Web file downloads of dwg

I post drawings on our website for clients to download. In the past I have used zip files.

When these files are linked to the zip file and I double click on the published webpage the down load file applet appears prompting me to down load to the harddrive.

When I do this to a dwg file it wants embed itself in a browser and not the down load file applet like I want. I can use the right click "save target as..." to down load to the hard drive but would prefer to just double click > download.

Does anyone know why it does this. Is this an html, browser, or server issue.

Can someone help me or inform me on the best way to post drawings on a website for download.

I am not a tech head. I have a fairly good understanding of Frontpage and html and AutoCAD 2005.

 

Because your browser doesn't know what to do with .ZIP files.

Because your browser *does* know what to do with .DWG files. Maybe you
have the VoloView plug-in installed?

See above

Why not use FTP? IE and Mozilla will display files in a directory.
For example: ftp://ftp.simtel.com/pub/

 

Thanks. That helped me understand the process. Interesting idea about the ftp. I hadn't thought of that option.

 

yeah, we ran into the same problem, but in a CHM help file -- when Volo View is installed, it wants to open up a dwg in a window, instead of prompting to open or download it. I think they were trying to make it like Adobe Acrobat, but at least Acrobat has nice toolbar buttons to easily save the file.
I started to look into how to disable the IE VoloView plugin, but decided it was easier to just uninstall it.

if you have to stick with html-based links, there's several scripts out there to force download a file. I like the PHP one by Ralf Stadtaus: http://www.stadtaus.com/

--Jeremiah