3D DWF Files

With 3D DWF publishing, you can export Design Web Format™ (.DWF™) files of your three-dimensional models with nearly the same visual fidelity as in rendered scenes. DWF files are highly compressed. You can share them easily with team members who might not have 3ds Max.

DWF files are easy to publish and view on the Web using the Autodesk Design Review program, included with 3ds Max.

DWF also provides a fast way to view models without having to spend time animating and rendering them, because you can use the Orbit feature in the DWF viewer to fly around the model. For example, a DWF file of your scene can allow you and others to quickly view an interactive model as well as the properties of each object.

Recipients of 3D DWF files can view and print them using Autodesk® Design Review, which is an optional part of the 3ds Max install program. For more information about using the viewer, see the Autodesk Design Review help system.

Feature Support with 3D DWF Export

• 2D and 3D splines. The Enable In Viewport setting on the Rendering rollout does not need to be enabled in order to export splines.
• 3D geometry
• Texture-mapped materials with a diffuse map channel, UV mapping channels, and material IDs
  Note: Materials that have Use Real-World Scale enabled display more accurately in the Autodesk Design Review program.
• Procedural materials, but only as a rough, low-resolution approximation. Real-World Map Size should be off for objects with procedural materials.
• Materials that have transparency are correctly exported and their opacity values are recognized by the Autodesk Design Review program. Even when you orbit the view, objects that pass behind other objects with transparent materials are still visible.

Limitations of 3D DWF Export

Materials and Environments

• Environment backgrounds do not export; the Design Review program uses its own background color setting.
• Environmental effects such as fog do not export.
• Materials using reflection maps such as Flat Mirror do not produce reflections when exported.
• Two-sided materials are not supported. However, you can get around this by turning on Force 2-Sided on the Render Setup dialog.
  Note: Turning on Force 2-Sided affects the entire scene. This can slow down the performance of Design Review because it has to process the two-sided display of everything in scene.
• Materials from third-party suppliers and mental ray materials are not exported.

  Objects that have unsupported materials display in their diffuse colors in the viewer. AutoCAD Architecture materials are displayed in their ambient color.

• Export doesn’t support all material parameters, even with supported materials. Therefore, materials you export to Design Review might not look as they do in a rendered image.

Lights

• You cannot export scene lighting.

Cameras and Animation

• Named camera views are exported. The exporter creates a DWF view for each camera in the scene. You can choose these views from the Views panel in the Autodesk Design Review program, but the cameras are not otherwise visible as objects in the scene.
• Animations are not supported, however, the frame at the time of the export is published.