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4.Click Export Report to create a text report listing all the dependent files and their paths, or click Edit Selected Paths to modify paths of selected reference files.

5.If you do choose to modify any selected paths, click Apply Changes.

When you’re finished exporting reports and repathing reference files (or finding reference files you may never suspected you had if you hadn’t run the Reference Manager), close the Reference Manager window. Click the Help button in Reference Manager to find out more about the utility’s capabilities.

If you always keep parent and child DWG files in the same folder — the simplest approach to dealing with xref paths — you probably won’t need to use the Reference Manager.

Design Web Format — Not Just for the Web

Earlier in this chapter, we explain how you can exchange drawings via e-mail and FTP. That’s all the Internet connectivity that many AutoCAD users need, but if you’re curious about connecting drawings to the web or sharing drawings with people who don’t have AutoCAD, this section is for you.

The AutoCAD web features are built on three pieces of technology:

A special “lightweight” drawing format called DWF that Autodesk originally developed especially for putting drawings on the web.

An updated, XML-compliant version of the DWF format called DWFx that can be viewed by using the Microsoft XPS Viewer that’s built in to Windows Vista and Windows 7 or available as a plug-in for Windows XP.

A free program from Autodesk called Autodesk Design Review 2013 that enables anyone to view, mark up, and print DWF files without having AutoCAD.

All about DWF and DWFx

The AutoCAD DWG format works well for storing drawing information on local and network disks, but the high precision and large number of object properties that AutoCAD uses make for comparatively large files.

To overcome this size problem and encourage people to publish drawings on the web, Autodesk developed an alternative lightweight vector format for representing AutoCAD drawings: DWF (Design Web Format). A DWF file is a

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more compact representation of a DWG file. DWF uses less space — and less transfer time over the web and e-mail — because it’s less precise and doesn’t have all the information that’s in the DWG file.

Use the EXPORTDWF command to create a DWF file. This command is found under the Export button in the drop-down list under the Application Menu (the big red A in the upper-left corner of the screen).

DWFx is a version of regular DWF that’s compliant with Microsoft’s XML Paper Specification (or XPS for short — had your fill of alphabet soup yet?). Everything about DWF in this chapter also applies to DWFx. The DWFFORMAT command determines whether the PUBLISH, 3DDWF, and EXPORT commands output to DWF or DWFx. If this sounds like something that might be important in your work, look up DWFFORMAT in the online help system. Windows Vista and Windows 7 include an XPS Viewer, and the long and the short of this feature is that drawings plotted to DWFx can be viewed automatically in these Windows versions without AutoCAD or any special viewing software.

DWFx files are essentially electronic paper, or more specifically like a sheet of paper with transparent overlays stacked on top of it. Recipients can zoom, pan, turn layers on and off, apply markups, and can print, but they can’t edit anything.

You can create DWF or DWFx files from your drawings and send those files to people who don’t have AutoCAD. Your recipients can view and plot the DWF files after they download the free Autodesk Design Review 2013 program, which is available at the Autodesk website, http://usa.autodesk.com/

design-review/.

Many people outside CAD-using companies don’t have access to large-format plotters. They’re limited to 8 1/2 x 11" — or, at best, 11 x 17" — reduced-size check plots. Consequently, many people won’t be able to plot your DWF files to scale and may not even be able to plot them large enough to read everything.

Autodesk Design Review 2013

After you create DWF files, you or the recipient of your DWF files can use Autodesk Design Review to view and print them. (Autodesk Design Review 2013, the current release, is a free viewer from Autodesk.) If you send DWFs to people without AutoCAD, they can download Design Review 2013 from Autodesk’s Web page, http://usa.autodesk.com/design-review/.

When you install AutoCAD 2013, the setup program, by default, installs Autodesk Design Review 2013 as well. From your Windows desktop, choose Start All Programs Autodesk Autodesk Design Review 2013 — or simply double-click a DWF file in Windows Explorer to launch the viewer.

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