Autodesk® Design Review
Readme
Updated: 17 February 2017
For more information on Design Review, including downloads and system requirements, to http://www.autodesk.com/products/design-review/.
What's New?
- Cloud shortcuts. The Design Review toolbar now includes shortcuts to A360, BIM 360, and AutoCAD 360.
- Autodesk InfoCenter. Design Review now includes InfoCenter, a tool that enables you to access product-related information sources.
- HP Instant Printing is not supported anymore.
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Known Issues
- Installation may fail when trying to install to a long local path. Solution: Try to use an installation path that is less than 160 characters long.
- Design Review may stop unexpectedly when using the Section Face feature. Solution: Restart Design Review and disable hardware acceleration. Click the Design Review application button and select Options. On the Model tab, in the Driver box under View Settings, select Software (OpenGL), and click OK.
- Design Review may stop responding when trying to view palettes for an Inventor animation file.
- Cannot import DWG files when AutoCAD® 2014 and DWG TrueView 2014 are installed.
- Installation of Design Review requires local machine administrator privileges.
- Some links on the Resources tab may not be accessible from all countries.
- Multiple PDF files cannot be dragged and dropped into Design Review simultaneously. Solution: Drag and drop PDF files into Design Review one at a time.
- Some PDF files cannot be saved as DWF files when the dpi resolution is set to 720. Solution: Change the dpi resolution to 600 or lower to save the PDF file as a DWF file.
- Find (from the Find palette or the Home tab > Search panel) may fail to return any results if the DWF file was created using the DWF Writer. For the best DWF publishing results, use a program's built-in publishing capabilities rather than DWF Writer.
- Dragging and dropping some raster images in the Thumbnails or List View palettes or on the canvas may cause Design Review to stop responding. Solution: Convert the image to a different file type.
- When an open DWF file is emailed from Design Review by clicking the application button > Send Email, and sent using a POP3 email account, the DWF file name in the received email may contain the sender's temp file path concatenated with the file name.
- If, when uninstalling Design Review, the Cancel button is clicked, the uninstall will terminate but may cause Design Review to function improperly. Solution: From the Programs and Features control panel, select Autodesk Design Review in the list. Click Uninstall/Change to open the Autodesk Design Review Installation Wizard. Click Repair or Reinstall. Choose the Reinstall option and click Next. Follow the prompts to reinstall Design Review.
- When AutoCAD is installed after Design Review, some system files are overwritten by the AutoCAD installation causing DWF shell extensions to fail. Solution: Uninstall and reinstall Design Review to restore the DWF shell extensions.
Platform (Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Tablet PC)
- Panning and zooming some large models may cause Design Review to stop responding. Solution: Restart Design Review and disable the hardware acceleration. In Design Review, click the application button > Options. On the Model tab, in the View Settings group, from the Driver drop-down list, select Software (OpenGL), and click OK.
- Some computers, especially Tablet PCs, use an Intel graphics chipset that causes Design Review to stop responding. Solution: Restart Design Review and disable the hardware acceleration. In Design Review, click the application button > Options. On the Model tab, in the View Settings group, from the Driver drop-down list, select Software (OpenGL), and click OK. Alternatively, you can disable the display adapter's hardware acceleration.
- If Design Review was used by a person with a Standard or Restricted user account, when a person with an Administrator user account uninstalls Design Review, two files (ActiveConfig.xml and woof_toolformats.xml) may not be uninstalled automatically. Solution: Manually delete the two files from the C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Autodesk Design Review\[version number]\userdata folder.
- To save a file with a non-English file name, click the application button > Save As > Save as DWFx/DWF, then right-click the Language Bar and start the Microsoft Global Input Method Editor (IME). Type the desired file name in the Save As dialog box and press Enter, after typing the file name, to exit the IME. Click the Save button or press Enter again to save the file.
Embedded
- The ribbon cannot be restored in a DWF file embedded in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint® files. Solution: Close and reopen the file containing the embedded DWF file.
- Embedding DWF files is not supported in any 64-bit application.
- DWF files embedded in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint 2003 files, when inactive, may be represented by a large generic DWF icon, rather than a thumbnail image of the DWF file content.
- When saving a Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007 file after modifying an embedded DWF file, Design Review prompts you to save the changes to the DWF file. When saving the Word file again, after subsequent modification to the embedded DWF file, you will not be prompted by Design Review to save the DWF file.
- When viewing DWF files embedded in Microsoft Office 2007 programs, a Customer Error Report (CER) dialog may not be displayed if the embedded viewer closes unexpectedly.
- Design Review cannot be embedded in Microsoft Word 2007 by choosing Insert tab > Text panel > Object drop-down > Object > Create New. In Word, click the Create from File tab and select a file to embed.
- Dragging and dropping a sheet from the Thumbnails or List View palette in Design Review into a PowerPoint slide causes an error to be displayed. Solution: In PowerPoint, click Insert tab > Text panel > Object. In the Insert Object dialog box, click Create New and, from the Object Type list, select DWF Document. Click OK. Drag and Drop a DWF sheet or file into the control to embed it.
- When embedding a DWF file in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint 2007 using the Create from File method, clicking the Link to File option in Word, or the Link option in PowerPoint, may cause the insertion to fail.
Display
- Some image backgrounds may display black.
- If your computer is experiencing display issues as you view 3D DWF files, update your computer with the latest display adapter drivers. If you continue to experience display issues, click the application button > Options and, on the Model tab, under View Settings, select a different setting from the Driver drop-down list.
- In a 3D model, using the Zoom Rectangle tool may not work as expected when dragging a large rectangular area. Solution: Use the Zoom Rectangle tool to drag a smaller rectangular area.
- Depending on the settings used when publishing a 3D DWF file, clicking Home tab > View panel > Shading drop-down > Shaded with Edges may not display all object edges distinctly. Solution: Click the application button > Options. On the Model tab, under Color Settings clear the As Published option, and set a new Model Edge Color.
- Large DWF files published from AutoCAD® Civil 3D® or AutoCAD® Map 3D may contain dots that obscure geometry on the canvas.
- Cross-sectioned models, with Caps enabled, may not be displayed correctly when the view is set perpendicular to the section plane.
- Merging multiple DWF files by dragging and dropping into the Thumbnails or List View palette may result in the sheets being listed in no apparent order.
- When using the default workspace layout, clicking an object within the unpinned Grid Data palette causes the Object Properties palette to temporarily display over the Grid Data palette. Solution: Dock one the palettes at the bottom or to the left of the canvas so both can be viewed at the same time.
- Viewing high-resolution (large dpi value) PDF files may cause Design Review respond slowly when modifying the view.
- On the PDF Conversion tab of the Options dialog box, if the Convert PDF Files to Black & White Files When Saving is checked and the resolution is set below 300, DWF sheets created from PDF files may appear distorted. Solution: From the Home tab > View panel (expanded) > Color Depth drop-down, choose Black and White.
- On 2D sheets that have been rotated, some fill patterns, which align to the screen, will not be rotated.
DWFx
- When opening DWFx files saved in Design Review, the Microsoft XPS Viewer only shows 2D content. Non-2D content, such as 3D models or BOM tables, is indicated in the DWFx file by a single DWFx logo proxy page. Solution: To view the entire contents, open the DWFx file in Design Review.
- When viewed in the Microsoft XPS Viewer, the object properties stored in DWFx files are not shown. Although not shown, the object properties remain available in the DWFx file when viewed in Design Review.
DWG TrueView
- When DWG TrueView is used to convert some DWG files to the DWF file format, the resulting DWF files may not display as expected in Design Review.
- To open DWG files with Design Review, the free DWG TrueView must be installed. Older versions of Design Review are not compatible with newer versions of DWG TrueView. Solution: Install versions of Design Review and DWG TrueView that have the same product year.
- On 64-bit operating systems, opening DWG files in Design Review requires the latest version of DWG TrueView. If a previous version of DWG TrueView is installed, an error is displayed when attempting to open a DWG file from Design Review. Solution: Uninstall both versions of DWG TrueView and reinstall the latest version.
- On 64-bit operating systems, opening DWG files in Design Review is not supported by AutoCAD. (This also means the DWG Viewing tab in the Design Review Options dialog box will not display, as it does on 32-bit operating systems when AutoCAD is installed.) Solution: Install the latest version of the free DWG TrueView program.
- When installing Design Review and DWG TrueView the installation order is not important. However, in some cases, the DWGImporter.dll might not be registered correctly. Solution: Register the DWGImporter.dll manually.
- From the Windows taskbar, choose Start > Run.
- In the text box, type regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Design Review\DWGImporter.dll"
- Press Enter. This should successfully register the DLL.
- When opening some 3D DWG files in Design Review, meshes representing light sources may be displayed. Solution: Request that the designer manually disable Light Glyphs and publish the DWG as a DWF file.
- By design, Named Views in 3D DWG files are not published to DWF files.
Printing and Batch Printing
- Old BPJ files created with Design Review 2008/2009 are not valid for this version of Design Review.
- When the Advanced print option "Turn Data into a Bitmap Before Printing" is checked and using a high dpi setting with a large paper size, some drawing information may be excluded from the output. Solution: Change the dpi resolution to 600 or lower.
- When printing some large 2D raster files, selecting the Advanced printing option, High Color Quality, does not print the file any slower or at a higher output quality than if you had selected the Low Color Quality option.
- When printing some large 3D DWF files to virtual printers, User Defined resolutions higher than 600 dpi may not be supported.
- Printing or plotting of large files may cause Design Review to close unexpectedly.
- Printing of fill patterns fails on some printers.
- In the Batch Print Wizard, when selecting a password-protected DWF file, you are prompted for the file's password two times during the batch printing process.
- Transparent markup, or freehand or area highlight markups, on 2D sheets may not print as expected.
- Right-clicking a file in Windows Explorer and choosing Print may fail to print the file if DWF Viewer was installed after Design Review. Solution: Manually change the file association. Right-click any DWF file and choose Properties. In the file Properties dialog box, on the General tab, click the Change button to display the Open With dialog box. From the list of Recommended Programs, choose Autodesk Design Review. Or, if necessary, click Browse to navigate to and select DesignReview.exe on your system. Click OK to set the file association. Click OK again to accept the change and close the file Properties dialog box.
- Printing D Size Sheets with Microsoft XPS Document Writer as the selected printer fails when the Advanced option, Turn data into a bitmap before printing, is checked.
- Some fill patterns, without transparency, may cause parts of the filled areas to be obscured by bars when printed.
Measure and Markup
- If the Show Markups option is unchecked, newly created markups cannot be selected by the Select All command.
- Creating a catalog from a DWF file containing a drawing or image larger than 1024 x 1024 pixels may cause Design Review to appear to stop responding. Solution: Wait for the catalog to be created or reduce the drawing or image sizes and retry.
- Using a drawing tablet or a Tablet PC to create freehand markup may not produce smooth lines or text.
- Georeferenced maps published with non-Cartesian coordinate systems cannot be measured.
- In 2D DWF files that contain more than one viewport, measurements created within one viewport may be inconsistent with measurements created in another viewport.
Version Compare
- Multiple sheets cannot be compared at the same time.
- When comparing DWF file content to DWFx file content, the comparison results may contain false differences.
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