DWG is AutoCAD’s own format and DXF the one CAD programs use to swap drawings: floor plans from an architect, parts for a laser cutter or CNC router, site plans, exports from AutoCAD, LibreCAD, SolidWorks and Fusion. This opens either and draws it - lines, arcs, circles, polylines, splines, text, dimensions, leaders, hatches and blocks, in the drawing’s own colours and linetypes - with pan and zoom, a list of layers to switch on and off, and a measuring tool that snaps to corners and ends.
A DWG is first converted to DXF in the page by LibreDWG, the GNU project’s DWG reader, compiled to WebAssembly; the converter (about 10 MB) downloads the first time, and the converted DXF can be saved. Hatch patterns are shown as a light tint of their colour rather than line by line, tables are not drawn, and only model space is shown - not the paper-space sheet layouts. It is free to use, with no account and no upload limit, and it runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded, and while the page stays open, a feature you have already used keeps working offline.
- Can it convert a DWG to DXF?
- Yes. Open the DWG and a .dxf button appears next to PNG and SVG; it saves the converted drawing, with its layers in the same on, off and frozen states as the original, ready for LibreCAD, a laser cutter’s software or any other program that reads DXF.
- How accurate is the measuring tool?
- As accurate as the drawing: when a click lands within a few pixels of a corner or an end it snaps to that exact point, and the distance is worked out from the coordinates in the file. The units come from the drawing’s own setting, so a file saved without one shows plain numbers.
- Why does the drawing look different from AutoCAD?
- Mainly fonts and hatching. Text is drawn in a standard sans-serif rather than the drawing’s SHX fonts, so lettering can be slightly wider or narrower, and hatch patterns show as a tint. Leaders are drawn without their arrowheads, and tables are left out. Geometry, layers, colours and linetypes follow the file.
- Is the drawing sent to a server?
- No. The file is read, converted and drawn by the page itself - the DWG converter is downloaded to your browser, not your drawing to a server - which matters for drawings of someone’s house, or a part that is not public yet.
- Why is the source code of this viewer published?
- The DWG converter, LibreDWG, is licensed under the GNU GPL, which asks that software built with it shares its own source on the same terms. So the viewer’s code is published under GPL-3.0 at /source/dxf-viewer/ on this site, and anyone may read, change or reuse it.