Drawing preview in Windows Explorer

David Waight

I have searched the knowledge base and the internet, but can't seem to find any reference to this question.

Is there a way to see a preview of my dwg/dxf files when I am looking in folders for my drawing files?

All I get when I right click in a folder window and then View, navigate to the different size icon choices; All I get are bigger or smaller of what looks like a page with a folded corner and the Bricscad logo.

I know I have some settings in Windows correct as I can see .pdf, .jpg etc.

Am I doing something wrong or does this facility not exist?

I am running V15 on Windows 7 64bit.

Thanks in advance,

David

martin@enco.us

What is your setting for "Raster preview"?

David Waight

@H Martin Shoemaker:

What is your setting for "Raster preview"?

Mr Shoemaker, thanks for the reply, I can confirm that it is set to On.

As you can see from the two screen grabs (hopefully they are big enough to read), I do have previews when I am in Bricscad and opening a drawing, but not when viewing files in Windows Explorer.

Thanks again,

David

Windows Explorer.png

Bricscad Open File.png

Scott McKenzie

Give this one a shot, I've never used it so I can't tell you much more than is on the website, I came across it by doing a quick Google Search for Windows Explorer DWG Preview: http://www.explorerview.com/windows-explorer-download.php

martin@enco.us

I tried a search of "windows explorer thumbnails not showing" and found many posts.  Having low available space on the hard drive of limited (2GB) of RAM seem to be common causes.  Recreating the thumbnail cache might also help.

Jim Cox

Hi David

have a look at EFM file Manager.

it's a stand alone program which does a great job at viewing DWG, DXF's and many more file formats.

it's has the ability to be customized to fit you work flow.

have a look at www.etecad.com

also BricsCAD dwg files have a very low resolution bitmap compared to Autocad, so when displayed in a file viewer the quality is not that good.

we had to get ETECAD to modify EFM to display BrcsCAD DWG files at a hi-resolution.

cheers

Jim

@David Waight:

I have searched the knowledge base and the internet, but can't seem to find any reference to this question.

Is there a way to see a preview of my dwg/dxf files when I am looking in folders for my drawing files?

All I get when I right click in a folder window and then View, navigate to the different size icon choices; All I get are bigger or smaller of what looks like a page with a folded corner and the Bricscad logo.

I know I have some settings in Windows correct as I can see .pdf, .jpg etc.

Am I doing something wrong or does this facility not exist?

I am running V15 on Windows 7 64bit.

Thanks in advance,

David

Louis_Verdonck

@Jim Cox:

also BricsCAD dwg files have a very low resolution bitmap compared to Autocad, so when displayed in a file viewer the quality is not that good.

we had to get ETECAD to modify EFM to display BrcsCAD DWG files at a hi-resolution.

Please note that the resolution of the BricsCAD bitmap image is controlled by the THUMBSIZE system variable. The default size is 128x128, max. size is 2560x2560

Jim Cox

 hi Louis

yes i know about THUMBSIZE but when we change the setting to a hi res it makes no difference, it seems that the colours are not very bright.

Patrik Sparrman

Tried EFM way back just for this purpouse, be aware tough that if you have a lot of files in each directory it is VERY slow. ( at least it used to be). Things may have changed. I definately have the use for visual browsing of files . Up until a year ago I kept my files in a single directory/1000 drawings. Today I keep 1-10 dwgs in each for other reasons. Unfortunately this makes visual browsing basically undoable. In my case I get a lot of external drawings of very similar Projects and 1. I dont want to invent the wheel and 2. If I have the same customer for two very similar projects I want to solve them in a similar way. 

John Gaunt

In all the years I don't believe I have ever had dwg previews in windows explorer or other file manager.
Directory Opus says you need a plugin and one is produced by autodesk.
I will look further, I had given up same as searching directories of dwg files.