1

is it possible to access and edit the data contained in a nwd file without navisworks?

I would like to write a little standalone program that I can distribute to user. This program would update data from an online database (like a DataTool connection) and provide every user with the updated data without them having Navisworks Manage, or without having me to pass regularly a new version of the model (which in my case are very large files) only to update this data.

Basically I would like to do what a plugin does, but standalone without opening the file in Navisworks Manage.

Thanks a lot!

JSDBroughton
  • 3,966
  • 4
  • 32
  • 52
qa91
  • 11
  • 1
  • .nwd is the file type in which 3d models are shared.. it contains all the graphics but also the data, all in one file – qa91 Feb 09 '21 at 02:17
  • The question is tagged [xml]. Why? Is it because .nwd files are XML files? – mzjn Feb 09 '21 at 02:40
  • .nwd files are not XML. I tagged the question with xml because when importing/exporting for example search sets from Navisworks, they come in xml, and also the structure of the selection tree resemble a xml file, so I though it may be relevant – qa91 Feb 09 '21 at 03:49
  • here an example of a nwd https://resources.oreilly.com/examples/0636920037798/blob/master/Learning%20Autodesk%20Navisworks%20-%20Working%20Files/Chapter%201/Merge%20Our%20Copy.nwd – qa91 Feb 09 '21 at 03:52
  • If .nwd files are not XML, then the [xml] tag seems misleading. I don't know what "search sets" or "selection trees" are. I hope someone else can help. – mzjn Feb 09 '21 at 04:41
  • Any interface with the Navisworks file format is most likely with C# using the published SDK. Bear in mind that any standalone use of these libraries will require an active license for Autodesk Navisworks on the user's machine. – JSDBroughton Apr 09 '21 at 11:59
  • thank you all for the answers! @JSDBroughton maybe it was a bit naive of me, but you know how you can change the extension of an excel to .zip and see the actual files contained inside? I was hoping for a way to see the different files contained in .nwd.. thanks for the feedback, I'll keep looking and the fist time I will need to serve a 2w quarantine i'll dig myself in this! – qa91 Apr 11 '21 at 10:01
  • @qa91no such luck for nwd – JSDBroughton Apr 12 '21 at 18:24

0 Answers0