DWG to PDF
Upload a DWG drawing and get a clean, shareable PDF — or export it to SVG, EPS, DXF or an image instead. The DWG is read on our EU server; nothing is stored.
For everyone who does not have CAD
The people who most often need to see a drawing — clients, site managers, purchasing, the council — are precisely the people least likely to have AutoCAD installed. Sending them a DWG means a licence problem at best and a blank stare at worst, and a free viewer is one more thing for them to install and learn. A PDF solves it: it opens on every phone, tablet and desktop made in the last twenty years, prints predictably, and can be attached to an e-mail without instructions. The PDF this tool builds is a true vector one — lines and arcs stay razor sharp however far the reader zooms in — because your browser draws the geometry itself rather than photographing it.
A readable copy, not the source
Be clear with yourself (and your recipient) about what the PDF is: a faithful picture of the drawing, not the drawing itself. Layers can no longer be switched on and off, objects cannot be selected or measured with CAD precision, and nobody can edit the geometry back out of it — which, when you are sharing for review, is often exactly what you want. Keep the DWG as the master file and treat every PDF as a snapshot of it. If your recipient needs to actually work on the drawing, send a DXF instead — the same Convert to menu on this page produces one from the same upload, with no second upload needed.
Older files convert better — and a bundling tip
The one leg of this tool that must run on our server is reading the DWG itself, and the same honest version picture applies as everywhere we read DWG: files saved in the 2013 format or older convert very reliably, 2018 is hit-or-miss, and newer or heavily 3D drawings may not come through cleanly. If you have CAD access, saving the file down to the 2013 or 2010 format before uploading costs thirty seconds and removes almost every failure at the source. Server reads are limited to two free conversions per day — a day pass, credits or a CAD plan lift that — and switching output formats after one upload does not count again. Finally, for drawing sets: convert each sheet to PDF here, then use our free Merge PDF tool to combine them into one document. A single attachment beats seven, every time.
How this works — and its honest limits
DWG is AutoCAD's proprietary format, so this one leg runs on our server with LibreDWG (free, open-source) to read the drawing into DXF; your browser then renders it and produces the PDF (or SVG/EPS/DXF/image). Because the reading uses LibreDWG, the same honesty applies as our DWG→DXF tool: 2D drawings up to roughly the 2013 format are very reliable, 2018 is hit-or-miss, and complex 3D or the newest formats may not come through cleanly. What you see in the preview is what you'll get.
Which formats can I export to?
PDF by default — plus SVG, EPS, DXF and PNG/JPEG/WebP/BMP/TIFF. Load the DWG once and switch outputs freely from the Convert to menu; there's no second upload.
Why doesn't my newer DWG convert well?
DWG is a closed Autodesk format and we read it with the free LibreDWG project, whose support for the newest versions (2018+) and complex 3D geometry is still incomplete. 2D drawings up to about the 2013 format are the sweet spot. If the preview looks wrong, your DWG is likely outside that range.
Is my drawing kept on your server?
No. The DWG is read in memory to produce the DXF, and the temporary files are deleted immediately after — nothing is stored or logged. The PDF itself is built in your browser.
