TeamDWF‘s headline story, Internet Explorer 7 Will Break DWF & DWG Viewers, highlights a potential problem whereby users of the new Microsoft browser (see BBC story) could find that it breaks Autodesk DWF Viewer, Autodesk Design Review, and Autodesk DWG TrueView. The problem arises because these applications use HTML as part of their menu interfaces, with operational support from code in Internet Explorer (the issue was identified earlier this week by Autodesk blogger Scott Sheppard). Uninstalling Internet Explorer 7 and reverting to Internet Explorer 6 does not restore the functionality either.
Among users of construction collaboration technologies (aka ‘project extranets’), this news may cause some unease. Most systems employ viewer applications, often from third-parties such as Cimmetry, and if these viewers function in the same way as the Autodesk products, then users may find themselves unable to view drawings if their browser has been upgraded to IE7 (it will be an automatic update to Windows XP in November).
TeamDWF.com is a new online publication devoted to the use of Autodesk’s DWF publishing technology for collaboration. Autodesk, not surprisingly, is the site’s founding sponsor (though others are apparently welcome); AECnews is the owner/publisher.
