Flashdwg

[aggockel50321]

Is this (http://www.autodwg.com/dwg-to-flash/) the beginning of the end for dwf??

[aaronrumple]

Sticking with PDF here....

[Scott D Davis]

de link, no es working.....

[Wanderer]

de link, no es working.....
must be operator error. ;)

[Steven Campbell]

de link, no es working..... It doesn't work with Firefox...

[Scott D Davis]

hmmm....just tried again....also checked the connection between the keyboard and the chair, and everything seems to be connected :D

I still get nada. IE 6 SP2

[jbalding48677]

Is this (http://www.autodwg.com/dwg-to-flash/) the beginning of the end for dwf??
OK for viewing, zooming etc. but what about embedded information? I see no other tools. Based on what little I saw at AU this past year, I like where DWF is going (3D and information rich).

MTC -

[Scott D Davis]

ok, i got in!

yeah, the flash converter/viewer really doesn't do much. Zoom in, out, pan (not really well either...no scroll wheel...)

I like PDF's at the moment, but will probably be sold on DWF when we are able to use them as links in Revit/xrefs in AutoCAD. The 3D capabilites of DWF should be cool too!

Would have been REALLY nice if Autodesk and Adobe could have worked out a solution together, where Acrobat or Adobe Reader would have also opened DWF files.....

[Scott Hopkins]

I was initially very excited about DWF when it was first introduced. Having used both DWF and PDF I have found that it is hard to break away from the PDF gold standard. I have too many clients who scratch their heads saying "DW What? Just send me a PDF".

[jbalding48677]

I was initially very excited about DWF when it was first introduced. Having used both DWF and PDF I have found that it is hard to break away from the PDF gold standard. I have too many clients who scratch their heads saying "DW What? Just send me a PDF". Just wait until you sent them a 2D and 3D DWF with the ability to select items and get info on them ALONG with a 2D PDF.

FWIW, we are creating DWF sets from Revit then opening the DWF and printing from there a PDF file (multi-sheet PDF)

[LRaiz]

FWIW, we are creating DWF sets from Revit then opening the DWF and printing from there a PDF file (multi-sheet PDF)
Does this process preserves links between views/sheets?

[Steve_Stafford]

Does this process preserves links between views/sheets?No it doesn't.

[GuyR]

Just wait until you sent them a 2D and 3D DWF with the ability to select items and get info on them ALONG with a 2D PDF.

Yay!!! So clients need 2 viewers. Brilliant!! :wink: Why didn't Autodesk HELP Adobe address the deficiencies in PDF instead of inventing yet another format?

As Autodesk's own (http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2004/09/use_the_best_to.html) have said PDF is considerably better at handling text documents. Text documents (Engineers reports, Spec's etc ) represent a significant portion of Construction Documentation (50% ?), so are just as important as 2D drawings or 3D for designers.

I can electronically submit plans to our local council but only as PDF. Are they likely to support DWF when Autodesk are the only major Arch. CAD vendor using it? The one positive of DWF is it has galvanised the other major vendors into supporting PDF and improving PDF support of drawings. It's going to be an interesting race.

[stefan.boeykens]

Yay!!! So clients need 2 viewers. Brilliant!! :wink: Why didn't Autodesk HELP Adobe address the deficiencies in PDF instead of inventing yet another format?

As Autodesk's own (http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2004/09/use_the_best_to.html) have said PDF is considerably better at handling text documents. Text documents (Engineers reports, Spec's etc ) represent a significant portion of Construction Documentation (50% ?), so are just as important as 2D drawings or 3D for designers.

I can electronically submit plans to our local council but only as PDF. Are they likely to support DWF when Autodesk are the only major Arch. CAD vendor using it? The one positive of DWF is it has galvanised the other major vendors into supporting PDF and improving PDF support of drawings. It's going to be an interesting race.
FWIW, other applications support DWF output too (e.g. ArchiCAD).

I don't like the introduction of yet another standard, but that's how software firms connect users to their solution...

PDF is good and has limitations. It would be most convenient to adress the limitations of PDF and everybody would be happy (well, Adobe would be).

The Flash example is just that: a vectorial image. I don't see layers and other information, although the Flash format supports that, so that seems quite possible in Flash too. But there is no 3D in Flash and then DWF and now PDF too have an edge.

[Alex Page]

Still use PDF for clients, unless dwf becomes more 'common'...but pdfs are big compared to dwf...
ie: A1 pdf at good enough resolution to print full size ~1Mb
30 A1 dwf 'booklet' as above ~3Mb
!!!

[aggockel50321]

Pdf seems to be the standard around here also. Most are mystified by dwf, even when it automatically takes the user to the website & installs the app when a dwf file is double-clicked.

What I like about pdf is the ability to organize it with bookmarks, etc.

What I dislike, is that when I open a file, and want to know how far it is from "center of wall" to center of appliance" is that there's no way to get this info, unless I print that portion, and get out the ol' scale tape. Unfortunately, dwf's free viewer has the same limitation.

I think the first one (free version) that comes out with good query tools, whether it be dwf, pdf, or flash, will take a big step in winning the defacto standard battle.

[jbalding48677]

Yay!!! So clients need 2 viewers. Brilliant!!
My point was to give them a choice.

[ppelegrin]

Would have been REALLY nice if Autodesk and Adobe could have worked out a solution together, where Acrobat or Adobe Reader would have also opened DWF files.....

Hi Scott,

I don't really see that either party would see the 'commercial' sense in this. The same way Autodesk will not make Revit more compatible with ArchiCAD or agreeing to use ArchiCAD's native file format. It ain't never going to happen.

Even though DWF is a freely published format and the developer kit is free, you won't see Bentley or Graphisoft rushing to embrace DWF, no they will try to combat it even if that means delivering less functionality to their own clients. Maybe an unfair statement but you understand what I mean. Autodesk works with PDF like all other CAD vendors work with DWG, grudgingly so - No doubt though that Autodesk will continue trying to leverage their own market position to grow DWF.

I believe due to the technology in DWF being far superior for 'CAD' type data, that features will improve, and industry use will grow (as it did in the early days for PDF). I say congratulations to Autodesk by going against the industry trend (with all competitors sitting on the sideline voting for PDF) and developing something that will improve communication between ourselves and our clients - in a much more appropriate format than PDF was ever designed for. Ironic that it is possible in the long term that Autodesk's competitors may one day utilise the benefits driven by Autodesk. I am unaware of anyone else developing this type of solution for the general CAD market, without resorting to PDF.

The important differentiator being Raster vs Vector formats. Although PDF is now talking up 3D viewing etc, this technology is inherently weak for our requirements: an example being the 3D view in PDF is pre-defined by the publisher and not truly interactive - as it is in DWF.

Sorry, but the Raster file type is inadequate for our industry, too many obstacles to overcome, consider these issues image clarity, no accuracy for distance checking, changing scales, no plot settings, lack of sheet management. And in the future I believe we will see project management/data sharing tools being improved in DWF. Lets use a hypothetical future benefit: The clients viewer downloads only the 'changed' data from your published design, thus significantly reducing download requirements, making it easier for him to compare changes (this is technically possible today). None of these things can be done today with PDF file formats. Downloading another 5MB file just for some small changes is not real smart in my book.

Regards
P Pelegrin