Publish an Electronic Drawing Set

You can publish an electronic drawing set as a DWF, DWFx, or PDF file.

You can assemble drawing sheets into a customized electronic drawing set. An electronic drawing set is the digital equivalent of a set of plotted drawings. This enables you to share your work with customers, suppliers, or people within your own company who may need the drawings for review or for their records.

An electronic drawing set can be saved as

A single, multi-sheet DWF, DWFx, or PDF file
Multiple, single-sheet DWF or DWFx, or PDF files

You can also send the published electronic drawing set as an e-mail attachment, share it using a project collaboration site such as Autodesk Buzzsaw, or post it to a website. Using Autodesk Design Review, you can view or plot only the layouts you need.

You can use the default plotter driver as installed, or you can modify configuration settings such as color depth, display resolution, file compression, font handling, and other options. Once you modify the original plotter configuration file, all future plotting and publishing of DWF, DWFx, or PDF files will be affected.

ImportantCreate a copy of the original plotter configuration file before you make any changes.

See Also

Procedure

To create a DWF, DWFx, or PDF file using publish

Open a drawing. Click Output tabPublish panelPublish. At the Command prompt, enter publish.
The Publish dialog box is displayed. If the Include Layouts When Adding Sheets option is selected either in the shortcut menu or in the Publish dialog box, all the layouts in the current drawing are listed in the sheet list.
In the Publish dialog box, you can modify the list of sheets by doing any of the following as needed:
- Add sheets. To add sheets from other drawings, click the Add Sheets button (or drag drawings from the desktop). In the Select Drawings dialog box, select drawings. Click Select to add them to the list of sheets in the Publish dialog box. All of the layouts in a drawing become individual sheets in the list of drawing sheets. You must remove those sheets that you don't want to become a part of the drawing set.
NoteTo include all layouts when you add sheets to a drawing set, select — Include Layouts When Adding Sheets option in the shortcut menu or Layout Tab in the Include when adding sheets group.
- Include model layouts. If you include an uninitialized (the paper size is not defined in the page setup or is set to 0 x 0) model layout, it will be marked as Uninitialized in the Status column on the sheet list. It can be plotted if you select an override page setup for it in the Publish dialog box from the page setup drop-down list under Page Setups in the sheet list.
NoteTo include the model space when you add sheets to a drawing set, select — Include Model When Adding Sheets option in the shortcut menu or Model Tab in the Include when adding sheets group.
- Remove sheets. To remove sheets from the list, select one or more sheets, and then click the Remove Sheets button. To remove all sheets, right-click. Click Remove All.
- Reorder sheets. To reorder the sheets up or down one position in the list, select a sheet. Click either the Move Sheet Up or Move Sheet Down button. Sheets in the drawing set are viewed or plotted in the order shown in the list.
- Rename sheets. To rename a sheet, select it in the list and right-click. Click Rename Sheet. Enter the new sheet name.
- Change page setups. To change the page setup for a layout, select the sheet, and in the Page Setup list select a named page setup from the list; or select one or more sheets and right-click. Click Change Page Setup. In the Page Setup list, select a page setup, or select Import to import page setups from another drawing or template. In the Import Page Setups dialog box, select a drawing with one or more page setups. Click Import. In the Page Setup list, select a named page setup.
NoteChange the page setup for each layout depending on your desired output. Model space page setups can only be applied to model space sheets; paper space page setups can only be applied to paper space sheets.
- Copy sheets. To copy one or more drawing sheets, select the sheets in the list and right-click. Click Copy Selected Sheets. The copied drawing sheets are added and highlighted at the end of the sheet list. When a sheet is copied, its name is created by the addition of -Copy(n) at the end of the original sheet name. For example, if you create one copy of a sheet called Plumbing, the copied sheet is called Plumbing-Copy(1). Each time you copy the same sheet, the n is incremented by 1. By creating copies of a sheet, you can have different page setups and other settings for the same sheet.
When your list of drawing sheets is assembled and configured the way you want for your drawing set, click the Save Sheet List button.
NoteEnsure that you have saved your drawing before you click the Save Sheet List button.
In the Save List As dialog box, in the File Name box, enter a name for the list. Click Save.
The drawing set list is saved as a drawing set descriptions (DSD) file.
In the Publish dialog box, under Publish To, click DWF Format, and select DWF File or DWFx File. Click Publish.
In the Specify DWF File dialog box, enter a file name.
The Files of Type is DWF or DWFx based on the selected DWF format.
Click Select to provide the name and destination for the DWF or DWFx file.
NoteYou can also enter a URL so that the DWF or DWFx file is uploaded to an FTP or HTTP site.
Click Save to start the electronic drawing set creation.
If you have background publishing enabled, the animated plotter icon on the right side of the status bar indicates that the publish job is in progress.
To view information about the processed publish job, right-click the plotter icon on the right side of the status bar. Click View Plot and Publish Details.
The information in the Plot and Publish Details dialog box is also saved to the plot and Publish log file.
If you have the appropriate viewer installed, you can view the DWF or DWFx file. Right-click the plotter icon on the right side of the status. Click View DWF File.

To create a DWF, DWFx, or PDF file using Windows Explorer

Launch Windows Explorer.
Select the drawings to publish to DWF or DWFx.
Use Shift or Ctrl + Click to select contiguous or non-contiguous files.

NoteYou can publish only 2D DWF or 2D DWFx files using the shortcut menu in Windows Explorer.
Right-click the selection. Click Publish DWF.
The Specify DWF File dialog box appears in a temporary AutoCAD session.
Specify Files of type as either *.dwfx or *.dwf.

Type a file name, or select a file.

AutoCAD publishes the drawing file with the following options:

DWF type = Multi-sheet

Password = Disabled

Layer information = Don’t include

Block information = Don’t include

By default, the DWF/ DWFx/PDF file will be saved to the same location as the selected drawing file/s.

To create and email a DWF, DWFx, or PDF file using Windows Explorer

Launch Windows Explorer.
Select the drawings to publish to DWF / DWFx.
Use Shift or Ctrl + Click to select contiguous or non-contiguous files.

NoteYou can publish only 2D DWF or 2D DWFx using the shortcut menu in Windows Explorer.
Right-click the selection. Click Publish DWF and Email.
The Specify DWF File dialog box is displayed in a temporary AutoCAD session.
Specify Files of type as either *.dwfx or *.dwf.

Type a file name, or select a file.

The DWF or DWFx file contains the following settings:

DWF type = Multi-sheet

Password = Disabled

Layer information = Don’t include

Block information = Don’t include

AutoCAD launches your default mail application with the newly created DWF or DWFx as an attachment.

Quick Reference

Commands

System Variables