Tit for Tat: DWF for SolidWorks

SolidWorks announces DWGgateway with PDF output, and so Autodesk announces DWF output for SolidWorks. Ain't competition wunnerful.

DWF Writer is a printer driver that lets any application output its files in DWF format -- even Word! But Autodesk is fine-tuning its software to work better with specific products. In this case, 3D DWF files can be output decently from SolidWorks and Pro/Engineer Wildfire.

The press release warns darkly, "Globalization and off-shoring create new pressures on designers to better integrate information across extended teams, including communication with production team members who do not use 3D design tools." Translation: USA-based 2D drawings are for losers.

Download from autodesk.com/dwfwriter.

Comments

[Joe Dunne]

OK I think this is a bit misleading....

ADSK creates a printer driver that allows all products to support their format.

DWGgateway is developed specifically for ACAD, runs inside ACAD and primarily allows all ACAD users to have full forward and backwards compatibility. The PDF is added benefit...

[Shaan Hurley]

The printer driver comments are based on a past DWF Writer.

Things have changed since then.

Native application plug ins as well as OpenGL to 3D DWF.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=5695979

[Evan Yares]

I think it's too easy to get lost in the Autodesk web site. When I look up DWF on www.autodesk.com, it talks about the DWF writer for SolidWorks, but only lets me download the generic DWF writer. Other than using the link Shaan provided, the way I was able to find the right file was by using the search mechanism on Autodesk's site. Finally, I looked in exactly the right place, and found a little blue-colored "click here" that took me to the correct page.

One of the wonderful side-effects of Autodesk's "database driven" website is that it's not searchable by external tools, such as Google.

Oh well... I'm curious how many people actually *use* DWF for SolidWorks?