Project Freewheel: DWFx ready

Project Freewheel supports both DWF and DWFx files.

As new information about our 2009 Autodesk products rolls out, you may have noticed that these products mention DWFx. For 2009, DWFx is now the default. For the uninitiated, DWFx is our newest form of DWF file. DWFx is based on the Microsoft XML Paper Specification (XPS) format. When authoring Beyond the Paper, I posted a few articles on the DWFx topic:

• AU [2006] Update: Microsoft Announces Support for DWF via XPS
• Microsoft .NET 3.0 Framework includes DWF (.dwfx) Viewing Capability
• AutoCAD 2008: DWF versus DWFx differences
• DWF and DWFx in Autodesk Design Review 2008

Simply put: Just like DWF, a DWFx file can be viewed, measured, marked up, and printed by those who have installed Autodesk Design Review; however, a DWFx file can be viewed without installing additional software for those who use Internet Explorer 7 or Project Freewheel.

I was talking with Shaan Hurley the other day. Now that AutoCAD 2009 has changed to DWFx as its default, he wanted to be sure that the resulting files could be viewed on platforms where Autodesk Design Review 2009 would be unavailable - such as Linux or the Macintosh. Here is Shaan's article. I assured him that Project Freewheel is indeed ready to handle DWFx files. On the other hand, support for DWFx in Autodesk Freewheel is on the roadmap for consideration in a future release. I thought I should remind people of the differences between Project Freewheel and Autodesk Freewheel.

Item
Name	Project Freewheel	Autodesk Freewheel
URL	freewheel.labs.autodesk.com	freewheel.autodesk.com
Version	1.0.2.36	1.0.0.25
Cost	free	free
Strategy	exposure of viewing and other technologies that may or may not eventually be incorporated into Autodesk Freewheel	reliable DWF-based viewing without the need to install additional software
Monitoring	monitored by the Autodesk Labs team	monitored 24/7 by the same Autodesk IT Operations team that maintains the Buzzsaw/Streamline servers
Emphasis	exploration of sharing design data over the web to a variety of platforms	software as a service - in this case, a free service
Features	Upload via ShareNow from AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, and Design Review, File Open (DWF, DWFx), Email, Print, My Designs, My Sessions, Zoom (In, Out, Fit), Pan, Full Screen, 3D Orbit, Navigation Wheels (3D and 2D), Collaboration (Share, Join, Markup List), Markup (Sketch, Highlight, Callout)	File Open (DWF), Email, Print, Zoom (In, Out, Fit), Pan, 3D Orbit
Feedback/ Support	Autodesk Labs Project Freewheel email address labs.freewheel@autodesk.com Autodesk Freewheel discussion group http://discussion.autodesk.com/ forum.jspa?forumID=251 or news://discussion.autodesk.com/ autodesk.freewheel	Autodesk Feedback Page http://www.autodesk.com/feedback Autodesk Freewheel discussion group http://discussion.autodesk.com/ forum.jspa?forumID=251 or news://discussion.autodesk.com/ autodesk.freewheel
Blog	It's Alive in the Lab http://labs.blogs.com Scott Sheppard	Beyond the Paper http://dwf.blogs.com Volker Joseph

Working with design data in various forms is alive in the lab.