Convert a DWG to DXF in your browser

Three steps#

1. Drop the DWG on the box above. cicada opens with your drawing and zooms so all of it fits.
2. A message says which DWG version it was and how many of its objects were read. The command line under the sheet lists the kinds that were left out.
3. Press Export, choose DXF and click the file name that appears. plan.dwg downloads as plan.dxf.

The page itself reads the DWG and writes the DXF. Neither file is uploaded, and there is no account to make. For the next drawing, drop it on this page again: each file you drop here opens as a drawing of its own.

Which DWG files convert#

Every DWG that the DWG viewer opens, from AutoCAD 2.1 (AC2.10) to AutoCAD 2018 and later (AC1032). A drawing from AutoCAD 2.0 or older is refused, with a message that names its version code. Which AutoCAD wrote this DWG? explains the codes.

On every change to cicada, a test drops a drawing that AutoCAD saved in each format from R14 to 2018 on this page in a real browser, on a desktop and on a phone, one after another. It saves each one as DXF and reads the DXF back. The DXF must hold the same objects as the DWG, to 0.001 mm, the same layers with the same colours, and the DWG's name. Files from R13 and older open and save the same way, but that test does not convert them.

What the DXF holds#

The DXF is written in the newest DXF release, R2018 (AC1032), the release AutoCAD 2018 and later write. It is in millimetres. A drawing made in inches or another unit is converted when it opens, and the message says so, for example Units: inch → mm.

These come through as they are:

• lines, arcs and circles
• single-line text, with its height, rotation and width
• triangles and quadrilaterals (solids and traces), filled
• layers, with their names and colours, true colours included; a layer that is off stays off, a locked one stays locked
• line weights of objects and layers, and whether the drawing shows them

These change on the way:

• A block reference becomes the objects it places. The DXF has no block definitions. A block clipped with XCLIP is saved already cut.
• A polyline keeps its straight runs as polylines, and each curved segment becomes an arc. Its width is not kept.
• Ellipses and splines become polylines through points on the curve.
• Multi-line text becomes one line of text for each line it shows.
• A dimension becomes its lines, arrowheads and text, so it no longer measures again when you move it.
• A hatch becomes its boundary, as polylines and arcs.
• Paper space objects are saved in model space, on the same sheet as the drawing.
• An object coloured on its own takes its layer's colour.
• A frozen layer is saved as a layer that is off.

Not in the DXF: points, leaders and multileaders, tables, multilines, construction lines and rays, tolerances, shapes, wipeouts, images and PDF underlays, 3D solids, regions and meshes, viewports, and objects from AutoCAD add-ons. These are the kinds the viewer leaves out, and the command line names them with their counts before you save.