DWG Viewer
Open a DWG without AutoCAD. Every version from R14 to 2018+, viewed in your browser, never uploaded.
Built and maintained by Matúš Koleják, Co-Founder, TechDraw AI
Updated
Drop a file here. It never leaves your browser.
DXF (ASCII or binary), DWG (R14 to 2018+), SVG · any size · free · view, then download as DXF, DWG, SVG, PDF or STL
Have a different file? DXF Viewer
How to view a DWG online
Add your DWG
Drop a DWG onto the tool, or click to choose one. It is read in your browser and never uploaded.
Pan, zoom, toggle layers
Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, double-click to fit. Tick layers on and off, hide text, read the size.
Download if you need to
The same page writes DXF, DWG, SVG, PDF and STL from what you are looking at.
What happens to your file
The DWG is parsed in your browser, model space is flattened to lines, and drawn on a canvas you can pan and zoom. Layers can be switched on and off, text can be hidden, and the size is read from the file's own units. Nothing is uploaded.
Whatever cannot be converted is listed under the preview by type and count, so a drawing with 3D solids or an external reference tells you so instead of coming out quietly incomplete. Need a photo or scan turned into a drawing instead? That is the image to DXF converter and the AI drawing generator.
About formats
DWG (from 'drawing') is the native binary file format of AutoCAD, created by Mike Riddle in the late 1970s for Interact CAD and adopted by Autodesk in 1982 when AutoCAD 1.0 shipped. Unlike DXF, which was designed to be exchanged and can be read as plain text, DWG is a compact binary container built for working files: it stores the full model alongside everything that surrounds it, including layers, blocks and block attributes, layouts and paper space, line types, text styles, dimension styles, annotative scaling, external references and 3D geometry. Because it is binary and densely packed, a DWG is typically a fraction of the size of the same drawing written as DXF, which matters once a file carries thousands of entities. The format is versioned in step with AutoCAD releases, and the version matters in practice: a file written for a newer release will not open in an older one, which is why AC1015 (AutoCAD 2000) is still the safest version to hand someone, since every release since reads it. The specification is proprietary and Autodesk has never published it, so other software reads and writes DWG either through Autodesk's own RealDWG libraries or through the Open Design Alliance's independently developed implementation. DWG remains the working master format across architecture, engineering and construction, with DXF used for the handoff.
- Developer:
- Autodesk
- Initial release:
- 1982
Frequently asked questions
Is the DWG viewer free?
Yes, with no watermark and no file limit. Everything runs in your browser, so the file never leaves your computer; a free account is needed only to download a converted file. Viewing needs no account at all.
Is my DWG uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is opened by JavaScript running in your browser tab and never sent to a server. You can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and the tool keeps working. That is the main reason to prefer this over an upload-and-email converter for a drawing you are not allowed to share.
Which DWG versions open?
AutoCAD R14 (AC1014) through AutoCAD 2018 and later (AC1032), which covers every DWG written in the last twenty-five years, including files from BricsCAD, ZWCAD, DraftSight and Fusion. If a particular file refuses, the usual cause is an add-on object the reader cannot decode; saving it as DXF from the program that made it and dropping that works.
What does the viewer show?
Model space: lines, polylines, circles, arcs, ellipses, splines, hatches, solids, text, dimensions and block inserts, each in its layer colour, on a dark canvas with a millimetre grid and a scale bar. Layers that are off or frozen in the file start hidden; you can toggle any layer. 3D solids, meshes, raster images and external references are not drawn and are listed as skipped so you know they are there.
Can I measure or edit?
You can read the overall size and zoom in to judge detail, and you can download the drawing as DXF, DWG, SVG, PDF or STL from the same page. It is a viewer, not an editor: for editing, open the DXF or DWG in a CAD program.
What is not converted?
3D solids, surfaces, meshes and regions (ACIS data), raster images, PDF underlays, OLE objects, external references, and paper-space layouts. Tables, multileaders and tolerances are read but not drawn. Whatever was skipped is listed under the preview after the file opens, by entity type and count, so nothing disappears silently.
I have a DXF or SVG instead. Can I still use this?
Yes. The converter on every one of these pages accepts DXF, DWG and SVG, whichever page you started from, and offers every output it can produce from that file.
Is there an API?
Not for this tool yet. The converter runs entirely client-side. The REST API, command line tool and MCP server currently cover image to DXF, DWG and STL; if you need vector conversion in a pipeline, say so at the contact page and it moves up the list.