from your competition. Check it out
http://www.screencast.com/t/KjXywQFPy
Submitted by Dave of the INCAT CAD Geeks

Zooming around for better Presentation Files

I was working with some files this week to create a nice presentation for a customer and thought you might like to add this to your bag of tricks.

Inside of the IPN file you can do some nice view control to make good instructional files.

This is an easy bonus if you already make Exploded Assembly views for drawings.

You can even add text information to them to show up inside of a DWF file as well.

These are nice for publishing to AVI as well.

Check out my video here:

Enjoy,
Jim......Another INCAT CAD Geek!

Adding DWF Into Power Point

When thinking about PowerPoint presentations they can be very boring. There is a very easy way to add in some flare to those boring Power Points and that's taking advantage of DWF. I feel this would be a great way for your sales team to take advantage of engineering data without having to have a copy of Inventor or Design Review loaded on the machine. Plus anyone using this still has full Design Review functionality.

Check it out
http://www.screencast.com/t/mZu9Cs2rJX

Submitted by Dave of the INCAT CAD Geeks

Automatic DWF publish from Autodesk Vault

One of my favorite features of using Autodesk Vault is the fact that DWF's get created automatically. Basically everytime you check a new version of a design into the Vault a new DWF file gets created. Another recent update is that we can now replicate your exact Vault folder structure to any network folder for viewing needs using this option shown below:

Hopefully you can use this feature to help share DWF's or maybe this will encourage you to consider Vault to help streamline your design sharing needs.

Kevin with the INCAT CAD Geeks

Take off those PDF Goggles - Dwf_it....Please

As I visit customers, I see a lot of them take digital pictures of things that they are incorporating their designs into. Back in the day, we took field measurements and maybe took some old school pictures because we didn't have digital. In the digital age we are able to capture those images and quickly analyze them to see a potential impact on the job we quoted.

Autodesk Design Review will let you read in those digital images and make markups to share with the design team before the design takes place. In the video, notice how easy it is to read in a JPEG and alter it to share with the rest of the design team.

Watch Video Here

Since I didn't have any mechanical engineering images available (I just got a new laptop), I used my lovely daughter Kate (she'll be 3 in July) as my markup suspect.

Take a look at how DWF technology can be incorporated into your company and link all of your engineers in this rapidly moving digital world.

John with the INCAT CAD Geeks

How are you sharing designs? With the free Autodesk Design Review?

One of the free products offered by Autodesk that I find customers are still unaware of is Autodesk Design Review. This is essentially a DWF viewing software on steriods that works with published files from any Autodesk software, as well as any other files that have been "printed" to dwf.

Autodesk Design review is available free at this site: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=4086277

The dwf writer is available free here:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6436732&linkID=9338137

Take a look at this video for an example of Design Review and a look at the interface:

Watch Video

Contributed by Ben of the INCAT CAD Geeks

Set It and Forget It!!!

You may have seen the infomercial or not, it rings a bell for me working those long hours completing task I just did not have time to complete at work, Task Scheduler to the rescue. This functionality gives me the ability to schedule common task when I am away from my machine. Task like: Migrating files, Updating a design, publishing dwf’s, printing, importing and exporting files, check into and out of vault, retrieving latest versions from vault and converting idw’s to dwg’s. Set up a single task or run multiples at once you pick the time and day.

Check out my video of how to do this.

http://screencast.com/t/JN7Cwz6CwL

Submitted by Dave of the INCAT CAD Geeks

It's all in the Presentation...

I've often been asked how easy is it to create an exploded view to send to someone to clarify a design. Well, for most small assemblies, it's almost too easy. Check out my video on how to create an exploded view with different sequences, camera angles and assembly instructions. Then, it's published to DWF for sharing with anyone. Notice how the DWF captures everything you have in Inventor.... complete with the parts needed for each step of assembly.

http://screencast.com/t/SuOQr6akHO

I wish they would include this with some of my kids toys I have to put together!

John with the INCAT Cad Geeks

Dare to compare....

Many designers need to keep track of how one drawing changed between each revision. Now there is an easy way to do it using DWF files. Basically all you need to do is have two DWF files and use the compare command within Autodesk Design Review

Link - www.autodesk.com/designreview

Watch this video to learn how....LINK

Enjoy!
Kevin with the INCAT CAD Geeks