DWF has won me over

[Wes Macaulay]

Recalling how I used to feel about DWF -- ambivalence at best -- I can now see that DWF is truly a great thing.

DWFs can now be used for sending out to repro shops who use Oce printers (this solves my problem about large-format reproductions in an earlier post), AND it can be used to send to clients for review using the free Express Viewer, AND it can be marked up in DWF Composer by someone who doesn't have or like CAD.

I hate to say it, but DWF it Good.

[rhys]

its OK and files seem to be smaller but whilst nearly everyone has a PDF veiwer, not all have a DWF. If they are on a network, that can be a problem

[Wes Macaulay]

True - tho all people need to do is surf to www.autodesk.com/dwf to get the viewer they need.

The biggest problem with DWF -- Mac users can neither make them or read them.

[Phil Palmer]

I just love the ability to create one complete DWF file of the entire project sheets with all the hyperlinks.
I recently took a project with 72 sheets and dwf'd that into one file (7.5Mb)

Its great for handing out to people to review the project status and with them being able to CTRL CLICK to each hyperlinked view/sheet/section/callout/detail etc is totally amazing

All that is quite anoying is the time it takes to load up when you click on one of the links, so although the file size is small the viewer takes an age to open the view.

[aggockel50321]

AND it can be marked up in DWF Composer by someone who doesn't have or like CAD.


Wes,

Are you talking about Volo View, or is DWF Composer something new.

[Wes Macaulay]

www.autodesk.com/dwf -- DWF Viewer replaces Express Viewer.

[PeterJ]

Its another hundred dollar tool to add to your arsenal, Andrew.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Oh Peter, the cynicism is ooozing off that one. :wink:
The viewer is a free download, the writer is a free download, the 'composer' is the $100 tool. From what little I've seen (a demo at AU and a brief run through with Wes yesterday) it's worth the money. The abilty to mark up and track revision history is well implemented and will streamline the process when working with a project team.

[aggockel50321]

Pretty soon all this software is going to add up to some serious money!

I guess my next question is, "What's the difference between DWF Composer and Volo View??"

Better yet, which will survive?

These viewers pop up at Autodesk like dandelions in my lawn...

Where's Volo view light?, Whipit?, Express Viewer??, etc?

[Gerhard]

Things start to be a bit confusing

Just staring it is not easy, since I do not know what is included in your suscribtion contract , here we can not yet get the series 1.

Anyway, wonder what would be the ultimate package?

I do speak of a kind of basic package, no luxury but something affordable and practicel.

Revit to work in
Autocad for exchange with consultants
DFW (PDF) for communication with consultants, customers, printing
Archstudio (is it needed) for ............
E-Spec (just poped up, but maybe a must) ......
Render (I do not yet render myself, so I would not know if an additional software is needed, but locking at the posts it might be!

Buzzsaw (does any body use it) for.......................
Time tracking
...................
...................

did anybody add the cost?? I might have longtime ago crossed the threhold set in the beginning!

I really wonder what a fair and proper deal would look like?

Gerhard

[PeterJ]

Revit to work in
This is the core of what you buy when you buy Revit, no surprises there.


Autocad for exchange with consultants
I think the Revit Series package, which includes AutoCAD, is a transition product largely brought about as a result of marketing. If you just wish to send your consultants DWGs or read theirs then Revit will do this for you.


DFW (PDF) for communication with consultants, customers, printing
Again these tools are freely available through Autodesk


Archstudio (is it needed) for ............
I have it. Get yourself Sketchup if you want to play in 3D, it is significantly better than Architectural Studio, though lacks the painterly approach which is appealing. Accept that neither can be imported to Revit. If you are based in the US/Canada then you should qualify for Architectural Studio for free (refer to Mark Twain's quote about the preacher being free and worth every penny).


E-Spec (just poped up, but maybe a must) ......
Certainly this has some mileage.


Render (I do not yet render myself, so I would not know if an additional software is needed, but locking at the posts it might be!
There is a lot of discussion about this but my first serious renderings were produced using Revit and it does plenty for most people's needs.


Buzzsaw (does any body use it) for.......................
Tough call.


Time tracking
I favour Spherical Technologies timelogger and timesheet things. They cost a few hundred Australian dollars, I forget exactly how much, but offer exceptional functionality. One aspect of the software is that it watches your computer use and will tell you just how much time you are really spending here.

To answer your question, much of what you are looking for is available in Revit and I think it is being sold with the first year's subscription as mandatory. A spec writing tool and a collaboration tool might both be useful, but depending on the size of your office you don't necessarily want them to be part of your subscription package as you probably don't require as many licenses. The same is probably true for a 3D sketching tool, but I am increasingly of the opinion that a pencil and a roll of trace has remarkable value here.

As to the cost you could get 5 from your list of eight for the cost of Revit straight out of the box.

And spending a hundred dollars on the mark-up kit for DWFs? I'm actually all for it, I have been spending a lot of money on software recently and wouldn't see that as a problem at all. I might look at the number of people who can read DWF, but on the whole it seems remarkably good value when compared to the PDF mark-up/creation tools from Acrobat itself on down. I can't see any of my clients objecting to the installation of a viewer, but I would probably send them a copy on CD, just to save them hacking about in Autodesk's labyrinthine site.

[Wes Macaulay]

Anyway, wonder what would be the ultimate package... something affordable and practicel.
I dunno if I would call Revit affordable for some firms... though now I wonder how anyone could afford NOT to have it. I always say: if you're turning work away, Revit makes sense.

As Peter said, you don't need much more than Revit. Timesheets and specs aside, you could do all your 2D drafting with Revit too. Why not!

The ONLY thing that's nice to have AutoCAD around for is those times when you've got a messy CAD file and you want to clean it up a bit before importing it into Revit. But do people really need AutoCAD for that?? AutoCAD LT would have been enough, in my opinion. ACK! Bad memories of UCSFOLLOW just came back :shock:

[beboyle]

Wes,

Back to Andrew's question though, what's the difference between Volo View and Composer? I bought Volo View to mark up DWF's that I e-mail back and forth to an offsite drafter who works with me using AutoCAD. It works great and for small amounts of mark-ups, using my Wacom tablet, quite easy. But now there seems to be a new DWF format, with hyperlinks for Revit, that Volo View can't even open. So, having spent $50 already, I have to spend another $100 to work in Revit? Maybe I should be asking AutoDesk this.

End of question/rant.

Brian

[AbigayleAEC]

Wes,

Back to Andrew's question though, what's the difference between Volo View and Composer? I bought Volo View to mark up DWF's that I e-mail back and forth to an offsite drafter who works with me using AutoCAD. It works great and for small amounts of mark-ups, using my Wacom tablet, quite easy. But now there seems to be a new DWF format, with hyperlinks for Revit, that Volo View can't even open. So, having spent $50 already, I have to spend another $100 to work in Revit? Maybe I should be asking AutoDesk this.

End of question/rant.

Brian

You can upgrade Volo View to DWF Composer for just $49. Visit the Autodesk store to purchase.

[aggockel50321]

Does DWF Composer read .dwg files as well as .dwf?

I think Volo View does.

And, given the upgrade special, is DWF Composer intended to replace Volo View??

[aggockel50321]

(Answering my own question)

I went to Autodesk's site and read that DWF Composer will read .dwg files.

Had a hard time finding Volo view on the main product page. Seems it's called "Volo View" and not "Autodesk Volo View", like all but about five other software offerings. Does that mean it's on the orphan list?

I also saw this about a product called Autodesk Quickcad.




Yes. You can import and export your files to AutoCAD® 2000 DWG format, which means you can share files with AutoCAD 2000, AutoCAD 2000i, and AutoCAD 2002 users as well as with AutoCAD LT® users. DXF™ format is also available for both import and export.

2.4 Can I use my old Drafix CAD files?

Yes. There is an import option for previously created CAD format files.

2.5 How can I make my drawings accessible to other people?

There are many CAD viewers out there, but to allow people who don’t have access to CAD software to view a drawing, you need another solution. With Autodesk QuickCAD 8 you can export DWF files that people can view on the Internet, using a web browser as a drawing viewer. The DWF format is recognized as the best format for exchange of design information over the Internet. In addition, Autodesk’s Volo® View Express is a free, downloadable viewer that is compatible with both DWG and DWF file formats. Visit www.autodesk.com/volo for details.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


This might be a better option to tweak .dwg files, ($50) rather than buying acad or acad lite (<$600).

Anyone have any experience with this product?

[PeterJ]

A developer client who is quite clued up and does some of his own feasibility work has quick cad. The drawings he has passed me look as though they were produced in a drawing package rather than a dafting package, but that may be a reflection on him.

The native format is not dwg, so you can imagine there is some missing functionality.

[davidwlight]

DWF Composer does read dwg's sort of. It comes with a seperate utility called dwg viewer, essentially its just a cut down version of Autocad 2005. It will allow you to view & print drawings. I've had a beta version of Composer for around a month & its excellent. I was always in favour of PDF, but now I've spent sometime working with DWF, Revit 6.1 & Autocad 2005, I'm totally converted. You can actually open a PDF in Acrobat Reader & DWF it using DWF writer. The main issue is whether corporates can start in include DWF viewer & writer in their standard network software specs. Another interesting point is that I believe Autodesk is also working on DWF viewer for the Mac. :D

[beboyle]

Another interesting point is that I believe Autodesk is also working on DWF viewer for the Mac.

That would be great as some of my clinets use Mac.

Brian

[Chad Smith]

In my opinion, both DWF and Composer are very poor products.

In my Revit drawings I use Color Fills, coloured elevations and 3D's all the time. When these are converted to DWF, the resulting file is huge and takes a long time to regenerate in the viewer and plot because these views are raster images, not vectors. Are we not using vector products here? :evil: This has been the number 1. item on my wish list since I have been using Revit.

I had planned on converting issued drawings to DWF so that the marketing and office manager could open up in Composer and get dimensions and areas off. But the measuring tools in Composer are inaccurate, not by fractions of millimeters, but by millimeters. Not to mention there still is no batch plotting. :evil:

I want to be a DWF user but it has a long way to go before it gets my vote.

[davidwlight]

I agree with you Chad. DWF's with colour files & rendered views are large. Composer & DWF viewer do slow down considerably when DWF are loaded with more than just line work. But in my humble opinion this is still better than PDF. PDF may be quicker & more people may be using it, but you still get more information out of DWF. I was talking to a Autodesk AE recently & Autodesk have big plans for DWF. That's why they are giving DWF writer & viewer away for free; they want as many design professionals to use it as possible. Autodesk never give anything away for free! At present DWF is probably more useful to ADT 2005 users; objects that appear in a ADT drawing can be listed & integrated for property data in Composer, I have reliable been informed that feature will be introduced to Revit very soon.This is the first release of Composer it will only get better.

[Chad Smith]

We only send PDF's out to clients to get approvals for projects, so therefore we don't need the ability to extract property data from DWF's.

We just need a fast vector DWF file that can handle coloured views, and a viewer that is fast, can get accurate dimensions and can batch plot. I'm not asking for much.
So far both the DWF format and the Composer viewer can not achieve this.

I have been beta testing the DWF viewers since the first beta release of Express Viewer and have made the same recommendations with each beta release of each program. I was really keen to see DWF succeed in the beginning which is why I signed up for the beta group but I haven't seen one of my suggestions make it in.
I'm really starting to wonder why I'm bothering wasting my time.