In my previous blog postings we have cover a lot of ground, but we have not discussed how to generate a DWF from other applications like Microsoft Office Visio, Word, or even Excel. So here it is – How Do I Create a DWF from a Non-Autodesk Application?
Before we proceed with this Blog let’s do a quick check to confirm that your computer is configured correctly to generate a DWF. Please check your Printers to see if there is a reference to “Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D”. To accomplish this select [Start] off you Windows Start menu and either select [Printers] or go to Control Panel to open the Printers Window.
Once this file is downloaded next install the DWF Writer. During the installation it will prompt you to include the Tool bars for the Office applications, which will help to generate the DWF file. Now you are able to generate a DWF.
For this discussion we will generate a DWF from Visio and also Word then combined them together into 1 DWF File.
Starting with a Visio Project, I opened a file. Now to publish this into a DWF you will need to configure the Printer as follows:
- We first need to set the Autodesk DWF Writer as the Printer for the Visio Drawing – go to [File], [Print], select the printer, now the [Cancel].
- Next configure the Page Setup – go to [File], [Page Setup], on the Print Setup tab select [Setup...]. On this window select the correct page size and layout then set the Margins to equal 0 for all – after making these modifications click [OK] and [OK] back on the Page Setup window. Follow this for each Drawing page inside the Visio file.
Now you are ready to print – [File], [Print], select your options and let it run. It will then open Autodesk Design Review. It has published each of the Visio drawing pages separately – you may want to rename each of the pages. Once you are finished with your modifications save the file.
Next create a DWF from Microsoft Word. Open a Word document, now [File], [Print], select the Autodesk DWF Writer printer and the [Properties] here we need to set the Margins to 0 for all. Let it run, once it is completed it will open Autodesk Design Review. If the document is more than 1 page you may want to rename the pages. Once you are finished with your modifications save the file.
The fastest way to combine 2 DWF files into 1 is to first open one of the DWF files then via Windows Explorer drag the other DWF file into the open DWF in the “List View” or “Thumbnails” windows located in the upper left. Once you are finished with your modifications save the file.
We hope this posting has enlightened the process of getting a file into the DWF format so you can be more productive. Below we have provided some links which will help you see this in action.
Links
David Keen
Bill Battaglia
ePonti Team
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