Publish Single and Multiple 3D DWF Files

To publish a single 3D DWF file, you use the EXPORT or 3DDWF commands. With either of those commands running, the model you’re currently working on is saved as a 3D DWF file.

To publish multiple 3D DWF files at one time, you use the PUBLISH command. The Publish dialog box displays a list of all the sheet names of the drawing files that are currently open. You can determine which sheets are published to a 3D DWF file by adding or removing sheets on the Sheet Name list.

Publishing Materials

If you’ve assigned texture mapped materials to your models, those materials can be published with the 3D DWF file. Texture map orientation and scaling that is set in the drawing editor is retained in the published 3D DWF file.

There are some limitations to materials publishing.

• The Diffuse Map channel is the only mapping that gets published. If you use Opacity, Reflection, or Bump maps in your material, they do not get published.
• Procedural materials such as Wood or Marble do not get published.

Increase the Smoothness of 3D DWF Models

The smoothness of 3D DWF models is improved by changing the value of the 3DDWFPREC system variable. The setting for 3DDWFPREC ranges from 1 to 6. Higher settings greatly improve the appearance of objects in the DWF Viewer.

Improve Performance with Large Models

Every object in your model gets processed when a DWF file is published. When working with large models, you can greatly improve publishing performance by using blocks. For instance, your office model contains a basic cubicle arrangement of eight partition walls, a desk, and a chair. Those ten objects don’t take much time to process by themselves. However, if that basic cubicle arrangement is used 100 times, it means that 1000 objects must be processed and the publishing time increases accordingly. If the basic cubicle arrangement is inserted into the model as a single block, those ten objects are processed once for each insertion.

You can improve publishing performance even more by grouping miscellaneous objects into temporary blocks. Once the publishing is complete, you can explode those blocks and continue working on those objects.

As a design gets closer to completion, you can create blocks comprised of portions of the model that are less likely to need further editing. If the first floor of the office model is not going to change much, create a block containing all of its components. During publishing, that block is processed as one object instead of each individual object on that floor.

3D DWF Unsupported Content

When publishing a 3D DWF file, some drawing content may not appear in the DWF Viewer. The content listed in the following table are not supported when you output a 3D DWF file.

Supported Text Fonts

Many text fonts are not supported when you publish a 3D DWF file. The following table lists the fonts that will get published.