A CAD licence for one drawing a week
A client’s project manager is sent a DWG every few days and needs only to look at it. Installing CAD software, or asking the architect for a PDF of every file, both cost more time than the drawing is worth.
DWG and DXF viewer
View DWG without AutoCAD, in the project’s own folders
Clients, site teams and subcontractors receive DWG and DXF files from designers who work in CAD, while they themselves have no CAD licence and no wish to buy one to look at a drawing. Fidrel opens DWG and DXF files in the browser, in the same folders as the project’s PDFs, Word and Excel files, so a drawing can be read, compared and checked without installing anything. This page compares reading a drawing as DWG with reading it as PDF, and says what Fidrel’s viewer shows and leaves out.
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The trouble with receiving DWGs
The PDF and the DWG disagree
The PDF was plotted last week and the DWG was updated yesterday. When the two are kept in different places, nobody is sure which one the site should be reading.
Copies on every laptop
Each download becomes another copy in someone’s downloads folder, and the next question about the drawing is answered from whichever copy happens to be open.
DWG, DXF or PDF: which to read
A PDF is the author’s plot: fixed, printed at a chosen scale, with the title block and the layers the author decided to show. It is what you build from when it has been issued for construction. A DWG is the drawing itself, with every layer, the model and the sheets, which is useful for checking what lies under a note or whether a services route was drawn at all. DXF is an exchange format for the same kind of content, often what a supplier or surveyor sends. Read the PDF for the issued information, and open the DWG when you need to look behind it.
Documents, drawings & models
What the viewer shows
Fidrel shows DWG and DXF files beside PDFs, images and Office documents, and you can open several files in tabs or two side by side. Within a drawing you can move between model space and the sheets, show or hide layers, and choose a paper, dark or monochrome background. The drawing is converted in your browser, and a converted drawing is kept only in that page’s memory, never stored in the browser.
Opening a DWG in Fidrel
Step 1
Keep the DWG in the project’s folders
Upload the DWG or DXF into the folder where the project keeps its drawings. Access follows the folder’s permissions, so the drawing is seen by the same people as the PDFs beside it.
Step 2
Open it in the browser
Click the file to open it in the viewer. Zoom and pan, choose Model or one of the sheets under Views and sheets, and switch the display between paper, dark and monochrome.
Step 3
Turn layers on and off
Open Layers to show or hide each layer, or use Show all layers and Hide all layers. Switching layers off is the quickest way to read a crowded services drawing one system at a time.
Step 4
Check the compatibility report
The viewer marks every DWG view as unverified. Open the Compatibility report to see processing warnings, objects not displayed and external references, and download the original whenever accuracy matters.
Getting a DWG to open well
The viewer reads DWG files saved in AutoCAD 2018 or 2013 format best. Ask the author to run AUDIT and PURGE before saving, to bind external references with BIND or eTransmit, and to export drawings from AutoCAD Architecture, MEP, Civil 3D or Plant 3D with EXPORTTOAUTOCAD so their special objects become ordinary lines and text. Keep the file under 32 MB and without a password. When a file will not show, the original can still be downloaded and opened elsewhere.
From viewing to a PDF
Viewing is often only the first step. In Drawing Studio a DWG, or a DXF, can be the base of a drawing that is plotted on a chosen paper size, measured at the scale of the file’s units, and exported or published as a PDF. Nothing is drawn on it there, and the DWG itself stays untouched. The guide to DWG to PDF explains what survives that conversion.
What the DWG viewer does not do
Fidrel shows DWG and DXF files but does not edit them, and the view is an interpretation that may leave out or simplify content. Filled areas are shown filled, but 3D solids are not shown, so ask for a PDF of the drawing as well when its appearance matters. A layout shows what its viewports see, but viewports turned off, without a size or view, or with a 3D view are left out. Files from AutoCAD R13 and older are not read. The DWG must be uploaded to a Fidrel project to be viewed; there is no viewer for files that stay on your own computer.
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DWG and DXF viewer
Frequently asked questions
Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usYes. Upload it to a project in Fidrel and click it: the drawing opens in the browser with its layers, model and sheets, with no CAD software installed.
Yes. DXF files open in the same viewer as DWG files, beside the project’s PDFs, images and Office documents.
Because the DWG is interpreted in the browser, and content may be missing or simplified. The compatibility report shows what was not displayed, and the original can be downloaded.
The viewer is for reading. To measure, open the drawing in Drawing Studio, where the scale is taken from the DWG file’s units and the Measure tool reads lengths and areas.
Whoever may open the folder they are stored in. DWG files follow the same folder permissions as every other document in the project.
Check the compatibility report, ask the author for a file saved as AutoCAD 2018 or 2013 with references bound, and download the original to open it in CAD.