DWF PDK 1.3.0.18 Now Available to DWF Partners

Autodesk supplies some of our DWF partners in the commercial printing industry with technology that allows DWF files to be printed by reprographic software. This technology is referred to as the DWF Printer Development Kit (PDK).

A reprographic customer recently reported two problems:

1. In printouts received from his reprographer, text strings that should have been centered in the title blocks were left-justified. This problem only occurred when publishing from Revit to DWF and then printing to paper. Printing to paper directly from Revit worked properly.
2. Some DWF files produced by Autodesk Inventor did not print completely. Part of the printed output was missing.

PDK Programmer/Software Engineer, Sriram Gopalakrishnan, developed fixes for these issues:

1. Text objects in certain DWF files produced by Revit were not positioned correctly. Autodesk Revit publishes DWF files that use the HAlign W2D opcode that was added to a newer version of the DWF Toolkit than what the PDK was using.
2. Certain DWF files produced by Inventor contained AttribueURL opcodes that were not recognized by the PDK. This resulted in premature termination of processing of such files. AttributeURL was added to a newer version of the DWF Toolkit than what the PDK was using.

PDK 1.3.0.18 includes Sriram's two corrections. The solution was to integrate a newer version of the DWF Toolkit into the PDK. PDK 1.3.0.18 has been made available to our DWF Partners for integration into updates for PLP PlotWorks, KIP Powerprint, and Océ Repro Desk Client Tools.

In case you are wondering why there was a difference between Revit printouts, DWF printouts, and the printouts from the reprographer (from the PDK), the goal is to get the same printing from all of the following use cases:

1. AutoCAD/Revit/Inventor/etc. printing directly to a printer via the printer’s Windows print driver.
2. AutoCAD/Revit/Inventor/etc. printing to DWF and then using the Autodesk Design Review to print the DWF to a physical printer’s Windows print driver.
3. AutoCAD/Revit/Inventor/etc. printing to DWF and then using the PDK to render an image which is then printed to a physical printer.

Autodesk continues to support the reprographics industry in the printing of DWF files. Updating the technology we supply to our DWF partners is alive in the lab.