Sharepoint doesn't generate a preview of my Autocad drawings, multiple versions

[Anonymous]

We are creating a drawing repository in sharepoint for our plant, I am talking about thousands of numerous versions of .dwgs in a sharepoint library. So sharepoint has a viewer for dwg that usually works but for more than half of the files, it doesn't generate the preview, after seing a thumbnail magnification for a few seconds, it posts the following message on the middle of the screen:

"hmm... looks like this file doesn't have a preview we can show you"

And that is it. I have tried saving the same problematic dwg's in 200/2003/2007/2010/2013/2018 formats and that did not solve the problem, the files still don't get a preview. Anyone knows why the dwg's don't get a preview and a workaround for this? Any settings I could do?

[fatal.error]

Have you checked if THUMBSAVE system variable is set to 1?

0 No preview image is saved in the drawing

1  A preview image is created and saved in the drawing

What about the THUMBSIZE system variable?

0  64x64

1   128x128

2   256x256

3   512x512

4   1024x1024

5   1440x1440

6   1600x1600

7   1920x1920

8   2560x2560

There's also a THUMBNAIL PREVIEW SETTINGS dialog box. Just type the OPTIONS command, go to the OPEN AND SAVE tab and finally hit the THUMBNAIL PREVIEW SETTINGS button.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your help, but the "preview" is not the thumbnail. The thumbnail shows up for a few seconds, followed by the preview. I figured that out by increasing the thumbnail resolution and resaving the file, so it generetes a really good image instantly before failing to generate the preview... I thought it had to do with proxy graphics, but no... Some drawings don't have proxy graphics and don't open either.

Still looking for an answer...

[pendean]

"preview" of a file's content is a feature (or lack of a feature) in Sharepoint: nothing in AutoCAD will correct that, it can only offer up the more neutral used-by-Windows-File-Manager thumbnail option.

[Anonymous]

I don't quite understand your comment. Once again, autocad thumbnail is a totally different thing from sharepoint embedded autocad preview. Although sharepoint can display all dwg thumbnails in thumbnail view, it cannot generate the preview for many of these drawings. I am pretty sure there is an intelligence behind that and that is what we are looking for.

[fatal.error]

You are right. Sharepoint creates and render a full-size preview, converting i.e. Autocad Texts into HTML elements. Nothing to do with thumbnail pixels:

<div class="od-OneUpPdf-thumbnail" data-bind="control:thumbnailComponent">
<!--ko if:hasError--><!--/ko-->
<!--ko if:!hasError()&&hasThumbnail()-->
<!--ko component:{name:thumbnailTagName,params:thumbnailParams}-->

There's a dedicated SharePoint forum: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-us/home?category=sharepoint

Maybe they can offer you a workaround.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your research, I can try to get an answer within the sharepoint community, but it looks like the embedded viewer is under Autodesk care and I would still leave this unresolved for now. I would dare to say that the error message comes from the Autodesk product and sharepoint just handles the standard error screen when it gets it.

Any thoughts?

[pendean]

Sadly this is not the place to report Sharepoint review issues: you can try starting a support ticket at your Autodesk account page as well as over here https://www.autodesk.com/company/contact-us/product-feedback

[Anonymous]

I am afraid I would have to disagree with you Pendean. This is an Autodesk viewer embedded in Sharepoint. The generated error is from the Autodesk application, sharepoint just wraps up and displays the error message.

So I am looking for a tweek in my dwg files to overcome this effect. Nothing about sharepoint will change this.

Still hoping somebody out there has a solution for that.

Anybody else?