Overview of Publishing

Publishing provides an easy way to create a paper drawing set or an electronic drawing set.

You can easily publish selected sheets or a saved set of sheets as paper drawings, or as a single, electronic, multisheet Design Web Format (DWF and DWFx).

An electronic drawing set is the digital equivalent of a set of plotted drawings. You create an electronic drawing set by publishing drawings to a DWF or DWFx file. Doing so saves time and increases productivity by providing accurate, compressed representations of drawings in a file that's easy to distribute and view. DWF files can be viewed, marked up, and plotted by anyone using Autodesk ^® Design Review, a free product that can be downloaded from the Autodesk website.

You can also create a paper drawing set by publishing the sheet set to the plotter named in each sheet's page setup.

Note: The page setups used for publishing are saved in the DWG file and cannot be changed in DWG TrueView for publishing to paper. If a saved DWG file is available with the page setup settings you need, you can import the page setups to use in your drawings. In general, if you need to change any settings such as the plotting device, use the Plot command instead of the Publish command.

Using the Publish dialog box, you can assemble a collection of drawings to publish and save the list as a Drawing Set Descriptions (DSD) file. You can customize this collection of drawings for a specific user, and you can add and remove sheets as a project evolves. Once you've created a list of drawing sheets in the Publish dialog box, you can publish the drawings to any of the following:

• The plotter named in each sheet's page setup (including drawings that you want to plot to file)
• A single, multisheet DWF or DWFx containing both 2D and 3D content
• Multiple single-sheet DWF or DWFx containing both 2D and 3D content

Using 3D DWF publishing, you can create and publish DWF files of three-dimensional models and view them with Autodesk ^® Design Review.

Publishing an electronic drawing set as a DWF file saves time and increases productivity by providing accurate, compressed representations of drawings in a file that's easy to distribute and view. This also maintains the integrity of your original drawings.

When publishing DWF files, DWF6 files are generated, which are created in a vector-based format (except for inserted raster image content), ensuring that precision is maintained. DWF files can be distributed using email, FTP sites, project websites, or physical media.

You can specify which block-related properties and attributes you want to make available to others who are using Autodesk ^® Design Review to view or print your published DWF files. For example, you can publish a DWF file for a plumbing contractor that contains block attribute information about the plumbing fixtures specified in your drawing data. And, from the same set of sheets, you can include only the block attribute data about light fixtures for an electrical contractor.

By default, jobs that are published are processed in the background, so that you can return immediately to your drawing. Only one job that you have published can be processed in the background at a time. While a job is being processed in the background, you can check its status by placing the cursor over the plotter icon on the right side of the status bar. You can also view details about all completed jobs that you have plotted or published from the current session.

Procedures

To check the status of a published job that is being processed in the background

• Place the cursor over the plotter icon in the status tray. A tooltip displays the status of the job.

To cancel part or all of a published job that is processing in the background

• Right-click the plotter icon in the status tray. Click Cancel Sheet <sheetname> or Cancel Entire Job.

To view details about jobs you have published

1. On the status tray, click the plotter icon.
2. In the Plot and Publish Details dialog box, view details about published jobs.

To turn background publishing on or off

1. From the Application menu , click Options.
2. In the Options dialog box, Plot and Publish tab, under Background Processing Options, select or clear the Enable Background Plot When Publishing option.
3. Click OK.