Export to dwf or dwfx

[Johan_Degreef]

I export my assemblies to dwf or dwfx for viewing in Navisworks. Downside is all the coloring I made to subassemblies with FINNISH are gone. Is this a setting? I choose dwf/dwfx over NWD format because inventor can directly export to dwf and not to NWD. I can open directly iam in navisworks, but we work with Vault and not everybody has acces to it.

Thx, Johan

[oscar_idehall]

Hello,

If FINNISH some sort of tool? Anyway when I export DWFx the same as you are describing I went over to Properties tab in Inventor 2024 and switched over to custom properties and made sure the Color/Surface were checked (might be custom iProperties) and the material. All the colours from my sub assemblies followed into Navis.

Good luck

BR

/Oscar

[Johan_Degreef]

@oscar_idehall It sounds logic, but I don't see color/surface in my publish dialog box' properties...?

[rosie_lucas1]

Hi @Johan_Degreef,

I wanted to check in and see if you still needed assistance, or if you found a solution to your question already? Let us know if you need further assistance by providing an update or if you have found a solution, please share it with the community so other members who may have the same question could learn from your experience.

All the best,

Rosie | Community Manager

[Ihor_Radikhovskyi]

What you are seeing is usually related to how colors are assigned in Inventor and what DWF export actually includes.

In DWF/DWFx export, Navisworks reads appearance mainly from the component/material level. If colors were applied as assembly overrides (for example using Finish/Appearance at assembly level), they are not always written into the published DWF unless those properties are included.

Two things to check:

First, in Publish → Custom → Properties, make sure appearance/material related properties are enabled. In some Inventor versions the option is shown as Material rather than Color/Surface, and if Express publish is used these properties are skipped.

Second, verify how the color was applied. If the subassembly color comes from an assembly-level override (component color), it may not transfer reliably to DWF. Assigning the appearance at part or subassembly level (not only as override in the parent assembly) usually exports correctly to Navisworks.

So in practice the most reliable workflow is: apply appearance in the component itself (or via material), then publish with Custom properties including material/appearance. After that the colors should appear in Navisworks.