CAD viewer: view CAD files online

This CAD viewer opens 2D CAD files in DWG and DXF format in your browser, with nothing to install, no account, and nothing uploaded. If your file is a 3D or BIM format such as STEP, IGES, IFC, RVT, or SKP, it will not open here, and the table below points to a free viewer that does.

Which CAD files this viewer opens

'CAD file' covers dozens of formats from different vendors and disciplines. This viewer reads the two that dominate 2D drafting: DWG (AutoCAD's native format, R14 through 2018 and newer) and DXF (ASCII or binary, any version). Here is the wider landscape and where each format opens for free.

Two notes on the table. DWG TrueView opens DXF as well as DWG, and most 3D packages can export a 2D DWG or DXF of a drawing view, which is often the easiest route if you only need to see a plan or an elevation. The what is a CAD file page goes through these formats and their extensions in more depth.

2D drawing viewer or 3D CAD viewer?

A 2D drawing viewer shows plans, sections, and details as lines, arcs, text, and hatches on layers; that is what DWG and DXF mostly carry and what this page does. A 3D CAD viewer shows solids and assemblies from STEP, IGES, or native part files, with orbit, section planes, and sometimes mass properties. The two overlap only a little: a DWG can hold 3D geometry, but most drawings exchanged between firms are 2D.

If you were sent a STEP file and need to see it, FreeCAD opens it offline and Autodesk Viewer opens it in a browser after upload. If you were sent a DWG, you are in the right place.

A practical sign: if the sender works in SolidWorks, Inventor, or Fusion, you probably have a 3D format; if they work in AutoCAD, MicroStation, or a civil package, it is a 2D drawing. For getting a flat drawing out of a model, see 3D CAD to 2D.

Tools in this online CAD viewer

• Pan, zoom, and fit to drawing on a WebGL canvas.
• Layers panel to show or hide any layer.
• Measure the distance between two points.
• Print through the browser, which reaches any large-format printer the operating system already knows.
• Export PNG of the current view, or SVG and PDF of the whole drawing as vectors.
• Light and dark themes; entity count in the status bar.

Editing is not included. The viewer never writes DWG, and for changes you need an editor such as the ones on edit DWG online. It also skips DWG files over 60 MB and opens R12 and older DWG only partially.

View a CAD file online in three steps

1. Confirm the extension is .dwg or .dxf. Other CAD formats need the viewers in the table above.
2. Open this page in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari and drop the file on the drop zone. The first DWG in a session fetches a 9 MB WebAssembly module once.
3. Fit, toggle layers, measure, print, or export.

A typical 1–20 MB drawing opens in 1–10 seconds on a laptop. Phones and tablets handle small and medium files; large ones can run out of memory there.

Why a CAD viewer that uploads nothing is safer

CAD files are often the most sensitive documents a firm handles: site layouts, product designs, utility routes. Upload-based viewers move those to a third-party server, usually under a terms-of-service clause nobody has read. This viewer runs entirely in the tab; the file is parsed by JavaScript, rendered on your GPU, and removed when the tab closes. There is no account, so there is nothing to link the file to you either. It also means there is no server-side copy to request deletion of later, which simplifies client agreements that require drawings to be destroyed at the end of a project.

A failed load almost always means the file is not actually DWG or DXF: a renamed PDF, a DWF, or a STEP file with the wrong extension. Check what the sender exported, and if it really is a DWG, fix DWG file not opening walks through the remaining checks.

Frequently asked questions