DWG Format

The DWG format is a special type of file that is designed to store 2D and 3D project data and metadata. This format was developed by Mike Riddle in the late 1970s for the company Interact CAD, and then Autodesk in 1982 licensed it and began to use it as the main format for storing its graphic files.

To date, the DWG format has two specifications. The first one was developed by the non-commercial consortium Open Design Alliance and it can be found on the Internet. A specification from Autodesk is available only to those developers who have been registered and approved by this company. It is known that with the appearance of each subsequent version of AutoCAD in the format of the DWG file changes are made. Before the 11th version of this program was released, the DWG format changed to a small extent. As a rule, the changes concerned only those moments that were associated with the new possibilities of the new versions that appeared. In the 12th version of AutoCAD, the DWG format has remained almost unchanged, but it only happened because AutoCAD13 was created to work with the almost new DWG format.

In the future, with the advent of the 14th and later versions of AutoCAD, new and new changes to this file type are occurring.

Since the DWG format has not been published, many developers of various software have attempted to decode it and apply it to create commercial programs. For example, various dDWG format converters and applications for viewing this type of files were created.

In the end, despite the resistance of Autodesk, the OpenDWG Alliance was created - an open community that set a goal to make this format available to all participants in this alliance.

In order to be able to exchange drawings between AutoCAD and any other program, Autodesk proposed to use the DXF-format. It has open code, and the specification for it is included in each set of documentation for the AutoCAD program.

Autodesk is not going to share its monopoly on this format with anyone. Evidence of this is the technology TrustedDWG, which is built into the latest versions in AutoCAD. Its purpose is to check the type of file being opened and notify the user if it turns out that the file is not stored in an application developed by Autodesk or a program developed under the RealDWG ™ license. This technology does not make it possible to fix possible errors in the file, but to open the file or not - it's for the user to decide. However, this option can be disabled in the program.

Suppose you have a file with a DWG format. How to open it and view the information stored in it? If your profession is not related to the design and creation of drawings, it is not necessary to search for paid and voluminous AutoCAD on the Internet. You can use the free utility DWG TrueView ™, which, in addition to viewing, can convert and convert drawings, as well as print them. Domestic developers offer to work with DWG-format to use the program nanoCAD. This application has two versions: free and paid, containing improved functionality, PDF-printer and a number of other useful add-ons.

It happens that when creating a complex drawing, which took half a day (if not all day), the program gives an error and closes, the file is damaged and does not want to open later. Basically this problem concerns old versions of AutoCAD. In this case, do not tear your hair, but it's worth trying to restore the information in the following way. First, you should search the folder where your file was saved, a copy with the extension bak. If there are several, then you need to take the latest version. Then copy it to another location, change the extension to DWG and try to open it again. If it does not help, you can try to fix the errors in the damaged file in a more recent version of AutoCAD, and then save the file in the correct version.