Sharing Raster Files? Convert Them to Easily Viewable Formats Using Autodesk Design Review

Here is another reason for you to have Autodesk Design Review installed on your desktop. In a previous post, you saw how to use Autodesk Design Review as your default viewer for raster files. What if somebody else – for example, somebody from top management or a subcontractor - who doesn’t have Autodesk Design Review or any other raster file viewers installed on their system wants to review the raster design files? Don’t worry about installing the viewers everywhere. We can easily convert these files to PDF or TIF files using Autodesk Design Review.

Open Autodesk Design Review application on your desktop. Make sure that the ‘List View’ and ‘Thumbnails’ palettes are switched on in the ‘Show/Hide Palettes’ ribbon menu.

Open windows explorer and select raster files you wish to convert (use Ctrl+A for in case want you select all the files in the folder).

Now drag and drop them inside the ‘List View’ window / Thumbnail window.

You can drag the files inside the list view to arrange them in the proper order.

Use the ‘Thumbnail’ tab, if you want to preview while arranging them in order.

Select all the files in the ‘List View’ or ‘Thumbnails’ palette and right click to choose ‘Print’ option in the popup menu.

In the print dialog box, select the PDF writer of your choice (I use CutePDF writer which is really nice and free). Your can also use common printers like ‘Microsoft Document Image Writer’ to get a multipage TIF document output. Don’t forget to select ‘Choose paper source by DWF page size’ in the ‘Page Handling' section, if you want to preserve original sheet sizes. The print range will be selected ‘All’ by default. Ignore the print range shown in the image as I selected ‘Current sheet only’ option by mistake while taking the snapshot :-).

That’s it. Now your uncommon raster file formats are ready to be shared with most of the people around you. Trust me; Autodesk Design Review is worth more than a free design review application. Go and grab it right now from Autodesk site for free of cost!

Extracting 3D DWF Model Properties Using Autodesk Design Review API and AutoCAD VBA

A while ago I came across a situation where I had to extract line lists, valve lists, equipment lists and fittings lists from a DWF file. The DWF file was converted from a PDS model review file (DRI) using NavisWorks. After a few hours research on Autodesk Design Review API, I could extract all the required lists with a few lines of code. Ofcourse, with the help of fast dying AutoCAD VBA.

As the code makes use of CExpressViewerContol, you need to place it inside a form before running the code. You may use any COM compliant development environment in place of AutoCAD VBA. But I would like to stick to AutoCAD VBA till its last breath due to ease of use.

Sub ExtractDwfProps()
'### Extracts properties from model components of a 3D DWF file
'### By zoomharis@gmail.com
'### Date: 09/09/09

'### Based on Autodesk Design Review 2010 API

'### DWF specific references
'    -----------------------
'### AdCommon 1.0 Type Library
'### ECompositeViewer 1.0 Type Library
'### ExpressViewerDll 1.0 Type Library

'### DWF specific controls
'    ---------------------
'### CExpressViewerContol

On Error Resume Next
Dim oECV As ECompositeViewer.IAdECompositeViewer
Dim oSec As ECompositeViewer.IAdSection
Dim oEnt As AdCommon.IAdObject
Dim oProp As AdCommon.IAdProperty
Dim oCol As AdCommon.CAdCollection
Dim oCont As ECompositeViewer.IAdContent
Dim strDwfLoc As String
Dim strPropName As String
Dim strPropValue As String
'## Let me use a sample 3D dwf file
strDwfLoc = "C:\Dwf\3DModel.dwf"
strPropName = ""
strPropValue = ""
'## Open the dwf file in the viewer
CExpressViewerContol1.SourcePath = strDwfLoc
Set oECV = CExpressViewerContol1.ECompositeViewer
'## Iterate through the dwf model
For Each oSec In oECV.Sections
    Set oCont = oSec.Content
    Set oCol = oCont.Objects(0)
    For Each oEnt In oCol
        For Each oProp In oEnt.Properties
           strPropName = oProp.Name
           strPropValue = oProp.value
        Next
        '## Write code here to apply conditions to filter the list
        '## and send the extracted info into a text or excel file.
        '## Then clear the property name and property value strings
        strPropName = ""
        strPropValue = ""
    Next
Next
Set oProp = Nothing
Set oEnt = Nothing
Set oCol = Nothing
Set oCont = Nothing
Set oSec = Nothing
Set oECV = Nothing
End Sub

I have stripped down some of the code portion as it was specific my purpose. This is mostly in a general form and you may need to add/modify wherever necessary in order to run it in your system.

Some Interesting Single Key Shortcuts in Autodesk Design Review

For the keyboard fans, who don't like working with menus and ribbons, there are several easy to use keyboard shortcuts inside ADR to make your life a lot easier. Some of those deserve a special mention for the fact that they are single key shortcuts. Using these shortcuts, the navigation options seem to be as easy as in AutoCAD, or even better. Here goes some of the single key shortcuts those caught my eyes at first sight.

R - Zoom Rectangle
F - Fit to Window
Q - Dynamic Zoom
H - Pan
PgUp - Next Page
PgDn - Previous Page
G - Length (Dimension)
N - Full Screen (Toggle)

I personally found the 'R' and 'F' shortcuts combination so terrific that it could easily beat the speed of Z+W and Z+E combination in AutoCAD. For a full list of ADR shortcuts, please refer to the help section inside the application. Unfortunately, I could not find any equivalent shortcut keys for DWG TrueView. If it's not available in TrueView, Autodesk should seriously consider incorporating it, atleast for the navigation options. For sure, these applications are going to be more and more popular in the future.

How To Use Autodesk Design Review As Your Default Raster Image Viewer

Have you had a lot of headache in the past for viewing raster files those are not supported by windows built in image viewer applications? Don't worry, the solution is right under your nose. Apart from serving as an excellent review application, Autodesk Design Review can also be used as a raster image viewer. That means, you don't have to attach the raster images inside AutoCAD to view the contents. Instead, you can directly double click it on the explorer so that it opens directly in the Design Review application. Please make sure that you have done the following steps.

1. Goto Control Panel and double click on 'Folder Options'.
2. Goto the 'File Types' tab.
3. Locate the raster file extension inside the 'registered file types' list
4. If the extension does not exist, then click on 'New' to create a new one.

5. Select the extension from the list and click on 'Change' button shown in the details section.

6. From the next popup window, choose 'Select the program from a list' option.

7. Choose Autodesk DWF Application as the preferred application to open files with this extension. Also remember to check the 'Always use the selected program to open this kind of file' check box shown right under the list.

8. If everything is done properly, it will look as shown in the image below.

That's it. Repeat the same steps for other types of raster files. Once done, you don't have worry about it any more. Now you can goto explorer and double click those files to open it directly inside the Design Review application. I have configured mine to view file types like CAL, CALS, GP4, CG4, MIL, RST, PCT, PICT, TGA, RLS etc. (testing pending for some types). The best part of the story is that you can easily save this image as a DWF(x) file in order to send it to somebody for review purpose.

Autodesk Design Review is a wonderful review application with exciting features like '2D content comparison', 'PDF Support' etc. It's free and can be downloaded from the Autdesk Design Review site.