Volo View - Creekside Graphics Group

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Autodesk - The Volo Product Family - Volo View The Volo Product Family / Volo View < You Are Here The Volo Product Family Home Volo View · · · Get Volo View Express · · · User's Guide System Requirements Frequently Asked Questions Developer Zone Redistributing Volo View Express · Press Release Volo Explorer Volo White Paper Related Links AutoCAD 2000 Architectural Desktop WHIP! Viewer Volo View User's Guide Use Volo View™ to view DWG, DXF™, and DWF (drawing web format) drawings. Whether your data is on a network or on the Web, you can view your drawings using Volo View without using AutoCAD® software. Volo View Readme The Volo View Readme contains last-minute updates and information on using Volo View. Installing Volo View How to install (or uninstall) Volo View. Viewing Files with Volo View Everything you need to know about using Volo View to view files, including using Volo View commands. Generating DWF Files You can use AutoCAD to generate DWF files and to add URLs to your drawings. Autodesk View Discussion Groups Publishing Drawings Not only can you embed or reference your drawing for viewing from a browser, but Volo View also enables you to embed drawings in Microsoft Office applications. See how easy it is to get started with your own CAD data website or document set. Maintaining Volo View Locally For intranet-only sites—sites without company wide access to the Internet—it is possible to set up a local copy of the Volo View installer and refer users to the local copy. This section gives detailed instructions on setting up your local intranet server. Volo View | Volo Explorer | Volo White Paper AutoCAD 2000 | WHIP! Viewer | Autodesk View Home | Products | Tech Assist | Autodesk | Prof Net | Search | Sitemap | Purchase Top of Page © Copyright 1999 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Autodesk legal notices and trademark attributions. Reproduction or copying of images is prohibited. Autodesk Privacy Policy Contact Autodesk http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/ [8/18/1999 4:52:53 PM] Autodesk - Volo Volo View Express / Using Volo View / Installing Volo View Express < You Are Here Volo View Readme Installing Volo View Viewing Files Generating DWF Files Publishing Drawings Maintaining Volo View Locally Installing Volo View When you install Volo™ View, you install both the Volo View ActiveX control for Microsoft Internet Explorer, and the Volo View stand-alone application that you can use without an Internet browser. Note: Netscape Navigator does not support ActiveX. If you plan to use Volo View in a browser, you must use Microsoft Internet Explorer. ● System Requirements ● Volo View Installation Options ● Installing Volo View ● Installing Volo View on a Network ● Installation Troubleshooting ● Creating Your Own Installation Program ● Uninstalling Volo View System Requirements To run Volo View, the following hardware and software are required. Software Requirements ● Windows NT Version 4.0 Service Pack 3, Windows 95, or Windows 98 ● Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01, or 4.0 Service Pack 1 Windows-supported display driver ● Hardware Requirements ● ● ● ● Pentium 133 or better 32MB of RAM (minimum) 800 x 600 VGA video display with 256 colors (1024 x 768 or higher recommended) Mouse http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/install.htm (1 of 4) [8/18/1999 4:53:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo Volo View Installation Options There are two Volo View Express installers: ● VoloVEm.exe - Volo View Express. ● VoloVEls.exe - Volo View Express without ACIS or image support. This installer provides a smaller download than the full version but lacks support for ACIS entities and images. ACIS (a solid modeler produced by Spatial Technology, Inc.) provides a solid modeling file format that AutoCAD® software can use. If you install this version of Volo View Express, then attempt to read a DWG file containing ACIS objects, the DWG reading terminates abruptly. Using this .exe file, you can view only the entities encountered up to the first ACIS entity, image data is ignored. If you need to view ACIS or image data, you should download VoloVEm.exe. Return to Top Installing Volo View To install Volo View: 1. Download Volo View from the Autodesk website. 2. When the download is complete, make sure Microsoft Internet Explorer is not running. 3. Run the downloaded file by double-clicking it. 4. Follow the on-screen instructions. Return to Top Installing Volo View on a Network To allow users who don't have internet access to install Volo View, you can download the Volo View file to a computer on your network. To install Volo View on a Network: 1. Download Volo View from the Autodesk website to a computer on your network. 2. When the download is complete, make sure Microsoft Internet Explorer is not running. 3. Give users access to the computer to which you downloaded the Volo View file. 4. Instruct users that they must double-click the file and follow the on-screen instructions to install Volo View on their computers. Return to Top Installation Troubleshooting On rare occasions, the Volo View Control may fail to register in the Windows registry. If you receive an error message at the end of the installation process informing you that Volo View failed to register, see the Installation http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/install.htm (2 of 4) [8/18/1999 4:53:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo Troubleshooting section in the Volo View Express Readme. Uninstalling Volo View To uninstall Volo View: 1. From the Windows Start menu, choose Programs. 2. Choose Autodesk Volo View 3. Choose Uninstall Volo View, then follow the on-screen prompts. Volo View is removed from your computer. If for any reason you think that Volo View did not get completely removed from your computer, for example, if the Autodesk Volo View folder did not get deleted from the Program Files folder, complete steps 4 through 14 in the following section, Manually Removing Volo View. These steps completely remove Volo View from your computer. If the Windows Start menu commands are unavailable, you can also remove Volo View by following the directions in the Add/Remove Programs portion of the Windows Control Panel. Manually Removing Volo View You can also remove Volo View manually. To remove Volo View manually: 1. From the Windows Start menu, choose Run. 2. To remove the Volo View control from the registry, enter the following line in the Run dialog box: c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32.exe /u "c:\program files\volo view\avviewx.dll" 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2, entering each of the following lines in the Run dialog box. c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32.exe /u "c:\program files\volo view\axsdrwv.dll" c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32.exe /u "c:\program files\volo view\axiov.dll" c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32.exe /u "c:\program files\volo view\aximpv.dll" c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32.exe /u "c:\program files\volo view\axdrawv.dll" c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32.exe /u "c:\program files\volo view\axddrv.dll" c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32.exe /u "c:\program files\volo view\axdcorv.dll" c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32.exe /u "c:\program files\volo view\axcmresv.dll" c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32.exe /u "c:\program files\volo view\axcorev.dll" c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32.exe /u "c:\program files\volo view\axbasev.dll" Note: The path may be something other than winnt. For example, the path might be WIN95, windows, or system32. Change this line as needed to match your directory structure. This will remove the Volo View control from the system registry. 4. In Windows Explorer, navigate to c:\program files. Or, if you did not use default values when you installed, navigate to the folder where you installed Volo View. 5. Select the Autodesk Volo View folder and click Delete. The Volo View program files are removed. 6. If you have not installed AutoCAD, or any other Autodesk® products, you can remove shared files. In Windows Explorer, navigate to c:\program files\common files, and select the Autodesk Shared folder. Click Delete. 7. From the Windows Start menu, choose Run. Enter the path to the Volo View installation file, volovem.exe, a space and then the word "clean". For example: C:\Download\volovem.exe clean http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/install.htm (3 of 4) [8/18/1999 4:53:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo The installation program starts. A message is displayed asking if you want to install Volo View. 8. Click Yes. Running this program with the "clean" option does not install Volo View. It removes registry entries. 9. Follow the on-screen directions and click Next through the dialog boxes. When Setup finishes removing registry entries, it terminates. Note: If you installed Volo View Express Version 82, or later, you can skip the following two steps. The Installation program for Version 82, and later, does not update the Path. Therefore, you do not need to remove the paths from your system environment settings. 10. From the Windows Start menu, choose Settings, then Control Panel. From the Control Panel, double-click System. The System Properties dialog box is displayed. 11. Click Environment. Under User Variables, choose Path. In the Values edit box, remove the Volo View installation path and the Autodesk Shared folder path, for example: ❍ C:\Program Files\Volo View ❍ C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared Note: Only remove the Autodesk Shared path if you removed the Autodesk Shared folder from your Common Files folder. 12. From the Windows Start menu, choose Run. Enter Regedit. 13. From the Edit menu, choose Find. Enter Autodesk Shared. 14. Delete any count entries that have "Autodesk Shared" in the name. Examples of these entries are shown below: 15. Reboot your computer. Return to Top Home | Products | Tech Assist | Autodesk | Prof Net | Search | Sitemap | Purchase © Copyright 1999 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Autodesk legal notices and trademark attributions. Reproduction or copying of images is prohibited. Contact Autodesk http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/install.htm (4 of 4) [8/18/1999 4:53:37 PM] Autodesk - Volo Volo View Express / Using Volo View / Viewing Files With Volo View< You Are Here Volo View Readme Installing Volo View Viewing Files Generating DWF Files Publishing Drawings Maintaining Volo View Locally Viewing Files with Volo View This section describes how to use Volo™ View to view DWG, DXF™, or DWF files, including working with Volo View commands and setting Volo View options. Topics in this section: ● Working with Files in Volo View ● Viewing Files with Microsoft Internet Explorer ● Volo View Menu Commands ● Setting Volo View Options ● Working in Pan Mode ● Working in Zoom Mode ● Orbiting the Current View ● Enlarging the View of Your Drawing ● Changing Displayed Drawing Colors ● Viewing Drawing Hyperlinks ● Copying and Pasting the Current View ● Using Drag and Drop with Volo View ● Printing Drawing Files ● Sending a Copy of a Drawing as an E-mail Attachment ● Saving a Copy of the Drawing ● Working with Layers ● Viewing Named Views ● Viewing Drawing Layouts ● Setting Support and Font Paths ● Getting File Information ● Using an IntelliMouse with Volo View ● File Associations http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (1 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo Working with Files in Volo View You can use Volo View to view different file types including AutoCAD® drawings (DWG), drawing exchange format (DXF), and drawing web format (DWF) files. There are several ways to view a file with Volo View: ● Start Volo View, then from the Windows Explorer, drag and drop a file into Volo View. ● Start Volo View, then from the Volo View File menu, choose Open. Enter the path and name of the file to view. ● Double-click a file that is associated with Volo View in Windows Explorer. Volo View launches and displays the file. Note: File association depends on the applications you have installed or uninstalled. See File Associations for more information. Viewing Files with Microsoft Internet Explorer When you install Volo View, you also install the Volo View ActiveX control. Because Netscape Navigator does not support ActiveX, you must use Microsoft Internet Explorer when working with HTML pages and the Volo View ActiveX control. You can view a file with Volo View and Microsoft Internet Explorer in the following ways: ● Launch Microsoft Internet Explorer, then from Windows Explorer drag and drop a DWG, DXF, or DWF file into Microsoft Internet Explorer. ● Launch Microsoft Internet Explorer, then from the Internet Explorer File menu, choose Open. Load an HTML file that has a DWG, DXF, or DWF file reference. See Adding Drawing File References to Your HTML Files for more information. Return to Top Volo View Menu Commands The Volo View commands that are available depend on how you are using Volo View. If you are using the Volo View ActiveX control, you can use a right-click menu to choose from the commands described in Right-Click Menu Commands. If you are using the Volo View application, you can use the right-click menu of commands, or you can use any of the commands in the application menu bar. The following menus and commands are always available in the application: ● File Use the File menu commands to open and close files, manage printer settings, print the current view, open recently used files, send files as e-mail attachments, and exit the application. ● ● View Use View menu commands to control display of the application toolbar and status bar. To hide the toolbar or status bar, choose the appropriate checked command. To display the toolbar or status bar, choose the unchecked command. Help Use Help menu commands to access help on Volo View, or to display the About Volo View dialog box from which you can view important file information. For more information on using the About Volo View dialog box to display file information, see Getting File Information. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (2 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo The following menus and commands are available in the application when a file is open: ● Edit Use the Edit menu command to copy the current view of a file. For more information on copying a view from Volo View, see Copying and Pasting the Current View. ● Tools Use the Tools menu commands to set Volo View options, display or hide scroll bars, and control the display of the view. The menu commands that control the display of the view are also available on the Volo View right-click menu. ● Window Use the Window menu commands to arrange the display of windows in the application. You can cascade or tile open files. To make a file current, select the file from the list of open files at the bottom of the menu. Right-Click Menu Commands To view the right-click menu of Volo View commands, from your browser or within an application, right-click in the Volo View window. Available Volo View menu commands are: ● Pan To move the drawing display in the current view choose the Pan command. To pan, click in the Volo View window, then drag. Volo View is by default in Pan mode and the mouse pointer is a hand icon. The hand icon grabs the screen as you pan. To learn more about panning the current view, see Working in Pan Mode. Keyboard shortcut: Arrow keys ● Zoom To reduce or increase the magnification of the current view, choose the Zoom command. When the Zoom command is active, the pointer changes to a magnifying glass. To zoom, click the left mouse button and drag up and down in the window to zoom in and out, respectively. For more information on using the Zoom command, see Working in Zoom Mode. Keyboard shortcut: Pg Up and Pg Dn ● Zoom Window To increase the magnification of the view to a rectangular region you specify, choose the Zoom Window command. When Zoom Window is active, the pointer becomes a cross hair. To use Zoom Window, press the left mouse button and drag a rectangle over the area you want to view. You must zoom to an area of at least 5 pixels. For more information on using the Zoom Window command, see Zooming a Specified Region. ● ● ● ● Zoom Extents To fit the drawing to the Volo View window, choose the Zoom Extents command. For more information on using the Zoom Extents command, see Zooming the Drawing Extents. Keyboard shortcut: Home Orbit To change the perspective of the view to a different location in 3D drawing space, choose the Orbit command. You can manipulate the perspective by clicking and dragging the mouse. When the Orbit Command is active, the target of the view stays stationary and the camera location, or point of view, moves around the target. To learn more about working with Orbit, see Orbiting the Current View. Note: This command is only available when viewing DWG or DXF files and is not available in Layouts. Layers To turn drawing layers on (shown) and off (hidden), choose the Layers command. The Layers dialog box opens. You can select one or more layers, then click the light bulb icon to turn on or off all of the selected layers. Layers are toggled based on the state of the light bulb icon when you click it. For more information on using Volo View to work with drawing layers, see Working with Layers. Named Views http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (3 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo To change the view to a named view, or to change to a standard orthographic or isometric view, choose the Named Views command. A dialog box opens from which you can select a named view or a standard view. If a drawing file contains named views, you can change the current view to a named view. If a DWG file does not contain named views, you can change the current view to one of the standard orthographic or isometric views. For more information on viewing named views, see Viewing Named Views. ● ● ● ● ● Layouts To view a previously defined layout, choose the Layouts command. The Layouts dialog box opens. Double-click the layout, or select a layout and then click the Close [x] button to dismiss the dialog box. For more information on using the Layouts command, see Viewing Drawing Layouts. Note: The Layouts command is available only when a DWG or DXF file contains at least one layout. This command is unavailable when viewing DWF files. Full View To fill your Internet browser window with your drawing, choose the Full View command. The Full View command fills the entire browser window with your drawing, without displaying the HTML page from which the drawing is referenced. Note: The Full View command is only available if you are working with Volo View in an Internet browser. For more information on using the Full View command, see Enlarging the View of Your Drawing. Show Hyperlinks To identify all the hyperlinks in the current view, choose the unchecked Show Hyperlinks command. Each hyperlink region flashes. To cancel the command, choose the checked Show Hyperlinks command from the right-click menu. To learn more about working with hyperlinks in drawings, see Viewing Drawing Hyperlinks. Note: The Show Hyperlinks command is available only when a drawing contains at least one hyperlink. Copy To copy the current view of a file, choose the Copy command. The current view is copied as an Enhanced Windows Metafile (EMF) and placed on the Windows Clipboard. For more information on copying a view from Volo View, see Copying and Pasting the Current View. Keyboard shortcut: CTRL+C. Print To print a view, right-click and choose Print. The view that is currently visible in the Volo View window is printed using the standard system print controls. To print the entire HTML page, including the current view of the drawing in the Volo View window, use the browser's Print button or File menu Print command. For more information on printing, see Printing Files. ● Save Copy As To save a drawing to your local drive, right-click and choose Save Copy As. If the file type you choose to save a copy as exists on the same server where the currently viewed drawing resides, you can save a copy of the file in the selected format locally. For example, if you are viewing a DWF file, and if a DWG file version of the current DWF file exists on the server, you can save the DWF as a DWG file. If a DWG file does not exist on the server, you cannot save a copy of that DWF drawing as a DWG file. For more information on saving copies of files, and drawing security issues, see Saving a Copy of the Drawing. ● Options To open the Options dialog box, use the Options command. From the Options dialog box you can set user paths, display options, and print options. For more information on Volo View options, see Setting Volo View Options. ● About Volo View Use the About Volo View dialog box to view information about Volo View and drawing information on the current file. To open the About Volo View dialog box, right-click and choose About Volo View. For more information on using the About Volo View dialog box to display file information, see Getting File Information. Return to Top http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (4 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo Setting Volo View Options You can use the Options dialog box to set user paths, display options, and print options. To access the Options dialog box, right-click in the Volo View window and choose Options. There are three tabs on the Options dialog box. Click the tab that contains the options that you want to set. ● General: Click this tab to specify a file name and user paths. ❍ Source Name: Displays the name of the currently open file. User Paths: Sets the support paths and font paths. See Setting Support and Font Paths for more information. Display: Click this tab to specify color and 3D Orbit display options. ❍ ● ● ❍ Color: Provides options for changing the color of the background or the geometry in the current Volo View window. See Changing Displayed Drawing Colors for more information. ❍ Orbit: Specifies the display options to use when the 3D Orbit menu command is active. For information on Shading Options see, Shading Objects in the 3D Orbit View. For information on changing the projection, see Changing the 3D Orbit Projection. Click Advanced to use hardware acceleration in the 3D Orbit view. See Using Hardware Acceleration for more information. Print: Click this tab to specify color print options. ❍ Color: Provides options for changing the color of the printed background or geometry. See Controlling Colors in Your Printed Drawing for more information. Return to Top Working in Pan Mode In Pan mode, you can pan the drawing image to a new location. Hold down the mouse button and move the hand cursor to pan the drawing. To pan 1. From the right-click menu, choose Pan. 2. Place the pointer over the drawing, then hold down the mouse button and move the mouse to reposition the drawing. Note: If you are using a Microsoft IntelliMouse, you can hold down the wheel button and move the mouse. To learn more about using the IntelliMouse with Volo View, see Using an IntelliMouse with Volo View. Return to Top Working in Zoom Mode A specific magnification, position, and orientation is known as a view. The most common way to change a view is to use the Volo View zoom commands to increase or decrease the size of the image displayed in the drawing area. Increasing the apparent size of the image to view the details more closely is called zooming in. Decreasing the apparent size of the image to see a larger portion of the drawing is called zooming out. Zooming does not change the absolute size of the drawing; it changes the size of the view within the drawing area. Volo View provides realtime zooming. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (5 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo The following zoom mode topics are available: ● Zooming a Drawing ● Zooming a Specified Region ● Zooming the Drawing Extents Zooming a Drawing In Zoom mode, you can zoom in or out of the drawing by moving the pointer vertically up or down. When you release the mouse button, zooming stops. You can release the mouse button, move the pointer to another location in the drawing, and then press the mouse button again and continue zooming from that location. To zoom 1. From the right-click menu, choose Zoom. 2. To zoom in or out to different magnifications, place the pointer over the drawing, then hold down the mouse button and move the pointer vertically. Note: If you are using a Microsoft IntelliMouse, zoom in by rotating the wheel forward and zoom out by rotating the wheel backward. To learn more about using the IntelliMouse with Volo View, see Using an IntelliMouse with Volo View. Zooming a Specified Region You can quickly zoom in on an area by specifying the corners that define it. The center of the area you define is the center of the new view. To zoom in on an area by specifying its boundaries 1. From the right-click menu, choose Zoom Window. 2. Press the left mouse button and drag a rectangle over the area you want to view. 3. Release the mouse button. Zooming the Drawing Extents Zoom Extents displays a view that includes all objects in the drawing at the highest magnification that will fit the drawing area. To display the drawing extents ● From the right-click menu, choose Zoom Extents. Return to Top Orbiting the Current View To change the perspective of the view to a different location in 3D drawing space, choose the Orbit command. When the Orbit command is active, the target of the view stays stationary and the camera location, or point of view, moves around the target. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (6 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo Note: The Orbit command is available only for 3D DWG and DXF drawing files, and is not available in Layouts, or DWF files. To orbit a drawing 1. From the right-click menu, choose Orbit. The 3D orbit view displays an arcball, which is a circle divided into four quadrants by smaller circles. 2. Place the pointer over the drawing, then click and drag to manipulate the perspective of the view. When you move your cursor over different parts of the arcball, the cursor icon changes. The appearance of your cursor when you click to start dragging indicates the rotation of the view as follows: ❍ When you move the cursor inside the arcball, the cursor icon changes to a small sphere encircled by two lines. By clicking inside the arcball and dragging you can manipulate the view freely. It works as if your cursor were grabbing a sphere surrounding the objects and dragging the sphere around the target point. You can drag horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. ❍ When you move the cursor outside the arcball, the cursor icon changes to a circular arrow around a small sphere. Clicking outside the arcball and dragging the cursor around the arcball moves the view around an axis that extends through the center of the arcball, perpendicular to the screen. This is called a "roll." ❍ When you move the cursor over one of the smaller circles on the left or right side of the arcball, the cursor changes to a horizontal ellipse around a small sphere. Clicking and dragging from either of these points rotates the view around the vertical or Y axis that extends through the center of the arcball. The Y axis is represented on the cursor by a vertical line. ❍ When you move the cursor over one of the smaller circles on the top or bottom of the arcball, the cursor changes to a vertical ellipse around a small sphere. Clicking and dragging from either of these points rotates the view around the horizontal or X axis that extends through the center of the arcball. The X axis is represented on the cursor by a horizontal line. The following Orbit topics are available: ● Shading Objects in the 3D Orbit View ● Changing the 3D Orbit Projection ● Using Hardware Acceleration in the 3D Orbit View Note: When Volo View is in Orbit mode, many of the Volo View commands are not available and appear gray on the right-click menu. Some of the commands that aren't available in Orbit mode are Layers, Named Views, Zoom Extents, Print, and Copy. You also cannot drag and drop a drawing from Volo View into AutoCAD when Orbit mode is active. To exit Orbit mode and access the unavailable commands, choose Pan, Zoom, or Zoom Window from the right-click menu. Return to Top Shading Objects in the 3D Orbit View You can shade objects in the 3D Orbit view to give them a more realistic 3D appearance. You change the way objects are shaded using the different shading modes. The default shading mode is Gouraud. To change the shading mode in the 3D Orbit view 1. From the right-click menu, choose Options then click Display. 2. Under Orbit, choose one of the following options: ❍ Wireframe Displays the objects in Orbit mode using lines and curves to represent the boundaries. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (7 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo ❍ ❍ Flat Shading Shades the objects in Orbit mode between the polygon faces. This gives the objects a flatter, less smooth appearance. Gouraud Shading Shades the objects in Orbit mode and smooths the edges between polygon faces. This gives the objects a smoother, more realistic appearance. 3. Click Apply to apply the changes you made. 4. Click OK to exit the Options dialog box. Shading is applied to objects only while in 3D Orbit mode. Switching to Pan or Zoom mode changes the current view to Wireframe with Parallel projection. If you embed Volo View software in an HTML page with the 3D Orbit view current, the drawing prints in Wireframe regardless of the current shade option. When you orbit a large drawing file, the view may degrade to maintain the speed of the orbit. For example, if the objects are Gouraud-shaded, while you rotate the drawing, the view may degrade to wireframe or a block representation. When you stop rotating the drawing, the Gouraud shading is restored. Return to Top Changing the 3D Orbit Projection When in Orbit mode, you can use a parallel projection or a perspective projection of the view: ● Parallel: Changes the view so that two parallel lines never converge at a single point. The shapes in the drawing always remain the same and do not appear distorted when they are closer. This is the default. ● Perspective: Changes the view so that all parallel lines converge at one point. Objects appear to recede into the distance while parts of the objects appear larger and closer to you. The shapes are somewhat distorted when the object is very close. This view correlates most closely to what your eye sees. The default is parallel projection, but you can change to perspective projection using the Options dialog box. To change to the projection in 3D Orbit mode 1. While in Orbit mode, right-click in the drawing area, choose Options, then click Display. 2. Under Orbit, select Perspective or Parallel. 3. Click Apply to apply the changes you made. 4. Click OK to exit the Options dialog box. Note: When you exit Orbit mode, projection automatically defaults to Parallel. For more information on controlling the display of 3D graphics in Volo View, see the following topic, "Using Hardware Acceleration in the 3D Orbit View". Return to Top http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (8 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo Using Hardware Acceleration in the 3D Orbit View Volo View uses the Heidi® 3D graphics system developed by Autodesk as the graphics display system for Orbit mode. By default, Volo View uses the Heidi Software driver to perform all of the drawing tasks in 3D. To speed up drawing time you can use the hardware graphics card driver (hardware acceleration) to perform the drawing tasks in 3D. To use stereo viewing, you must use hardware acceleration. If you choose to use hardware acceleration, you must use the Heidi OpenGL driver. Note: Your graphics card must support OpenGL acceleration for you to see a performance increase when using hardware acceleration. To use hardware acceleration in Orbit mode 1. 2. 3. 4. From the Volo View right-click menu, choose Options then click Display. Under Orbit, click Advanced. Select Use Hardware Acceleration. Enter the path to the hardware driver that you want to use, or click Browse to navigate to the file. Autodesk provides the wopenglv.hdi hardware driver in the Volo View folder. 5. Select Stereo to set stereo viewing on. Note: To set stereo on you must have stereo glasses and an OpenGL accelerated video card that supports stereo viewing and stereo glasses. See your display card's vendor documentation to determine whether your display card supports stereo. 6. Click OK in the Orbit Advanced Options dialog box. 7. Click Apply and then click OK in the Options dialog box. Return to Top Enlarging the View of Your Drawing If you are working with Volo View in an Internet browser, you can use the Full View command to fill the entire frame window with your drawing, without viewing the HTML page from which the drawing is referenced. To fill the frame window with your drawing ● Right-click and choose Full View. The browser moves forward to a URL that contains just the drawing, and the drawing fills the available frame window. To undo this operation, use your browser's Back button or Go menu Back command. Note: The Full View command is available only when the Volo View ActiveX control is referenced from an HTML page and viewed in a browser. Full View is unavailable when using Volo View in an application environment. For information on magnifying a view, see Working in Zoom Mode. Return to Top http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (9 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo Changing Displayed Drawing Colors Use Volo View options to control the background and geometry colors of the drawing you are currently viewing. To specify background and geometry colors 1. From the Volo View right-click menu, choose Options, then choose Display. 2. To change the color of both the geometry and the background, click a button in the top portion of the Color box: ❍ Back to Default Colors: Sets both the geometry and background colors to the color scheme that was saved in the drawing file. ❍ Set Clearscale: Sets the geometry to grayscale and the background to white. 3. In the Settings box you can set the geometry color and the background color separately by selecting a color from the Geometry Color or Background Color list box. Note: If the color you want to use is not in the list, select Custom Color from the list box. The Color dialog box is displayed. Select the color that you want to use, or click Define Custom Colors to define a color. Click OK. 4. Click Apply to apply the changes you made. 5. Click OK to exit the Options dialog box. The drawing is displayed with the color scheme you selected. Display options do not affect the printed drawing. To learn more about using Print options to control printed background and geometry colors, see Controlling Print Colors with the Options Dialog Box. Return to Top Viewing Drawing Hyperlinks Some drawings have hyperlinks attached to drawing objects or regions. You can use Volo View to identify all hyperlinks in the current view, and to navigate to selected hyperlinks. In Volo View, if you position the mouse pointer over a hyperlink, the pointer changes to a pointing hand icon and a tooltip displays the address (URL) of the hyperlink. Navigating to a URL ● Click the hyperlink. Your browser displays the linked page. You can use the Forward and Back buttons to navigate to other web pages. However, the Back button does not return to the open drawing file in Volo View. To return to the open drawing file, close the browser window. Showing All Drawing Hyperlinks To identify all the hyperlinks in the current view: ● From the right-click menu, choose the unchecked Show Hyperlinks command. Any object to which a hyperlink is attached begins flashing. or ● Hold the shift key down. Any object to which a hyperlink is attached flashes as long as you hold the shift key down. When you http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (10 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo release the shift key, the objects stop flashing. Note: The Show Hyperlinks command is available only when a drawing contains at least one hyperlink. To cancel the command: ● From the right-click menu, choose the checked Show Hyperlinks command. Multiple URLs on a Hyperlink If the hyperlink under the pointer contains more than one URL, the Status bar displays the message Multiple URLs. To display a list of URLs attached to the current hyperlink, click once. A list is displayed from which you can choose a URL. Note that URL descriptions displayed depend on how the hyperlinks are attached to the file. In general, URLs are displayed as raw addresses, for example http://www.autodesk.com. However in some cases a hyperlink may contain a URL and a descriptive name, for example http://www.autodesk.com, The Autodesk Home Page. If a descriptive name was attached with the URL when the URL was added to the file, the descriptive name rather than the raw URL is displayed in the list of multiple URLs. Return to Top Copying and Pasting the Current View You can copy the current view to the Windows clipboard, then paste from the Clipboard into another application, such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. Note: The Copy command is not available when Orbit mode is active. To exit Orbit mode and use copy and paste, choose Pan, Zoom, or Zoom Window from the right-click menu. To copy and paste the current view 1. From the Volo View right-click menu, choose Copy or press CTRL+C. The current view is copied as a Windows Metafile (WMF) and placed on the Windows Clipboard. 2. Paste the Clipboard contents into any WMF—compliant application by choosing that application's Paste or Paste Special command, or in most cases by pressing CTRL+V. The formats and commands available depend on the application into which you are pasting the copied view. See your application documentation for more information. Refer to your Microsoft Windows documentation for more information on working with the Windows Clipboard. Images copied and pasted from Volo View into other applications will lose some precision since WMF format files do not have the same amount of detail as DWG, DXF, and DWF files. You can embed a drawing file in a Microsoft application, which allows users who have Volo View installed on their computer to view the drawing file using the Volo View ActiveX control. See Embedding Drawing Files in Microsoft Office Applications for more information. Return to Top Using Drag and Drop with Volo View You can drag and drop an open file from Volo View into AutoCAD software. The type of file you are dragging and dropping, and the way that you drag and drop a file affects how the file is dropped into AutoCAD. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (11 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo When you drag a DWF file from Volo View into AutoCAD software, Volo View searches the path where the DWF file resides. If the source DWG exists in the same folder as the DWF, AutoCAD uses the DWG. The source DWG file is the file that was used to create the DWF. If you want to publish a DWF, but do not want to publish the source DWG, place the DWG in a different folder than the DWF; this makes the DWG unavailable. Note: To find the source DWG file name, choose About Volo View Express from the Help menu. The Source Filename displayed in the box at the bottom of the window is the source DWG file name. To drag and drop a drawing file from Volo View into AutoCAD as a 2D Block 1. Start Volo View and open a drawing file. 2. Start AutoCAD and open the file to which you want to drag the open drawing file. 3. While holding down the CTRL key, click the left mouse button and drag the drawing file into AutoCAD software. The drawing is inserted into the current AutoCAD drawing as a 2D block. To drag and drop a drawing file from Volo View and open it in AutoCAD software 1. Start Volo View and open a drawing file. 2. Start AutoCAD and open the file to which you want to drag the open drawing file. 3. While holding down the CTRL and SHIFT keys, click the left mouse button and drag the drawing file into AutoCAD software. The drawing file is opened in AutoCAD. Use the Copy menu command to copy the current view to the Windows clipboard and paste it into a Microsoft Office application as a Windows metafile. See Copying and Pasting the Current View. Note: You cannot drag and drop a drawing file from Volo View when Orbit mode is active. To exit Orbit mode and use the drag—and—drop feature, choose Pan, Zoom, or Zoom Window from the right-click menu. More... Return to Top Home | Products | Tech Assist | Autodesk | Prof Net | Search | Sitemap | Purchase © Copyright 1999 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Autodesk legal notices and trademark attributions. Reproduction or copying of images is prohibited. Autodesk Privacy Policy Contact Autodesk http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/viewing.htm (12 of 12) [8/18/1999 4:54:19 PM] Autodesk - Volo Volo View Express Volo View Readme Installing Volo View Viewing Files / Using Volo View / Generating DWF Files< You Are Here Generating DWF Files Publishing Drawings Maintaining Volo View Locally Generating DWF Files DWF is a vector graphics format created for the transfer of drawings over intranets and the Internet. The DWF format uses compression to speed up data transfer times, and can be as much as seven times faster than transmitting the same data in DWG format. Use AutoCAD® to generate DWF files from your DWG drawing files, then use Volo™ View to publish your DWF files on the Internet. Because the Volo View interface is easy to use, even those with no CAD knowledge can easily view and navigate a DWF file. The method you use to generate DWF files depends on the version of AutoCAD you are using. ● Using AutoCAD 2000 to Generate a DWF File ● Using AutoCAD Release14 to Generate a DWF File Home | Products | Tech Assist | Autodesk | Prof Net | Search | Sitemap | Purchase © Copyright 1999 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Autodesk legal notices and trademark attributions. Reproduction or copying of images is prohibited. Contact Autodesk http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/generate.htm [8/18/1999 4:55:06 PM] Autodesk - Volo Volo View Express Volo View Readme Installing Volo View Viewing Files / Using Volo View / Using AutoCAD 2000 to Generate a DWF File < You Are Here Generating DWF Files Publishing Drawings Maintaining Volo View Locally Using AutoCAD 2000 to Generate a DWF File You can use the AutoCAD® 2000 ePlot feature to generate electronic drawing files stored in Drawing Web Format (DWF). This section includes the following topics: ● Plotting DWG Files in DWF Format ● DWG File Name in DWF ● DWG Fonts in DWF ● Using AutoCAD to Add Hyperlinks ● Using AutoLISP® and Visual LISP™ to Create DWF Files in AutoCAD 2000 Plotting DWG Files in DWF Format AutoCAD 2000 provides two preconfigured DWF PC3 (plotter configuration) files that you can use to create DWF files. You can modify these configuration files or use the Add-a-Plotter wizard to create additional DWF plotter configurations. To Plot DWG Files in DWF Format 1. 2. 3. 4. Start AutoCAD and open a drawing file. From the File menu, choose Plot. In the Plot dialog box on the Plot Device tab, select an ePlot plotter from the Name list. Enter a name for the ePlot in File Name. 5. In Location, do one of the following: ❍ Enter the location of a local or network folder to which to plot the file. ❍ Enter an Internet or intranet URL to which to plot the file. You can only plot DWF files directly to the Internet using the FTP protocol. 6. Choose OK. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen2000.htm (1 of 7) [8/18/1999 4:55:23 PM] Autodesk - Volo The file is saved in DWF format. You can use AutoCAD 2000 plotting options to set additional DWF characteristics. ● Setting the DWF File Compression ● Setting the DWF File Resolution ● Specifying Additional Settings for Plotted DWF Files Return to Top Setting the DWF File Compression By default, the DWF files that you output are in a compressed binary format. The compression does not result in any loss of data; this is the recommended output for most DWF files. You can also create uncompressed binary files, or uncompressed text files. These settings are specified when you create or edit an ePlot configuration file. To specify the DWF file compression 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. From the AutoCAD File menu, choose Plot. In the Plot dialog box, choose the Plot Device tab. In the Name list, select an ePlot plotting device, and then choose Properties. In the Plotter Configuration Editor dialog box, choose the Device and Document Settings tab, and then select Custom Properties from the tree window. Choose Custom Properties. Specify a file compression option from the Format area of the DWF Properties dialog box, and then choose OK. In the Plotter Configuration Editor dialog box, choose OK. If you changed the compression, the Changes to a Printer Configuration dialog box is displayed. In the Changes to a Printer Configuration dialog box, do one of the following, and then choose OK. ❍ Select Apply Changes for the Current Plot Only to specify a one-time override of the configuration settings that isn't saved to the ePlot configuration file. ❍ Select Save Changes to the Following File to save the configuration changes to the ePlot configuration file. 9. In the Plot dialog box, specify a plotting location for the DWF file in the Location list, and then choose OK. Setting the DWF File Resolution You can specify the resolution of the DWF files that you create. The higher the resolution of the DWF file, the greater its precision and the larger the file size. For most DWF files, a medium resolution setting is sufficient. When you create DWF files of drawings that cover a large geometric extent, such as a map of a large topographical region, use a higher resolution setting. You can specify these settings when you create or edit an ePlot configuration file. As an example of the difference between DWF resolution settings, consider a map of the world that you want to output as a DWF file. With a medium resolution setting, you might be able to zoom to a level of detail approximately the size of the state of California on the world map. With a high resolution setting, you might be able to zoom to a level of detail the size of a city. With an extreme resolution setting, you might be able to zoom to a level of detail the size of a building. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen2000.htm (2 of 7) [8/18/1999 4:55:23 PM] Autodesk - Volo To specify the DWF file resolution 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. From the AutoCAD File menu, choose Plot. In the Plot dialog box, choose the Plot Device tab. In the Name list, select an ePlot plotting device, and then choose Properties. In the Plotter Configuration Editor dialog box, choose the Device and Document Settings tab, and then select Custom Properties from the tree window. Choose Custom Properties. In the DWF Properties dialog box, specify a resolution using the Resolution slider, and then choose OK. In the Plotter Configuration Editor dialog box, choose OK. If you changed the resolution, the Changes to a Printer Configuration dialog box is displayed. In the Changes to a Printer Configuration dialog box, do one of the following, and then choose OK: ❍ Select Apply Changes for the Current Plot Only to specify a one-time override of the configuration settings that isn't saved to the ePlot configuration file. ❍ Select Save Changes to the Following File to save the configuration changes to the ePlot configuration file. 9. In the Plot dialog box, specify a plotting location for the DWF file in the Location list, and then choose OK. Specifying Additional Settings for Plotted DWF Files You can also specify the following settings in the DWF files you create: ● Background color applied to the DWF file when it is viewed in an external browser. ● Inclusion of layer, scale, and measurement information in the DWF file. ● Inclusion of a paper boundary in the DWF file similar to what is displayed with drawings in a layout tab. ● Conversion of all .dwg hyperlink extensions to .dwf extensions. You can specify these settings when you create or edit an ePlot configuration file. To specify additional settings for plotted DWF files 1. From the File menu, choose Plot. 2. In the Plot dialog box, choose the Plot Device tab. 3. In the Name list, select an ePlot plotting device, and then choose Properties. 4. In the Plotter Configuration Editor dialog box, choose the Device and Document Settings tab, and then select Custom Properties from the tree window. 5. Choose Custom Properties. 6. In the DWF Properties dialog box, select the applicable options, and then choose OK. 7. In the Plotter Configuration Editor dialog box, choose OK. 8. If you changed any settings, the Changes to a Printer Configuration dialog box is displayed. In the Changes to a Printer Configuration dialog box, do one of the following, and then choose OK: ❍ Select Apply Changes for the Current Plot Only to specify a one-time override of the configuration settings that isn't saved to the ePlot configuration file. ❍ Select Save Changes to the Following File to save the configuration changes to the ePlot configuration file. 9. In the Plot dialog box, specify a plotting location for the DWF file in the Location list, and then choose OK. Return to Top http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen2000.htm (3 of 7) [8/18/1999 4:55:23 PM] Autodesk - Volo DWG File Name in DWF When you issue the Plot command in AutoCAD software, the name of the current DWG file is written to the DWF file. This allows the drag and drop capability of Volo View to grab the original (source) DWG file when the DWF file is dragged and dropped. If a Plot command is issued before a drawing is ever saved, the file name Drawing.dwg will be present in the DWF. Furthermore if a DWG file is renamed after Plot has been issued, the DWG name inside the DWF file is not updated. Only the name of the DWG file is placed in the DWF file, not the path. This is why DWG files must reside in the same directory as their DWF counterparts for drag and drop to work. On the other hand, this strategy allows DWG/DWF files to be used locally and then moved to internet servers for public access. DWG file names embedded in a DWF file are case sensitive. This has created confusion for users who generate DWF files on Windows NT and then move those files (both DWG and DWF) to Unix-based servers. Consider the following scenario provided by a user. When a DWF file is created in AutoCAD using the 'Plot' command, the EXACT filename of the original DWG file is stamped inside it, including the EXACT case. This is so that Volo View knows what file to look for when someone initiates a 'drag and drop' or a 'save as...'. All of our DWF files were created on an NT machine with capitals for the filename and lowercase for the extension like this: AD01850T.dwg or AD01850T.dwf This is the name that was stamped inside the DWF file. The next thing we did was ftp all of out files up to a Unix box. An extremely common thing to do when you ftp is to convert everything to lowercase. So after we pushed the files to our Unix server, our file name was this: ad01850t.dwg or ad01850t.dwf This meant that when we initiated a drag and drop on the server, Volo View looked inside the DWF file, pulled out the original file name of the DWG (AD01850T.dwg), looked in the same directory for it, and couldn't find it because the DWG file name was converted to lowercase (ad01850t.dwg). Simply put, Unix is case sensitive, NT is not. Thanks to Steve Ludin for pointing this out. Return to Top DWG Fonts in DWF When a DWG contains text written using a traditional AutoCAD SHX font, AutoCAD places geometry, for example, lines, in the DWF file to mimic the outlines of the characters represented by the font. As a result, users who use Volo View to view the resulting DWF file do not need to have SHX fonts on their systems. When a DWG contains text written using a Windows TrueType font, AutoCAD software records the text string and the font (for example, Arial) used in the DWF file. The primary advantage is that the DWF file is smaller. A second advantage is that the text rendering is more pristine since the system is used to draw the characters. The disadvantage is that users who view the DWF file must have the font on their systems. When users do not have the necessary font, gibberish appears. Bad text can also result when a low or medium precision DWF file is created from a paper space layout. For paper space, use high precision. Return to Top http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen2000.htm (4 of 7) [8/18/1999 4:55:23 PM] Autodesk - Volo Using AutoCAD to Add Hyperlinks Hyperlinks are pointers you create in your AutoCAD drawings that provide jumps to associated files. For example, you can create a hyperlink that launches a word processing program and opens a specific file, or a hyperlink that activates your Web browser and loads a particular HTML page. You can also specify a named location to jump to in a file, such as a view in AutoCAD or a bookmark in a word processing program. You can attach hyperlinks to any graphical object in an AutoCAD drawing. Hyperlinks provide a simple and powerful way to quickly associate a variety of documents (such as other drawings, bills of materials, or project schedules) with an AutoCAD drawing. To add a hyperlink to a DWF file, you must first add the hyperlink to the original AutoCAD Drawing file (DWG), then generate the DWF. Hyperlinks attached to an AutoCAD drawing are automatically passed along to the DWF file when it is generated. You can create both absolute and relative hyperlinks in your AutoCAD drawings. Absolute hyperlinks store the full path to a file location. Relative hyperlinks store a partial path to a file location, relative to a default URL or directory you specify using the HYPERLINKBASE system variable. Hyperlinks can point to files that are stored locally, on a network drive, or on the Internet. By default, AutoCAD software provides cursor feedback so that you know when the crosshairs are positioned over a graphical object that has an attached hyperlink. You can then select the object and use the Hyperlink shortcut menu to open the file associated with the hyperlink. You can turn off the hyperlink cursor and shortcut menu display from the Options dialog box, if desired. For information on viewing hyperlinks in Volo View, see Viewing Drawing Hyperlinks. The following hyperlink topics are available: ● To create an absolute hyperlink to another file ● To edit a hyperlink attached to a graphical object ● To remove a hyperlink attached to a graphical object ● To open a file associated with a hyperlink ● To toggle the hyperlink cursor display on or off Return to Top To create an absolute hyperlink to another file 1. In the AutoCAD drawing area, select one or more graphical objects to attach the hyperlink to. 2. From the Insert menu, choose Hyperlink. 3. Do one of the following: ❍ Under Link to File or URL, enter the path and name of the file that you want to associate with the hyperlink. ❍ Choose the Browse button, then navigate to the location of the file that you want to associate with the hyperlink. Choose Open. 4. If desired, specify a named location to jump to in Named Location In File. If you jump to an AutoCAD named view, enter the name of the view that you want displayed. For creating jumps to named views in another application, refer to that application's documentation for named location conventions. 5. If desired, enter a description for the hyperlink in the Hyperlink Description list. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen2000.htm (5 of 7) [8/18/1999 4:55:23 PM] Autodesk - Volo 6. Choose OK. To edit a hyperlink attached to a graphical object 1. From the AutoCAD Insert menu, choose Hyperlink. 2. In the drawing area, select one or more graphical objects. 3. Specify new values in the Edit Hyperlink dialog box, and then choose OK. To remove a hyperlink from a graphical object 1. In the AutoCAD drawing area, select one or more graphical objects that use the same hyperlink. 2. From the Insert menu, choose Hyperlink. 3. Choose Remove Hyperlink, and then choose OK. To open a file associated with a hyperlink 1. In the AutoCAD drawing area, select a graphical object with an attached hyperlink. 2. Right-click anywhere in the AutoCAD drawing area, and then choose Hyperlink Open. The Hyperlink Open shortcut menu option is followed either by the hyperlink description (if one is specified) or the full URL to the referenced file. NOTE: If you have turned off display of the hyperlink cursor in the Options dialog box, the Hyperlink shortcut menu becomes unavailable. To restore the Hyperlink shortcut menu, turn the Display Hyperlink Cursors option back on. To toggle the hyperlink cursor display on or off 1. From the AutoCAD Tools menu, choose Options. 2. On the User Preferences tab, select or clear Display Hyperlink Cursor and Shortcut Menu. 3. Choose OK. Converting Release 14 Attached URLS to Hyperlinks AutoCAD Release 14 attached URLs are converted to AutoCAD 2000 hyperlinks when you save the drawing in AutoCAD 2000 format. If you save an AutoCAD 2000 drawing in Release 14 format, any hyperlinks in the drawing are converted to Release 14 attached URLs. Hyperlink descriptions are not available in Release 14, but if you subsequently save the drawing in AutoCAD 2000 format, the hyperlink descriptions are restored. If you attach a URL to a Release 14 graphical object with an AutoCAD 2000 hyperlink, the hyperlink description, if one is specified, gets erased and isn't available when you save the drawing back to AutoCAD 2000 format. Return to Top Using AutoLISP and Visual LISP to Create DWF Files in AutoCAD 2000 AutoLISP is based on the LISP programming language, which is simple to learn yet very powerful. AutoCAD software has a built-in LISP interpreter that you use to enter AutoLISP code at the command line or to load AutoLISP code from external files. AutoLISP has been enhanced with Visual LISP (VLISP), which offers an integrated development environment http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen2000.htm (6 of 7) [8/18/1999 4:55:23 PM] Autodesk - Volo (IDE) that includes a compiler, debugger, and other tools to increase productivity. VLISP represents the next generation of LISP for AutoCAD software. It adds more capabilities, and extends the language to interact with objects using ActiveX. VLISP also enhances the software's ability of AutoLISP to respond to events. You can create AutoLISP routines to generate DWF files. Because AutoCAD reads AutoLISP code directly, no compiling is required. By entering code at the Command prompt you can see the results immediately. This makes the AutoLISP language an easy one with which to experiment, regardless of your programming experience. Once you become proficient with AutoLISP, you will find that you use it as an extension to the basic AutoCAD commands. Note: When command input comes from the AutoLISP command function, the settings of the PICKADD and PICKAUTO system variables are assumed to be 1 and 0, respectively. This preserves compatibility with previous releases of AutoCAD software and makes customization easier (because you don't have to check the settings of these variables). For more information about AutoLISP programming, see the AutoCAD Visual LISP Developer's Guide, and for information about AutoLISP and Visual LISP functions, see the AutoCAD AutoLISP Reference. AutoLISP programs can use dialog boxes with their applications. Programmable dialog boxes are described online only in the AutoCAD online Visual LISP Developer's Guide. Creating DWF Files Using LISP The following is a simple example of using AutoLISP to create a DWF file: ;;Example of creating a DWF through AutoLISP or Visual Lisp (command ".plot" LayoutName PageSetUpName PC3FileName DWFFileName) Note: Long file names are placed in quotes. For more information on the ePlot feature refer to the AutoCAD 2000 User's Guide. Using LISP to Access Hyperlink Information Accessing URL information in a DWG using LISP is best illustrated by two LISP functions: ● ALLURLS Scrolls a list of all URLs found in an entire DWG to the command line. Duplicates are not removed. ● PICKURL Scrolls a list of all URLs found in a selected set of entities (user prompted to select). Again, duplicates are not removed. A sample, allurls.lsp, is available at: ftp://ftp.autodesk.com/pub/whip/readme/allurls.lsp. Return to Top Home | Products | Tech Assist | Autodesk | Prof Net | Search | Sitemap | Purchase © Copyright 1999 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Autodesk legal notices and trademark attributions. Reproduction or copying of images is prohibited. Contact Autodesk http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen2000.htm (7 of 7) [8/18/1999 4:55:23 PM] Autodesk - Volo Volo View Express / Using Volo View / Using AutoCAD Release 14 to Generate a DWF File < You Are Here Volo View Readme Installing Volo View Viewing Files Generating DWF Files Publishing Drawings Maintaining Volo View Locally Using AutoCAD Release 14 to Generate a DWF File To generate a DWF file using AutoCAD Release 14, you need to install the AutoCAD Internet Utilities. To use the AutoCAD Internet Utilities, you must have installed the following: ● AutoCAD Release 14 Windows NT 3.51 Service Pack 4, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 95 This section includes the following topics: ● ● Installing the AutoCAD Internet Utilities ● Using the ObjectARX Applications to Generate a DWF File ● Saving DWG Files in DWF Format ● Embedding an URL in a Drawing ● Removing URLs in a Drawing ● Viewing URLs in a Drawing ● Selecting Objects and Areas with URLs Attached ● Using Lisp to Access URL Information ● Uninstalling the AutoCAD Internet Utilities Installing the AutoCAD Internet Utilities The AutoCAD Internet Utilities are composed of the following ObjectARX applications: ● DWFOut.ARX ● DWFIU.ARX ● Internet.ARX The Typical AutoCAD Release 14 installation installs the DWFOut.ARX application. The other two applications are not part of a Typical installation. To use the URL commands or perform drag and drop, you must run a Custom installation and select Internet Utilities. To output DWF files from paper space, to generate ASCII DWF files, and to use international text, you must obtain Autodesk's newer DWFOut.ARX application. To attach and http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen14.htm (1 of 9) [8/18/1999 4:55:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo detach URLs in paper space, you must obtain Autodesk's newer DWFIU.ARX application. You can get both of these by downloading one self-extracting executable: aiu31.exe. This executable replaces the original applications with the newer ones. On a system where you have already performed a Custom install of AutoCAD Release 14: 1. Download aiu31.exe from the Autodesk web site. 2. Make sure AutoCAD is not running. 3. Run aiu31.exe by double-clicking it, then follow the on-screen instructions. Return to Top Using the ObjectARX Applications to Generate a DWF File Once you have installed the AutoCAD Internet Utilities, you can begin using the AIU features. There are five commands available with AutoCAD Internet Utilities: ● DWFOut Saves the open DWG file as a DWF file. ● AttachURL Enables you select one or more objects or a region in a drawing file and associate these objects or regions with an URL. When a user views the DWF file across the web and selects the URL, their browser navigates to that web site. ● DetachURL Enables you to select one or more objects in a drawing file and remove the URL or URLs associated with them. ● ListURL Enables you to select one or more objects in a drawing file and list the URLs that are associated with them. ● SelectURL Enables you to select all of the objects in a drawing file that have URLs associated with them. Return to Top Saving DWG Files in DWF Format Using AutoCAD Release 14, you can save a DWG file in DWF format. To Save DWG Files in DWF Format 1. Start AutoCAD and open a drawing file. 2. On the command line, enter DWFOut. The Create DWF File dialog box opens. 3. Enter the name you want for the DWF file. The default is the DWG file name with a .dwf extension. 4. Click Options to open the DWF Export Options dialog from which you can change the following settings: ❍ Format http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen14.htm (2 of 9) [8/18/1999 4:55:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo Select Compressed Binary for a compressed binary DWF file. You can select uncompressed Binary, if you do not want compression (this is unlikely). If you need to modify a DWF file through an external process such as Perl, you may find it easier to work with an ASCII DWF file. ❍ ❍ Precision Select the precision (low, medium, or high) you want. The higher the precision, the more detail you can retain in the file; however, with more detail, the file size increases. For complex files you may want to experiment with increasing file size by increasing precision. The default is to use medium (20-bit) precision which is usually sufficient for most files. Include Layer Information Include Layer Information is selected by default. If you want to generate a DWF file without layer information, for example so that browser users cannot turn layers off, click this check box to clear it. 5. Choose OK. The file is saved in DWF format. You can now place a reference to the DWF file in any HTML file and view it with Volo View. If you want to save a DWF file and generate an HTML file each time you save the DWG, you can download a lisp routine from ftp://ftp.autodesk.com/pub/whip/readme/saveall3.lsp. After loading saveall3.lsp through the AutoCAD Tools menu Load Application command, you can issue a saveall3 command and the lisp script will run. The saveall3 lisp code assumes that the DWG and DWF files already exist, so it issues a "y" (yes) to allow them to be overwritten. Turning Off File Dialogs The DWFOut command opens a dialog that enables you to supply a file name for the DWF file, to optionally turn off compression, or to adjust the precision. To facilitate DWF file generation in batch mode, set the AutoCAD FILEDIA (FILE DIAlog) variable to 0. When FILEDIA is set to 0, prompting for the DWF file name, compression, and precision is done at the command line instead of through a file dialog box. From the command line, you can issue a command of the form: DWFOut {a | b} {l | m | h} {y | n} {y | n} where: ● is the name of the DWF file, for example myfile.dwf ● l or m or h indicates the type of precision (l = low = 16-bit, m = medium = 20-bit, h = high = 32-bit) ● y or n indicates whether compression is enabled (y = yes, n = no) ● y or n indicates whether layer information is included (y = yes, n = no) To restore the file dialog box operation, set the FILEDIA variable to 1. Return to Top Geometry in a DWF When you generate a DWF file, AutoCAD writes all the geometry that is in the DWG display list to the DWF file. This allows users to pan a DWF to see other parts of a drawing. The DWFOut command does not provide a means to crop a DWG to a subset. In cases where the current view depicts a very large drawing that is tightly zoomed in, any geometry that falls outside of the AutoCAD display list will not be contained in the DWF file. Commands such as VIEWRES, FACETRES, DISPSILH and HIDE that affect the visibility of geometry on the http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen14.htm (3 of 9) [8/18/1999 4:55:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo display screen also affect the contents of the DWF file. Images in a DWF One of the advantages of the DWF format is that it is vector-based. DWF files are stored using high-level primitives such as polyline, polygon, polytriangle, marker, circle, ellipse, arc, and text. A vector-based format allows for speedier pans and zooms over other formats such as bitmaps. In contrast, AutoCAD Release 14 allows the insertion of images into DWG files. When you issue a DWFOut command for a DWG file with an image, the image data is compressed and saved into the DWF file in one of the following formats: ● indexed ● mapped (with transparency) ● ● JPEG RGBA Group3 FAX ● gray scale ● Since the DWFOut ObjectARX application determines the best format to use to save the image data, there is nothing that you need to do. To preserve the speediness of pans and zooms for a DWF file with an image, during a pan or zoom, the image is replaced with a purple bounding rectangle that represents the image. Raster images in DWG files are a challenge when generating the corresponding DWF. There are two problems: ● Image data can be huge (satellite photos can be Gigabytes in size) and DWF files are supposed to be small. ● There are many different formats that raster data can come from. Volo View cannot deal with every possible format since it is a small program designed for easy download. For these two reasons, the DWFOut ObjectARX application does some manipulation and processing on images it finds in the DWG. This processing may lead to image degradation when viewed with Volo View. The amount of degradation is controlled by the Precision DWFOut option and the size of images being stored. DWFOut converts files in the following way: 1. The image found in the DWG is converted into a format that Volo View supports: JPEG, CCITT Group 3, RGBA, Indexed 8, or Mapped 8. Although there are many image formats (such as GIF, JPEG, PNG, and so on), they are all uncompressed internally by AutoCAD into only a few number of pixel formats. DWFOut does not consider the original file format, but instead considers the source pixel format. Original DWG Image Pixel Type Converted To DWF Format RGB JPEG RGBA (low/medium precision) Mapped 8 with LZ77 post process RGBA (high precision) RGBA with LZ77 post process Mapped 8 color Indexed 8 with LZ77 post process Mapped 8 color w/transparency Mapped 8 with LZ77 post process Mapped 8 greyscale JPEG http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen14.htm (4 of 9) [8/18/1999 4:55:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo Mapped 8 gray w/transparency Mapped 8 with LZ77 post process Bitonal CCITT Group 3 This conversion results in some image quality degradation. Formats like JPEG are lossy formats, and thus some quality is lost. When mapping an RGBA image to a "Mapped 8", some color quality is lost, but the file is 1/4 the size. Generally RGBA images are just too large to be interesting for a DWF file, since a 1000 x 1000 pixel RGBA image would take 4 megabytes. Using LZ77 data compression, reduces the 4 megabytes size, but would still be very big. Only in high precision mode do we support RGBA in DWF. 2. The next step is an image resize operation. If Low Precision has been selected, DWFOut automatically resizes the image to be 1/2 the size horizontally and 1/2 the size vertically (so the resultant image has 1/4 the pixels compared to the source image stored in the DWG). This further degrades image quality, but produces a much smaller file. When Low Precision is selected, it is usually because the user wants a small file and is not as concerned with image quality. In Medium or High Precision modes, this kind of forced image reduction is not performed. 3. Next the image may be reduced further in size. DWFOut has a threshold image size (based on precision level) that it maintains. Any image larger than the threshold has its resolution reduced. The threshold value is compared to what the size of the image is *predicted* if it were to be compressed at its current size. Format Predicted Size of Image After Compression CCITT Group 3 width * height * 1/8 * AVERAGE_GROUP3_FACTOR Indexed 8 width * height * AVERAGE_LZ77_FACTOR Mapped 8 width * height * AVERAGE_LZ77_FACTOR JPEG width * height * 3 * AVERAGE_JPEG_FACTOR RGBA width * height * 4 * AVERAGE_LZ77_FACTOR Constant Value AVERAGE_GROUP3_FACTOR 0.2 AVERAGE_LZ77_FACTOR 0.7 (or 1.0 if data compression isn't selected) AVERAGE_JPEG_FACTOR 0.15 Precision Level Threshold Low 65,536 bytes Medium 262,144 bytes High 1,048,576 bytes ASCII 32,768 bytes For example, if you had an RGB image in AutoCAD with a resolution of 2000 by 2000 pixels, and if you were in high precision mode, the JPEG format would be selected and would have a predicted image size of 1,800,000 bytes. This exceeds the threshold by a factor of about 72%, so the image would be reduced in size so that there would be 72% fewer pixels. In this example the image would be reduced to a size of 1527 by 1527 pixels http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen14.htm (5 of 9) [8/18/1999 4:55:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo before actually compressing and storing the image in the DWF. JPEG and Group 3 formats provide much better compression ratios than the other supported formats, and they do so with much better image quality. You can greatly improve the quality of your DWF images by using DWG images in formats that will be converted to JPEG or Group3. There are reasons why not all formats are converted to JPEG or Group3. If the source image in the DWG had been stored as 8-bit data (as with GIFs or PNG files) then these images are normally dithered. The JPEG algorithm does a horrible job trying to compress dithered data. Also, if you have rotated an image in the DWG or used a clipping polygon to cut holes in a DWG image, then the output image will have some transparent pixels. Unfortunately JPEG doesn't support transparency, so DWFOut is forced to select an alternate format (which may degrade image quality due to resolution reduction). Return to Top Background Color & File Size of DWF The DWF file is stored with the same background color as you have selected for the main AutoCAD window. The background color information (and other color information) normally adds about 1K of storage to a DWF file. Whenever a black or white background is used, this color data is reduced to only 3 bytes, which may be of interest when dealing with extremely small DWF files (less than 5K or so). As a result, using a black (or white) background with 16-bit precision can be a powerful combination to reduce file size. Precision & File Size of DWF Volo View and DWF allow binary DWF files to be between 16 and 32 bits of precision. The AutoCAD Internet Utilities ObjectARX application features a variable precision selector that you can use to select the desired precision. For common drawings of CAD parts and basic AEC drawings, using 16-bit precision gives you 40% smaller DWF files! Before, with 32-bit DWF you were often getting 5-to-1 compression ratios of DWG-to-DWF. With 16-bit, often you can get as much as 8-to-1. Although they are less accurate, for sample drawings like HVAC.DWG, FILTER.DWG, and so on, there is little visual difference at 16-bit. One can see it, but for the untrained eye, it is hard to tell. Drawings of more complexity and fine details, like PLAN.DWG, RICHMOND.DWG, or MARINALL.DWG, and so on, would have accuracy problems if done at 16-bit. With the precision selector (low, medium, or high) you can get the level of precision you want. If 16-bit is not precise enough for you, you can use 20-bit precision. Using 20-bit precision ends up being 16 times more precise but only about a 20% larger file than a 16-bit file (and still about 30% smaller than a full 32-bit file). DWG Named Views in DWF Any named views that are present in the DWG file (when the DWF file is generated) get recorded in the DWF file. For convenience, if the named view INITIAL is not already specified in the DWG, this named view is automatically placed in the DWF file. The INITIAL view for the DWF matches the view of the DWG when the DWFOut command was issued. Named views of DWF files are available through a right click menu in Volo View. Named views can also be used in DWF file references in HTML files. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen14.htm (6 of 9) [8/18/1999 4:55:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo DWG Layers in DWF ● ● Visibility Any layers that are visible in the DWG file when the DWF file is generated are saved and recorded in the DWF file. In other words, you can't use Volo View to turn layers on that were off when the DWF file was created. Control of layer visibility in DWF files is available through a right click menu in Volo View. Layer visibility can also be controlled through DWF file references in HTML files. Blocks AutoCAD has a very sophisticated process of manipulating blocks and layers. DWF files, which are intended for AutoCAD and nonAutoCAD users alike, have a simpler model. There are no blocks in a DWF file. A DWF file contains geometry, color, layer info, and URLs. Each piece of geometry has one color, one layer, and one (or none) URL. When a DWF file is generated from a DWG, some layer simplification can potentially occur with respect to blocks. All of the geometry contained in a block is placed on the layer where the block was inserted. As an example: You create some geometry on layer 0 and then use that geometry to create a block named CHAIR. You then insert the CHAIR block several places on a layer called FURNITURE. When a DWF file is generated, all of the geometry contained in all of the chairs will be on the FURNITURE layer. Volo View users can then toggle the FURNITURE layer on and off. Return to Top DWG File Name in DWF When you issue a DWFOut, AutoCAD writes the name of the current DWG file to the DWF file. This allows the drag and drop capability of Volo View to grab the original DWG file when you drag and drop a DWF file. If a DWFOut command is issued before a drawing is ever saved, the file name Drawing.dwg will be present in the DWF. If you rename the DWG file after issuing the DWFOut command, the DWG name inside the DWF file is not updated. Only the name of the DWG file is placed in the DWF file, not the path. This is why DWG files must reside in the same directory as their DWF counterparts for drag and drop to work. On the other hand, this strategy allows DWG and DWF files to be used locally and then moved to internet servers for public access. DWG file names embedded in a DWF file are case sensitive. This has created confusion for users who generate DWF files on Windows NT and then move those files (both DWG and DWF) to Unix-based servers. Consider the following scenario provided by a user. When a DWF file is created in AutoCAD using the 'DWFOut' command, the EXACT filename of the original DWG file is stamped inside it, including the EXACT case. This is so that Volo View knows what file to look for when someone initiates a 'drag and drop' or a 'save as...'. All of our DWF files were created on an NT machine with capitals for the filename and lowercase for the extension like this: AD01850T.dwg or AD01850T.dwf This is the name that was stamped inside the DWF file. The next thing we did was ftp all of out files up to a Unix box. An extremely common thing to do when you ftp is to convert everything to lowercase. So after we pushed the files to our Unix server, our file name was this: ad01850t.dwg or ad01850t.dwf This meant that when we initiated a drag and drop on the server, Volo View looked inside the DWF file, pulled out the original file name of the DWG (AD01850T.dwg), looked in the same directory for it, and couldn't find it because the DWG file name was converted to lowercase (ad01850t.dwg). Simply put, Unix is case sensitive, NT is not. Thanks to Steve Ludin for pointing this out. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen14.htm (7 of 9) [8/18/1999 4:55:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo DWG Description in DWF When you choose the About Volo View... command from the right click menu in Volo View, Volo View displays information about the DWF file. One of the pieces of information is description. Prior to release 3, the description has always defaulted to . The DWFOut.ARX ObjectARX application now uses the contents of the AutoCAD *USERS1 (User String 1) variable as the description. Although this variable is not saved with the drawing, it can be set prior to issuing a DWFOut command so that the desired description will appear in the DWF file: setvar *USERS1 This is the floor plan of my house. The *USERS1 variable was selected because it is long enough to contain a meaningful description. Other variables were considered, for example, PROJECTNAME which is saved with the drawing; however, setting these variables to contain the description led to adverse side-effects or the variables' maximum lengths were too short. The AutoCAD *USERS2 (User String 2) variable can be used to define what one unit in your drawing refers to as in: setvar *USERS2 feet You can use *USERS2 to specify feet, miles, centimeters, or whatever units are implicit in your AutoCAD drawing. This information will then be recorded in your DWF file and visible as part of the Location display from the Volo View right click menu. DWG Fonts in DWF When a DWG contains text written using a traditional AutoCAD SHX font, AutoCAD places geometry, for example, lines, in the DWF file to mimic the outlines of the characters represented by the font. As a result, users who use Volo View to view the resulting DWF file do not need to have SHX fonts on their systems. When a DWG contains text written using a Windows TrueType font, AutoCAD records the text string and the font (for example, Arial) used in the DWF file. The primary advantage is that the DWF file is smaller. A second advantage is that the text rendering is more pristine since the system is used to draw the characters. The disadvantage is that users who view the DWF file must have the font on their systems. When users do not have the necessary font, gibberish appears which has been described in the newsgroups as "goofy text." Goofy text can also result when a low or medium precision DWF file is created from a paper space layout. For paper space, use high precision. Return to Top Paper Space versus Model Space AutoCAD R13 and AutoCAD Release 14 (as shipped) did not output DWF files from paper space. Instead, the DWFOut ObjectARX application for those releases focussed on model space. When a DWFOut command was issued from a model space viewport, the application would dump all of the geometry in the DWG file (even vectors outside of the visible area of the viewport) to the DWF file. Technically what was happening was that all of the geometry contained in the AutoCAD display list was written to the DWF file. The new DWFOut ObjectARX application (included in aiu31.exe) enables DWF files to be created from paper space viewports. In an attempt to mimic the behavior of generating DWF files from model space, the application writes out the geometry for paper space viewports where those viewports are not currently visible. Although this approach makes the treatment of model space and paper space consistent, the side effect is that the application http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen14.htm (8 of 9) [8/18/1999 4:55:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo can appear to modify the DWG but actually does not. In other words, to be able to dump the geometry in viewports that are totally off of the screen, the application moves the current view so that the graphics system thinks that all of viewports are visible. As one would expect, it restores the viewport when it is done; however, the changing and restoring of the offscreen viewports toggles the bit that indicates that the DWG has been modified. Thus, if you read in a DWG, view as paper space, and issue a DWFOut command, when you attempt to exit, AutoCAD will ask you if you wish to save your changes. You can chose to save or not save. It does not matter. A second issue with this strategy is that making the viewports visible requires a REGEN. For very large DWG files, this can be time consuming. If you would like DWFOut.ARX to ignore invisible paper space viewports and simply not write the geometry for those viewports to the DWF file, you can set the AutoCAD variable REGENMODE to 0. By default, REGENMODE is set to 1. You should only set REGENMODE to 0 if the REGEN takes too long. Return to Top Converting All DWGs in a Directory to DWF Files To generate DWF files for all of the DWG files in a directory, you would run a Lisp routine that: ● Shells out ● ● ● ● ● Does a "dir *.dwg /b > filename.txt" (in DOS) Exits the shell Writes a new (AutoCAD script) file which does a DWFOut for each DWG in filename.txt Finishes writing the script Calls the script Sample lisp code, mapdir.lsp, is provided at ftp://ftp.autodesk.com/pub/whip/readme/mapdir.lsp. To use mapdir.lsp, AutoCAD must have a working directory that contains DWG files. The easiest way to accomplish this is to modify the "Start In" property of the icon that launches AutoCAD to point to the directory where the DWG files are located, for example c:\Program Files\AutoCAD R14\Sample. More... Return to Top Home | Products | Tech Assist | Autodesk | Prof Net | Search | Sitemap | Purchase © Copyright 1999 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or copying of images is prohibited. Contact Autodesk http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/gen14.htm (9 of 9) [8/18/1999 4:55:36 PM] Autodesk - Volo Volo View Express Volo View Readme Installing Volo View Viewing Files Generating DWF Files / Using Volo View / Publishing Drawings< You Are Here Publishing Drawings Maintaining Volo View Locally Publishing Drawings You can use Volo™ View to publish DWG, DXF™, or DWF files in OLE-compliant documents, on your company intranet, and on the Internet. You can also use Volo View to embed drawings in Microsoft applications such as Word and Excel. If you intend to publish DWG, DXF, or DWF files on an Internet or intranet server, you must configure your server's MIME type. For more information see Adding a MIME Type. This section includes the following topics: ● Embedding Drawing Files in Microsoft Office Applications ● Adding Drawing File References to Your HTML Files ● Adding a MIME Type Embedding Drawing Files in Microsoft Office Applications The Volo View ActiveX control is an OLE-compliant control. Use the Volo View ActiveX control to associate your drawing files with Microsoft Office applications. Microsoft Word With Microsoft Word 97, or later, you can embed a drawing file inside of a Word document. You can then distribute the Word document to others who have installed the Volo View ActiveX Control, without having to distribute the drawing file separately. Users can then view the document in Word and double-click on an image of the drawing file to activate Volo View. To create a Word 97 document that contains a drawing file 1. Make sure Volo View is installed. 2. Start Wor d97. 3. From the Insert menu, choose Object. The Object dialog box is displayed. 4. On the Create New tab, choose Autodesk Volo View Control from the Object Type list and click OK. A Volo View drawing area is placed in your document. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/publish.htm (1 of 10) [8/18/1999 4:55:58 PM] Autodesk - Volo 5. Right-click inside the Volo View drawing area and choose Options. The Options dialog box is displayed. 6. In the General tab File Name box, type the path and file name of the drawing file you want to embed, or click Browse to navigate to the drawing file. Click OK. The drawing is displayed in the drawing area. 7. To resize or move the drawing area within the Word document, click outside of the drawing area, then click back inside the drawing area. 8. Use the grips on the outside of the box to resize the drawing area. To reposition the drawing area in your document, click inside the drawing area and drag. 9. When you have finished resizing or moving the drawing area, double-click inside the drawing area to activate Volo View and access the right-click menu. 10. To save the Word document, from the Word 97 File menu choose Save. You can now distribute the document with the drawing file stored inside the document. Users who have both Microsoft Word 97 and Volo View can view your document including the drawing file. Users can also access the Volo View right-click menu and manipulate the view of the drawing file. Microsoft Excel With Microsoft Excel 97, or later, you can embed a drawing file inside of an Excel document. You can then distribute the Excel document to others who have installed the Volo View ActiveX control, without having to distribute the drawing file separately. Users can then view the document in Excel and double-click on an image of the drawing file to activate Volo View. To create an Excel 97 spreadsheet that contains a drawing file 1. Make sure Volo View is installed. 2. Start Excel97. 3. From the Insert menu, choose Object. The Object dialog box is displayed. 4. On the Create New tab, select Autodesk Volo View Control from the Object Type list and click OK. The Volo View drawing area is placed in the spreadsheet. 5. Right-click inside the Volo View drawing area and choose Options. The Options dialog box is displayed. 6. To specify the drawing file associated with the Volo View drawing area, in the General tab File Name box, type the path and file name of the desired drawing file, then click OK. The drawing file is displayed in the drawing area and you can manipulate the view using the right-click menu. 7. To move or resize the drawing area within the spreadsheet you must start Design mode. If the Control Toolbox toolbar is not already displayed, choose Customize from the Tools menu. The Customize dialog opens. 8. From the Toolbars tab, check Control Toolbox by clicking the box next to it. A Control Toolbox toolbar is displayed. 9. To dismiss the Customize dialog box, click Close. 10. To move or resize the drawing area, click the Design Mode button. 11. Click inside the drawing area and drag it to position the drawing area in the spreadsheet. 12. Use the grips on the box to resize the drawing area. To exit Design mode and access the Volo View right-click menu, click the Design Mode button again. Note: You cannot resize or move the Volo View drawing area after you exit design mode. To resize or move the Volo View drawing area, click the Design Mode button. 13. To save the Excel spreadsheet, from the Excel File menu choose Save. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/publish.htm (2 of 10) [8/18/1999 4:55:58 PM] Autodesk - Volo You can now distribute the spreadsheet with the drawing file stored inside of it. Users who have both Microsoft Excel 97 and Volo View can view your spreadsheet including the drawing file. Users can also access the Volo View right-click menu and manipulate the view of the drawing file. Microsoft PowerPoint With Microsoft PowerPoint you can embed a drawing file inside of a PowerPoint document. You can then distribute the PowerPoint document to others who have installed the Volo View ActiveX Control, without having to distribute the drawing file separately. Users can then view the document in PowerPoint and double-click on an image of the drawing file to activate Volo View. To create a PowerPoint presentation that contains a drawing file 1. Make sure Volo View is installed. 2. Start PowerPoint. 3. From the Insert menu, choose Object. The Insert Object dialog box is displayed. 4. From the Object Type list, choose Autodesk Volo View Control and click OK. A Volo View drawing area is placed in your document. 5. Right-click inside the Volo View drawing area and choose Options. The Options dialog box is displayed. 6. In the General tab File Name box, type the path and file name of the drawing file you want to embed, or click Browse to navigate to the drawing file. Click OK. The drawing is displayed in the drawing area and you can access the Volo View right-click menu. 7. To resize or move the drawing area within the PowerPoint document, click outside of the drawing area, then click back inside the drawing area. 8. Use the grips on the outside of the box to resize the drawing area. To reposition the drawing area in your document, click inside the drawing area and drag. 9. When you have finished resizing or moving the drawing area, double-click inside the drawing area to activate Volo View and access the right-click menu. 10. To save the presentation, from the PowerPoint File menu choose Save. You can now distribute the presentation with the drawing file stored inside of it. Users who have both Microsoft PowerPoint and Volo View can view your presentation including the drawing file. Users can also access the Volo View right-click menu and manipulate the view of the drawing file. Return to Top Adding Drawing File References to Your HTML Files There are two ways you can enable Volo View to view drawing files associated with HTML files. ● Reference the drawing file in an HTML page using a series of HTML tags When you reference the drawing file in an HTML page, the Volo View ActiveX control displays the drawing file as part of the HTML page. The drawing file, text, and other components of the HTML page are all displayed in the same browser window. For information see Referencing a Drawing in an HTML Page. ● Link to a drawing file from an HTML page using the HTML HREF tag When you use an HREF tag to create a link to the drawing file from your HTML page, a user can click the link to display the drawing file. The drawing file is displayed in the entire browser window, or in a new window in the browser depending on the options you set in the HREF tag. The HREF tag is the common method of associating other files, for example GIFs or JPEGs, with HTML files. http://www.autodesk.com/products/volo/view/userguid/publish.htm (3 of 10) [8/18/1999 4:55:58 PM] Autodesk - Volo For more information see Linking a Drawing to an HTML Page. The following drawing file and HTML topics are available: ● Referencing a Drawing in an HTML Page ● Linking a Drawing to an HTML Page ● URL Options Referencing a Drawing in an HTML Page When you reference a drawing in an HTML page, the drawing is displayed as part of the page. To create an HTML file that references a drawing 1. Create the content of your HTML file as usual. 2. Place a reference to your drawing file in your HTML file using the