Publish Drawings

Publishing provides an easy way to create a paper drawing set or an electronic drawing set. An electronic drawing set is the digital equivalent of a set of plotted drawings. You create an electronic drawing set by publishing drawings to a DWF, DWFx, or PDF file.

You can publish an entire sheet set from the Sheet Set Manager. With one click, you can create an electronic drawing set by publishing the sheet set to a single, multi-sheet DWF, DWFx, or PDF file. You can create a paper drawing set by publishing the sheet set to the plotter named in each sheet’s page setup.

Using the Publish dialog box, you can assemble a collection of drawings to publish and save the list as a Drawing Set Descriptions (DSD) file. You can customize this collection of drawings for a specific user, and you can add and remove sheets as a project evolves. Once you’ve created a list of drawing sheets in the Publish dialog box, you can publish the drawings to any of the following:

The plotter named in each sheet’s page setup (including drawings that you want to plot to file)

• A single, multi-sheet DWF or DWFx file containing both 2D and 3D content
• A single, multi-sheet PDF file containing 2D content
• Multiple single-sheet DWF or DWFx files containing both 2D and 3D content
• Multiple single-sheet PDF files containing 2D content

Using 3D DWF publishing, you can create and publish DWF files of your three-dimensional models and view them with Autodesk Design Review.

Publishing for Autodesk Design Review

Publishing an electronic drawing set as a DWF or DWFx file saves time and increases productivity by providing accurate, compressed representations of drawings in a file that is easy to distribute and view. This also maintains the integrity of your original drawings.

DWF files, when published, are created in a vector-based format (except for inserted raster image content), ensuring that precision is maintained. DWFx files are created using Microsoft’s XPS format. DWFx files are ZIP files and contain metadata. This metadata can be viewed only by Autodesk Design Review.

You can view and print general graphics in Autodesk Design Review or in Internet Explorer 7. Rich DWFx metadata can only be viewed in Autodesk Design Review. You can view or plot DWF or DWFx files using Autodesk Design Review. DWF or DWFx files can be distributed using e-mail, FTP sites, project websites, or CDs.

You can specify which block-related properties and attributes you want to make available to Autodesk Design Review users. For example, you can publish a DWF file or DWFx file for a plumbing contractor that contains block attribute information about the plumbing fixtures specified in your drawing data. And, from the same set of sheets, you can include only the block attribute data about light fixtures for an electrical contractor.

By default, jobs that are published are processed in the background, so that you can return immediately to your drawing. Only one job that you have published can be processed in the background at a time. While a job is being processed in the background, you can check its status by placing the cursor over the plotter icon on the right side of the status bar. You can also view details about all completed jobs that you have plotted or published from the current session.