[quote="DRRachels"]inkslinger,
Would you be kind enough to provide instructions on how to install and set up the Brava DWG viewer to work with Opus9. I have downloaded the file and installed it on my system (XP Pro) but I can't find a way to enable it in Opus. I'm sure this is a grey matter problem on my part but you experience would save me from a major headache. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!
[/quote]
Hi DRRachels,
Sorry not to have responded sooner, but I haven't been to the forum in many months, and also didn't have this thread set to send me notifications when it was updated.
Recently, someone else PM'd me, asking for any tips on how to get Brava Free DWG Viewer working inside DOpus 9.
At the time of my original post (June 2006), I had downloaded & installed Brava Viewer & was able to look at dwg and dxf files in DOpus 8's filmstrip mode without having to do anything too tricky. It worked fine.
However, for some reason, the company that makes the Free DWG Viewer has designed it so that it "expires" every four months, and you're forced to reinstall. This should be just a minor inconvenience, but after one of those updates, I wasn't able to preview dwg files anymore, just dxf files.
Since someone on the forum had just asked me about Brava Viewer and DOpus 9, I just upgraded to version 9 yesterday and installed the latest Brava Viewer. At that point, I couldn't get either dxf or dwg files to open.
I uninstalled, reinstalled, tried other ActiveX-based CAD viewers and had a very frustrating time over the last couple of days.
But the good news is I had a breakthrough & figured out how to make it work today! There was something further that I discovered which had to be set correctly, something outside of the DOpus Preferences
I should also mention that this computer is running Windows XP Pro, and our CAD software is CG Survey 7, with uses a licensed AutoCAD 2004 engine, so essentially we have a stripped-down version of AutoCAD 2004 on our computers. And I'm now using Directory Opus 9.
So here's everything I can think of:
Download and install Brava Free DWG Viewer (which is a free ActiveX plugin).
http://www.bravaviewer.com/viewers.htm
In Directory Opus, go to Settings > Preferences > Plugins. The box next to "ActiveX Document" should be checked. (I don't know how much it matters, but you can re-order this list of plugins. For me, "ActiveX" is the first plugin on the list.)
Click on words "ActiveX Document" to select. Click on Configure. A popup shows the ActiveX document plugin viewer configuration screen. On the left is a list of file type extensions handled by ActiveX. Type ".dwg" in the small white box on the left bottom. Click "Add." Click "Ok." Repeat for ".dxf" and ".dwf". Close "Preferences."
Now, launch Brava Free DWG Viewer. (When I installed it, an icon for this program was placed on my computer desktop.)
Make sure that you can successfully view the dxf and dwg files by opening a file of your choice.
If it looks right, [here was the breakthrough] then in the Brava Free DWG Viewer, go to the "Options" menu. Click on it and choose "Set As Default Viewer."
There's a popup which is labelled "Associate File Types with Free DWG Viewer" that has two tabs. Click on the tab that says "Display with Brava Free DWG Viewer Inside Internet Explorer."
Click on the folder labelled "CAD/Plot file format(s)". Check the boxes for dwf, dxf, dwg. Click okay. Close the viewer and now go to Directory Opus, and choose the same file, and try viewing it in filmstrip mode.
Let me know if this helps.
P.S. We don't use dwf files, but--for the sake of completeness--since I saw that it is one of the options in Brava Viewer, I enabled dwf files (and also in DOpus), downloaded a sample dwf file off the Web, and was able to preview it!