Open Source software is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify or enhance. Freeware products can be used free of charge for both personal and professional (commercial use). It also contains the ‘AutoCAD’ plot engine which is great if you wish to convert DWGs to PDF format.Freeware programs can be downloaded used free of charge and without any time limitations. This is very useful and is an essential application for users that need to work with drawings, but not edit or create them. Notable options include options to preserve annotation style functionality, the purging of unused styles, removing and resetting plotter definitions and the binding (localising) of external reference files (Xrefs).

Select the files you want to process and choose the ultimate destination format from a standard list of formats, or if you do need to set some bespoke options choose the conversion setup option. Running the command initiates a dialogue, which is very similar to the Etransmit command in AutoCAD which can batch process drawings for issue. This DWGconvert function is located on the main application menu. It looks just like AutoCAD, but you cannot create or edit drawings just view, print and convert them to older formats. This application lets you view, print and convert drawings to older formats. Once installed the application will create the following icon on your desktop:

This is a free viewer application which can be downloaded and installed from: Ĭhoose the Trueview option (not the free web viewer). Well one option is to upgrade or purchase a new copy of AutoCAD, but there is another free solution using Autodesk DWG Trueview. AutoCAD obviously has a function where you can back save a file to older formats, but if you are a recipient of a newer AutoCAD file format and do not own that version of AutoCAD, how do you convert the drawing back to a useable form? Every few years Autodesk changes the DWG file format to accommodate new features.

I often get asked about AutoCAD not being able to open drawings created in newer versions.

Trueview 2022