Files: what opens, what saves

At a glance

CadCraft opens one drawing at a time. Opening another file closes the current one (it asks first if there are unsaved changes).

Opening a drawing

• Press ⌘OCtrl+O, click Open, or type OPEN, then choose the file.
• Or drag a .dwg or .dxf file onto the drawing area.

The file is read inside your browser. It is not uploaded anywhere. The history reports how many objects and layers came in and how long it took, and the Drawing section of the left panel shows the format, for example "DWG 2018 (AC1032)".

The DWG reader is part of CadCraft and is fetched with the first DWG you open after the page loads (a few hundred KB), so there is no separate download to wait for.

What comes in

• Lines, arcs, circles, polylines (with arc segments), ellipses, points, text and multi-line text, solids, hatches (shown as a flat tone), block references with their attributes (values you can edit; see Block attributes), dimensions, and layouts with their viewports.
• Splines come in as polylines that follow the curve.
• Tables in a DWG come in as the other program drew them.
• 3D faces in model space come in on the 3D tab, not as 2D objects. See Model in 3D.
• Layers keep their color, on, frozen, locked and plot settings. DEFPOINTS never plots.
• Dimensions become real, editable CadCraft dimensions where their points can be read. They are first shown exactly as the other program drew them; as soon as you change one, CadCraft redraws it in its own style.
• Each layout becomes a sheet tab. In the other program every layout has a hidden first viewport that is the sheet itself; CadCraft leaves that one out.

What does not come in yet

Anything CadCraft cannot draw is counted, not guessed at. The "About this file" box in the left panel lists it as "Not shown yet:" followed by each kind of object and how many. Typical cases are multileaders, wipeouts, images, tables in a DXF, and 3D solids, regions and meshes. Viewports that are twisted in the file are shown square to the sheet, and the box says so.

Text is drawn in one Helvetica-style font. A label that fits on one line in the original program's narrower font can wrap onto two lines in CadCraft.

Saving

There are three ways to save. Each one downloads a copy.

• Save: press ⌘SCtrl+S, click Save, or type SAVE (also QSAVE). It saves in the drawing's format: DWG if you opened a DWG, DXF if you opened a DXF. A new drawing uses the format you last chose in Save as in this browser; if you never chose one, DWG.
• Save as: press ⇧⌘SCtrl+Shift+S, click Save as, or type SAVEAS. The Save a copy as dialog offers DWG (AutoCAD 2000) and DXF R12, each with the file name it will give, and the drawing's current format already picked. Click Save to download, or Cancel (or EscEsc) to save nothing; the history then says "Not saved." The format you choose sticks: ⌘SCtrl+S uses it for this drawing from then on, and new drawings in this browser start with it.
• DXFOUT: type DXFOUT. It always downloads a DXF R12 copy, and the next ⌘SCtrl+S still saves in the drawing's own format.

The browser downloads <drawing name>.dwg or <drawing name>.dxf. Every save is a new download; the file you opened is never overwritten or changed. The history confirms it, for example "Saved a copy as Plan.dwg (DWG (AutoCAD 2000)). Your original Plan.dxf is unchanged." For a DXF it says "(DXF R12, opens in any CAD program)". The lines under it list anything that changed on the way.

For a PDF, plot instead (see below).

What a DWG keeps and changes

CadCraft writes the DWG itself, inside your browser, in the AutoCAD 2000 format (file version AC1015). It opens in AutoCAD 2000 and every later version, and in most other CAD programs. Nothing is uploaded, and saving a DWG works offline: unlike opening one, it needs no download.

What a DWG keeps

• Lines, arcs, circles, ellipses, points, and polylines with their arc segments.
• Single-line text with its alignment and width factor.
• Multi-line and wrapped text, as multi-line text. The other program wraps it again from the same width.
• Object colors: by layer, by block and the 255 standard colors.
• Layers with their color and their on, frozen, locked and plot settings.
• The drawing units.
• Blocks with their base point and attribute definitions, including invisible, constant and preset ones.
• Block references with their scale, rotation and attribute values.
• Solid fills.
• Layer and block names as you typed them, in upper and lower case. (DXF R12 writes them in capitals.)

What a DWG changes

Each of these is listed in the history after you save, when it applies to your drawing.

Sheets are not saved in a DWG yet

Layouts (sheets) and their viewports are left out of a saved DWG. The history says so, for example "The sheet "A1" was not saved: DWG saving keeps the model only for now. Save as DXF to keep the sheets."

To keep your sheets, press ⇧⌘SCtrl+Shift+S and choose DXF R12. R12 keeps the first sheet with real viewports, and CadCraft's other sheets.

Why R12, and what converts

When you save as DXF, CadCraft writes DXF R12, the version every CAD program can open. It is older than some features, so a few things are written in a simpler form:

The history lists each of these that applied to your drawing.

Plotting a PDF

Press ⌘PCtrl+P, click Plot, or type PLOT. The PDF is made inside the browser and downloaded, or opened in a new tab for printing. See Plot to PDF.

Where the files go

Every save and every plot is a download, so files land wherever your browser puts downloads: usually the Downloads folder. To choose a folder each time, change the download setting in your browser; Browsers and computers shows where.

Nothing you open or save is sent to us. See Where your files go.

Online and offline

Opening, drawing, saving (DWG and DXF) and plotting all happen on your computer, so they work with no connection once CadCraft has loaded.

To use CadCraft with no connection at all, click Save for offline in the bar at the top while you are online. The label counts up ("Saving 40 of 212") and ends at "Offline ready". The saved copy includes the DWG reader, about 5 MB in all, so DWG files open offline too once it is saved. Click the button again for Save again (get the newest version) or Remove the offline copy. "Could not save" means some files did not download: check the connection and click to try again. "Offline not available" means this browser window cannot keep a copy (private windows and some managed computers).

Without a saved copy, the DWG reader is fetched the first time you open a DWG after the page loads, so opening a DWG offline can fail; DXF files never need it. Don't reload the page while offline unless CadCraft is saved.

See Working offline for the details.

Constraints in files

Constraints and parameters (see Constrain a drawing) are saved in both DWG and DXF. Each constrained object carries a small CadCraft note (extended data), and an unused block named CADCRAFT_PARAMETRIC holds the constraints and the parameter table. Other programs open the drawing normally and ignore both; they may delete the unused block when they purge. The notes refer to objects by their own key, not by the file's handles, so a program that renumbers handles does not break them. When another program has deleted or changed a constrained object, CadCraft drops the constraints on it when it opens the file and says how many. A file without them opens without constraints.

A sketch exported from a part modeler (.json) opens too: see Move sketches to and from other part modelers.

Not available yet

• Sheets in a saved DWG. Save as DXF to keep them.
• Saving a newer DWG version than 2000, or a newer DXF version than R12.
• Cloud saving and sync between computers.
• A desktop version that works outside the browser.

See Not built yet for the full list.