Free DWG Viewer

Pros

• Surprising number of features considering this is meant for viewing AutoCAD files
• Allows batch printing along with measurement comparisons
• The interface is simple for all users

Cons

• Only offers color printing
• Automatically becomes the default viewing program for some image files

Free DWG Viewer is a program that allows you to view and display DWG and other AutoCAD files. While viewing is the primary feature, you can also print documents to any printer connected to your computer. This can be your go-to program if you just need to view a document and don't need to make any changes or edits.

Primary Features

Free DWG Viewer has many features especially when you consider it's mostly meant for viewing documents. Despite the software name, you can view more than just DWG files. You can also open other AutoCAD formats like DXF and DWF along with raster image files like BMP, PNG, JPG and more. It also has a limited conversion feature that can easily turn AutoCAD files into raster images. While it is limited, this is a welcome addition considering the simple nature of this program.

The hallmark of this program is that it can load quickly. While opening a file in AutoCAD directly might seem better, every AutoCAD user knows that it can take a long time for that program to fully load. It's not worth it if you just want to look at a file or print it.

Free DWG Viewer allows you to measure objects and you can easily compare two or more images in separate windows. There are tools to zoom, highlight or list certain objects in the image. You can measure the whole image or specific objects by selecting them. While you can't make changes, this might come in useful if you need to check on measurements before proceeding forward.

Printing

Free DWG Viewer is also great with printing. You can print images one at a time or use the batch printing tool. This allows you to select as many images as you like and print them simultaneously. This will save you a tremendous amount of time and effort if you many images to print. Simply select the images you want to print and this program will do all the work for you.

One thing of note is that this program can only print in color. For some reason there is no option for black-and-white printing. You can print to black-and-white printers and it will use grays to replicate the colors, but there is currently no way just to use black ink only. This shouldn't be a problem for most users, but it's something be to aware of.

Line Length

Free DWG Viewer can do more than just simple measurements. You can use this to sort lines by color, line type or layer. You can also add the lengths together for the sum line length. Many others viewers don't include this feature, but here you get it without having to do anything special.

You can also calculate the area with ease. Just select which part you want to measure, select the area measurement option and it will show you the calculation. It's that simple and this works great if you just need to check the measurements without editing anything.

Default Program Problems

This program doesn't have many problems, but the biggest one is that it automatically configures itself as the default program for common images files like GIF and JPG. A default program is the one that opens a program when you double-click on it. You can manually select a different program, but then that means extra button clicks just to open a file.

Unlike some programs that ask if you want to make it the default program, this one does it automatically during installation. There is currently no way to stop Free DWG Viewer from taking over as the default program for some image types. This is simple to fix even though it is annoying. Just go into your default settings and change this after installation or right-click an image file and change the default program back to your preferred program.

Viewing Options

There are multiple viewing options if you need to change how the document looks. You can rotate or mirror the file to help you see certain sections. You can also choose to zoom in or out to make the image larger or smaller. This is easily accomplished by using sliders along the bottom or choosing the different view options.

Pros

• Surprising number of features considering this is meant for viewing AutoCAD files
• Allows batch printing along with measurement comparisons
• The interface is simple for all users

Cons

• Only offers color printing
• Automatically becomes the default viewing program for some image files