A look inside a DWF

Are you aware you can look at the inside of a DWF file? All you need to do is rename the .dwf file extension to .zip and then open it in a Zip archive tool like WinZip.

For example I used the Publish command in AutoCAD 2005 to publish to DWF the sample drawing 8th Floor Plan. I then renamed the resulting .dwf to .zip. Inside the file I see the following:

• manifest.xml (XML -definition of what the DWF contains)
• 7PvQVH9RxE+EhNTtXBMeOg.png (DWF thumbnail preview image)
• 7PvQVH9RxE+EhNTtXBMePA.pia (XML -viewport data)
• 7PvQVH9RxE+EhNTtXBMePQ.w2d (XML -2D vector data)
• descriptor.xml (XML -metadata, page ordering,etc)
• ePlotGlobal.xml (XML data - page set data and markup)
• REY7yKniKE2W3OY89Otmyg.dsd(plot settings)

From the free toolkit Help:

The DWF package can contain many kinds of design data such as 2D graphics, 3D graphics, package and section metadata, and other resource files.

DWF metadata files – XML files that contain information pertaining to metadata and structure (author, title, creation time, section dependencies, section ordering, resource file descriptions, roles, mimetypes, etc.) and pertaining to the section (page information, design metadata, etc.).  The structural metadata is used to create logical objects (collections of files to represent a part or page, etc.).

Resource files – media or other content files that are referenced from the package/section metadata and are usually presentations of design data in various formats (ZGL, W2D, JPG, PNG, AVI, XML, TXT, DOC, etc.)

Creating DWFs for Free
Read how to publish DWF files from Autodesk software and other applications.

DWF v6.0 Toolkit
The DWF™ 6.0 Toolkit allows you to develop applications that read or write multi-sheet drawings in DWF™ (Design Web Format™) format. The DWF toolkit is intended for experienced C++ programmers.