Navisworks DWG/DXF &DWF/DWFx File readers

by Garry Stockton

The DWG/DXF file reader uses Autodesk's ObjectDBX technology and so is guaranteed to read all object geometry and information for those third party applications that utilise the ObjectDBX Framework.

The structure of the drawing is preserved including xrefs, blocks, inserts, AutoCAD colour index, layers, views and active viewpoint. Entities are coloured using the AutoCAD Colour Index (ACI), so will match those in an AutoCAD ‘shaded’ view.

Please Note: The file reader supports files from all products based on AutoCAD 2020 and earlier.

Supported Entities

All 2D and 3D geometry, including arcs, lines, polylines with non-zero thickness, ACIS objects (regions and solids), polygon and polyface meshes, 3D faces and surfaces.

• Points and snap points.
• Lines, polylines, circles, arcs with zero thickness.
• Named views
• Layers
• Colours
• Blocks, inserts and multiple inserts
• Groups
• External references (xrefs)
• Hyperlinks
• Text or multi-line text
• Entity handles
• Attributes
• Textures
• File properties
• Unsupported Entities
• Lights
• Splines
• Multi-lines
• Linetypes
• Dimensions and leaders
• Raster bitmaps
• Construction lines (xlines and rays)
• Hatching

Autodesk DWF was specifically developed by Autodesk as a file format for architects, engineers, and GIS professionals to share 2D- and 3D- design data. DWF files are highly compressed and retain detailed design information and scale. The newest version of the DWF file format, DWFx, is based on the XML Paper Specification (XPS) from Microsoft. DWFx files can be opened and printed instantly using the free Microsoft XPS Viewer. Unlike DWF files, DWFx files include additional information to display design data in the Microsoft XPS Viewer. As such, DWFx files are larger than corresponding DWF files.

Supported Entities

• All 3D geometry
• Texture maps
• Texture coordinates
• Colours (per-vertex, per-face)
• Property fields
• Categories
• 2D lines/plot sections
• Hyperlinks (2D - see Add Links)
• Thumbnails (for 2020 files or later)
• Sheet property (for 2020 files or later)
• More than one 3D section per file (multi-sheet file support)
• Unsupported Entities
• Marked-up sketches
• NURBS surfaces
• Cameras