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Viewing Autodesk DWF Images

DWF (Design Web Format) is file format proposed as a standard by Autodesk for making AutoCAD drawings available on the web. DWF files are optimized for web viewing. As a vector format, DWF files have the big advantage of allowing panning and zooming. They are smaller than DWG files, can contain URL links, and allow images to be distributed while keeping the DWG files proprietary.

There are several choices for viewing DWF images.

• Download and install Autodesk Design Review. Design Review is for viewing Autodesk DWF files only and requires Microsoft Internet Explorer. Netscape and other web browsers are not supported. This program download is about 40 megabytes.

• Autodesk DWF Viewer, Autodesk Volo View Express (a free version of Volo View), and the Autodesk WHIP! Viewer plug-in are no longer available. If you already have these programs, you can continue to use them, although they are no longer the best choice because they are no longer supported and do not support the latest DWF file versions.

• Use ArNoNa CADViewer. If the web site supports CADViewer or CADViewer Light, then you view the DWF images with a Java applet and no plug-in or special installation is needed. The quality of the images may not be as good as one of the other choices.

See Viewing AutoCAD drawings for more information on viewing and publishing AutoCAD data.