COMMAND OF THE MONTH

Command of the Month: Publish to Web
by Ralph Grabowski

The emphasis in AutoCAD 2000i is on integration with the Internet. Hence the "i" tacked onto the end of 2000. (This applies to AutoCAD LT 2000i as well.) Truth be told, Autodesk has been adding Internet features for several releases of AutoCAD, ever since DWF export and hyperlinking was added to R14 mid-release.

This month, I'll show you how to use 2000i's Publish to Web feature. Essentially, this is a wizard whose purpose is to help you through the steps to output a drawing as a Web page.

In addition to the Publish to Web wizard, you can "manually" export AutoCAD drawings using the DwfOut command, which simply exports the drawing to a DWF file (short for "drawing Web format"). You then have to do the work to add the HTML code to make the DWF file appear in a Web page.

A third alternative is to use the Plot command's ePlot option, but this performs essentially the same function as the undocumented DwfOut command.
Before exporting, you may want to place hyperlinks in the drawing using the Hyperlinks command.

Caution: While AutoCAD can export a DWG file to DWF format, AutoCAD cannot import DWF files. There are, however, third-party converts able to do this.
While there is on-line help available for this command, it is too sparse to be of any use. The tutorials provide additional information that may be helpful to you.

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Command: PublishToWeb
Purpose: Creates a Web page from the current drawing.
Notes: This command is also available in AutoCAD LT 2000i.

Aliases: none
Shortcut: Alt+FW
Menu bar: File | Publish to Web
Tablet menu: none
Status bar: none
Toolbar: Standard

Related commands:
DwfOut Exports the drawing as a DWF file.
Plot The ePlot options exports the drawing as a DWF file.
Hyperlink Places hyperlinks in the drawing.

Related system variables:
none

Example command usage:
Command: publishtoweb
(Displays the Publish to Web wizard.)

Follow the instructions in each step of the wizard.

View Past Commands of the Month