Have you ever received an AutoCAD DWG file from someone and needed to view, collaborate, markup or print it, but you didn’t have AutoCAD or a proprietary viewer installed on your computer? Simply convert it to PDF or image and print it without AutoCAD even being installed on your system.
The Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) is a compressed electronic document format that can be viewed on multiple platforms. PDF files are widely used to transmit drawing data over the Internet. Commands that Create PDF files There are many commands and methods you can use to produce PDF files.
Sometimes there's a need to convert a DWG to PDF, batch convert DWG to JPG, print DWG files without AutoCAD or any extra software installed. You can convert or print AutoCAD, MathCAD or Solid Edge drawings one by one by yourself... or set up their printing or conversion to PDF or images automatically using FolderMill.
Besides FolderMill, we'll review even more easy ways to convert and print multiple DWG files without AutoCAD installed.
- Other tools to simplify printing or conversion of DWG files
Contents
How to convert AutoCAD files to PDF or images automatically
With FolderMill, you can convert DWG and DXF drawings without any CAD software. The program can automatically process — convert or print files — without the need to have any CAD software installed, such as Autodesk AutoCAD or eDrawings Viewer.
You can combine different actions together for one Hot Folder and set a sequence of actions, e.g.
- Filter incoming files by .dwg and .dfx extension only
- Batch convert AutoCAD files to PDF
- Print on selected printer or print on multiple printers
Actions can be combined in different ways and assigned to different Hot Folders.
When the Hot Folders are configured, you just drop new file into the Incoming folder. The program will process them automatically and give you the resultant files in the Output folder or will send them to the right printer.
How to auto print DWG and other drawings without Autocad
FolderMill can make the printing process fully automated and user-unattended. There's a wide range of settings available, e.g. you can configure to print CAD drawings in black and white mode only. FolderMill can automate printing of DWG, DXF and other CAD drawings.
Automatically send drawings to a certain printer or printer tray
You can configure FolderMill to filter files by paper size. It will send them to a certain printer, so that your drawings will be printed on the right printing device. In addition, you can let FolderMill automatically select the best paper tray, depending on page size of each incoming drawing.
Other tools to simplify printing or conversion of DWG files
As an alternative, there are less complex desktop solutions – a batch printer and a batch converter. Both programs are free for non-commercial use.
Easy way to print multiple DWG files at once
If there's no need to set up the printing process in real time, you can try a simple application called Print Conductor. It can print DWG and DXF files in bulk without any other software plus other CAD formats (SLDDRW, EDRW, and more) with the help of a free CAD viewer. Print Conductor is free for personal use and can print CAD drawings in batches with adjustable settings. All you've got to do is add multiple DWGs to the list and press a single button.
Easy way to convert multiple DWG files at once
If you only need to save many DWG files to PDF or image format like PNG, TIFF or JPEG, try a free file converter DocuFreezer. It is also a simple program with an intuitive interface where you just add files to the list, and you're good to go. DocuFreezer provides high-quality batch conversion to PDF and supports popular CAD formats. You can set merge and split options, image quality, and other parameters.
Q&A
Why convert DWG to PDF or images?
Today, the process of drafting have largely been simplified through the use of computer-aided design systems (CAD / CAE / CAM). Engineers, drafting technicians and other professionals sometimes need to convert or batch print drawings. Once a CAD file is converted into PDF or image, it gets difficult to edit it. That's why PDF or image files are commonly used when submitting a drawing for approval or when making a printed copy.
DWG, DXF, DFT, XMCD files can only be opened with specific CAD programs. If you only need to view a CAD drawing and don’t need to edit the file, it may be just easier to convert the DWG into a PDF file or image. By converting your DWG files into PDF or JPEG / PNG / TIFF, you can open the file with any standard file viewer (even your web browser will do). It’s important to keep the highest image quality of these files preserving every detail.
Why automate printing of CAD files?
If you print files occasionally, there's no problem printing them one by one. But if you or your colleagues have multiple drawings to print in bulk every day, FolderMill can become your time saver. With once configured FolderMill, all you have to do is just copy new files to a folder, and they will be instantly printed on one or many printers. You can specify the right paper tray as well.
What is DWG?
AutoCAD’s native file type is DWG, a proprietary file format created by Autodesk. DWG (from drawing) is a binary file format used for storing 2D and 3D design data and metadata. It is the native format for several CAD packages such as DraftSight, AutoCAD, IntelliCAD, Caddie and Open Design Alliance compliant applications. In addition, DWG is supported non-natively by many other CAD applications.
What is DXF?
AutoCAD DXF (Drawing Interchange Format, or Drawing Exchange Format) is a CAD data file format developed by Autodesk for enabling data interoperability between AutoCAD and other programs. According to Autodesk, the DXF format is a tagged data representation of all the information contained in an AutoCAD drawing file. Virtually all user-specified information in a drawing file can be represented in DXF format.
FolderMill is available as a free version and as a 14-days trial version upon request. If you are not sure if our software will work for you or if you have a special request, please contact us. You can download FolderMill and give it a try:
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Convert AutoCAD drawings to PDF, with markup
If others share some AutoCAD designs, you had better to change your AutoCAD drawing files to PDF documents which is more accessible. DWGSee offers the “Export to PDF” function while you can add markups before conversion and merge several drawings into the final PDF.
How to do that…
STEP1.
Option1. Find the “Export to PDF” button on the toolbar.
Option1. Find the “Export to PDF” button on the toolbar.
Option2. Go to “File” > “Export” > Choose “Convert to PDF”.
STEP2.
In the open window,
Click “Browse” if you need to change the destination folder.
Choose if you need to “Create individual PDF” or “Merge into a single PDF”.
If you need the markup to be preserved in the output, tick the “Exporting with markup” checkbox.
In the open window,
Click “Browse” if you need to change the destination folder.
Choose if you need to “Create individual PDF” or “Merge into a single PDF”.
If you need the markup to be preserved in the output, tick the “Exporting with markup” checkbox.
STEP3.
Go to next step and set the page size, output color and image resolution.
Go to next step and set the page size, output color and image resolution.
STEP4.
Click “Next” and wait for the conversion. You may see that all the linked Xref’s are preserved in the output. You can view or email the PDF directly to others.
Click “Next” and wait for the conversion. You may see that all the linked Xref’s are preserved in the output. You can view or email the PDF directly to others.
Related:
How to convert AutoCAD drawings to images, with markup?
How to convert AutoCAD drawings to images, with markup?