This month we are reviewing the new Whip Driver that Autodesk has developed for viewing AutoCAD drawings over the Internet. Autodesk announced in early November of 1996 that with the help of Netscape, together they have built an Internet browser / web page builder and are calling it the Internet Publishing Kit. This kit will allow AutoCAD users to place drawings on the Internet for viewing by anyone who has the new Whip drivers active in their browser. Autodesk is providing as a free download, the Whip driver that will allow you to see the .DWF, "drawing web format," files as well as a few different ways to pan and zoom.

The only thing I found that was buggy is that the Whip version 1.0 needs some extra files if you are using Microsoft's Explorer 3.0 as your browser due to the use of ActiveX. If you are using Netscape 3.0, the Whip version 1.0 is all you will need to view the .DWF files. In order to view .DWF files using Microsoft Explorer 3.0, and after you download and install the Whip 1.0 driver, you will need to change your securities safety level to medium and go to Autodesk's sample Web sites for the Whip driver and launch any of the sample sites. When you do this, Microsoft Explorer 3.0 will start to download files and advise you that the files may not be safe. I allowed this download to occur and in a few seconds, I had AutoCAD drawings on my Microsoft browser. You will need to have your safety setting on medium to view any .DWF file because the HTML code to generate the .DWF file is foreign to the Microsoft browser.

December 1996