DWF Writer 2
The Autodesk® DWF™ Writer is a certified Microsoft® Windows® system printer driver, so you can publish DWF files by simply selecting Autodesk DWF Writer from your standard Printer Name drop-down list in any Windows application.
The DWF Writer also works with other CAD applications that do not offer built-in DWF publishing, such as Bentley® Microstation and Solidworks®.
DWF™ Writer requires one of the following operating systems: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home or Professional; Windows 2000; Windows 2003 Server.
I even showed in a past post that I could produce DWF from MicroStation as well as even the old AutoCAD R12.
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2003/10/dwfwriter_2_bet.html
Cheers,
-Shaan
Update: Some such as Bentley may not want you to know you can print to DWF from their products as they removed my response to a post asking about DWF support in MicroStation on their discussion group mentioning the DWF Writer. In any case if someone wants to know if they can print to DWF from MicroStation, the answer is yes and it is much smaller than a PDF which is better suited for Word documents instead of design documents. There is a small free viewer available for download. The free DWF Viewer is located at: http://www.autodesk.com/dwfviewer-download
Give DWF a try you may find you prefer the DWF format for exchanging design documents more easily and in most cases much smaller and more visual fidelity than other electronic formats designed for other purposes.
And not just Microstation! See my VersaCAD blog entry “VersaCAD Output pRinter DWF” at versacad.motime.com
I am currently an AutoCAd user, but my first venture into the CAD world was with VersaCAD, and hence, still a lingering affection.
Point is, DWF Writer (and DWF Composer) open up the world of non-AutoCAD users to sharing their [CAD] information with others. Good or Bad for Autodesk?? Good! if the goal is to promote and/or sell DWF based products. Bad (perhaps!) if it ‘liberates’ other CAD formats from their “confines”
Jim
PS Glad to hear your daughter is fine
When trying to use the Autodesk DWF Writer with Microstation V8 “Powerdraft” it says
“There is no MDL application specified in the .plt file ‘DWFWRITERRES.dll’
The ‘driver=’ line was optional on previous versions of Microstation but is now required”
Any comment?
Reply to Robert Hutchinson.
It sounds like MicroStation Powerdraft may be misconfigured or just plain behaving badly. It should not be looking for a MDL as this is a Windows System printer driver like other printers installed on the system. Did you by mistake try to define this as a non system driver? I have printed to DWF from V8 versions of MicroStation without a problem as have others. All you have to do is select the DWF Printer the from the Windows printer pulldown in MicroStation. Can you print to the DWFWriter driver from other applications on your machine just for testing purposes?
Feel free to email me if you like, as I would be happy to assist you.
Cheers,
-Shaan
Is there a way to Make a DWF out of Microstation with a Custom Page size such as 36″x240″?
Gary,
You can use the free DWFWriter and print to it just like a real printer to create the DWF. I am not sure about a length of 240″ but most standard plot sizes can definitly be done.
Hi Shaan-
I am trying to come up with a method for us to plot DGN files to DWF within a batch process. To do that I need to come up with a PLT file that can be used with the standard Bentley batchprinting process. Do you have a sample of such a file? I am currently trying to play around with their standard PDF PLT file but I’m not counting on that. Please let me know if you can assist me. Thank you VERY MUCH!
Ken,
I am not clear whether you are trying to plot a DGN to a DWF from AutoCAD or from MicroStation and forced to use that funky PLT format in their plot process. PLT files are usually device specific when produced from a standard Windows System Driver.
AutoCAD 2008 supports DGN V8 2D files so you can use the Batch Plot PUBLISH built into AutoCAD to plot DGN files to a DWF file for archiving or sharing.
Regards,
Shaan
Is AutoCAD DWF Writer supported with Windows 2008 R2 Server OS? I tried and sometimes it is not generating anything at all!