About Opening Other File Types

About Opening DWG and DXF Files

Design Review enables you to open a DWG or DXF file through a background conversion process. To do so, Design Review requires either Autodesk® AutoCAD® or the free DWG TrueView™ program to be installed.

• If AutoCAD is installed, the DWG or DXF file can be converted to either the DWF or DWFx file format. Additional DWG Viewing options are available within the Design ReviewOptions dialog box to control the conversion quality.
• If only DWG TrueView is installed, the DWG or DXF file is converted to the DWF file format using current DWG TrueView settings.
• If both are installed, AutoCAD is used to convert the DWG or DXF file.
• If neither is installed, you are prompted to download and install DWG TrueView.

For the best conversion results, always use a program’s built-in publishing capabilities.

Opening a DWG or DXF file is the same as opening a DWF file. Both DWG and DXF are part of the All DWF Files (*.dwf, *.dwfx, *.dwg, *.dxf) from the Files of Type drop-down list in the Open File dialog box. Once the DWG or DXF file is open on the canvas, you can view and print it just like any DWF file. If you modify the open DWG or DXF file, you are prompted to save it as a DWF file to retain the modifications. The original DWG or DXF file remains unchanged.

About Opening PDF Files

Design Review2013 enables you to open PDF files and save them as new DWF files. Each PDF page is converted into a new sheet in the opened DWF file. Opening a PDF file is like opening a DWF file, except that you must first select Adobe PDF (*.pdf) from the Files of Type drop-down list in the Open File dialog box. Once the PDF file is open on the canvas, you can view and print it just like any DWF file. No additional software is required.

Some content in PDF files is not supported by Design Review.

• 3D objects (shown as image)
• Annotations
• File attachments
• Forms (shown as image)
• Hyperlinks (shown as image)
• Layers and bookmarks
• Movies and sounds
• PDF digital signatures (shown as image)
• PDF files with Security settings
• PDF markups
• PDF packages

If a PDF file is password-protected, a dialog box opens prompting for the password. Once you enter the password and click OK, protections, such as edit disablements, are not respected by Design Review, nor will they be available if the PDF is saved as a DWF file. If a PDF file contains digital rights management features, Design Review will not be able to open it.

About Opening Image Files

Design Review enables you to open images and save them as new DWF files. The resulting opened content is a raster image. The way to open an image is like opening a DWF file, except that you must first select the desired image file format from the Files of Type drop-down list in the Open File dialog box. No additional software is required.

Design Review can open the several image file types.

About Limitations of Opened PDF and Image Files

When PDF and image files are opened in Design Review, some features are not available.

• Snap to Geometry cannot be used.
• Image text is not searched when using Find.
• Measurements may be inaccurate.
• PDF and image files cannot be used with Compare.

About Resolution

The resolution of a file refers to how many dots per inch, or dpi , are shown on the screen. The more dots per inch (that is, the higher the dpi), the better the resolution is, as there is more detail. However, the higher the dpi, the larger the file size.

For DWG files, if AutoCAD is installed, additional DWG Viewing options are available within the Design ReviewOptions dialog box to control the conversion quality. Before opening a DWG file use the DWG Viewing options to make the resolution higher (specify a larger dpi value) when greater detail is required and make the resolution lower resolution (specify a smaller dpi value) when faster performance is more important. Drawings are typically created at 400 dpi, the resolution considered most secure, while still allowing acceptable precision of measurements.

For image files, if there is resolution information associated with a file, it displays at that resolution. If there is no resolution information associated with the image, Design Review displays it at 150 dpi.

For PDF files, additional PDF Conversion options are available within the Design ReviewOptions dialog box to control the resolution. Before saving a PDF file, use the PDF Conversion options to make the resolution higher (specify a larger dpi value) when greater accuracy of detail is required and make the resolution lower resolution (specify a smaller dpi value) when faster performance is more important.