Drawings

A DWG file is a file format produced from Autodesk AutoCAD, in the context of construction; designers, architects, engineers and surveyors produces drawings or illustration on the software and save them to .dwg files. As a client you can view the file by downloading a software called DWG Trueview from the AutoDesk’s website or you can freely view the DWG files online using the A360 Viewer (watch the video below to learn how to do just that).

Sometimes you will also hear your architect or designer talk about a .dxf file, it is a similar format but it is slightly more universal than .dwg and allows the user to open the drawings in different softwares much easily without loss of data. The DXF format can also be used on other softwares such as vectorworks. However, the .dxf format contains a lot less functionality and you would need to convert it to the original DWG format if you need to edit the file (or the native file extension of the particular software). As a client you won’t need to worry about the technicalities, all you need to know is how to open it, take a look around and print the drawings you have commissioned for your property.

The A360 viewer is useful and easily accesible if you just want to view a document. The only disadvantage is that it can take 2-3 minutes for you to view the files online as it needs to process the document. It is also not the best tool to print the DWG file. If you want to print the DWG file, download DWG Trueview from AutoDesk’s website.

Here is a quick video to explain how the A360 viewer works: