Dreadnaught Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Is there some software that I can use to read the measurements from a DWG file? Ideally free or low cost. Am using Mac/iPad. My architect produces my plans in AutoCad. I have never used AutoCad. And it looks fearsomely expensive a needs a beefy computer. But I’m keen to extract various measurements as I tweak my PHPP model. Would prefer not to need to ask my architect to do this at her hourly rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 If you only want to view the .dwg, then it may be that one of the free viewers will do what you need: https://www.autodesk.com/products/dwg/viewers (I've not used them, as I have a copy of AutoCad, but they look as if they may do the job) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeSharp01 Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Use draftsight it is free and reads all the Autocad formats except 3D. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzie Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Cant you just ask her to send you pdf files? Its easy and quick for her to do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Davies Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 8 minutes ago, lizzie said: Cant you just ask her to send you pdf files? Its easy and quick for her to do. But how would you take accurate measurements off those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzie Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 2 minutes ago, Ed Davies said: But how would you take accurate measurements off those? They are usually written on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Very few of my AutoCad drawings have dimension labels. There's not really any point in adding these except for drawings that are designed to be printed off and used as a paper copy. Probably 95% of mine don't have dimension labels, mainly because they are fairly pointless on a CAD drawing and also because they clutter up the drawing (unless put on a separate layer that's turned off so it's invisible). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreadnaught Posted June 22, 2019 Author Share Posted June 22, 2019 Thanks everyone. Good advice. I am trying the AutoCad iPad app at the moment and see if that works and will turn to the other suggestions too. @lizzie, good point. I do have the .PDFs but I find I am always needing that one extra measurement that the architect has not included, especially as I am doing my own thermal modelling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 I don't think a dwg file contains the units. This can cause some cad programs to load objects at the wrong scale. https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/w/microstation__wiki/13875/dwg-file-is-opening-with-the-wrong-units Should be possible to guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Units are never included in the data set, other than as a header to tell the CAD package what they are. All entities are just expressed numerically. Back when we first got CAD at work (AutoCad, running on a DOS PC, pre-Windows by a few years) we used the new CAD/CAM system in the workshop at our parent establishment for manufacture. Our drawing office designed a new form of Mk46 torpedo tail nut (which includes the motor exhaust valve) using the new CAD system. They were really proud of the thing, which was to be machined from stainless steel. It's dimensions were such that it should have comfortably fit in the palm of the hand. A few weeks later we had a phone call, saying that there was a truck with a delivery for us, and did we have a forklift available to unload it. Lots of scratching of heads, wondering what the thing was, until the pallet was unloaded. There, in all it's glory, was a beautifully machined tail nut around 3ft in diameter, weighing around 1/4 of a ton. The CAD file had been transmitted to the workshop minus the unit header, so mm had turned into the AutoCad default of inches, making every dimension 25.4 times too large... 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 5 minutes ago, JSHarris said: The CAD file had been transmitted to the workshop minus the unit header, so mm had turned into the AutoCad default of inches, making every dimension 25.4 times too large... It's a good job you had only ordered one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 3 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said: Use draftsight it is free and reads all the Autocad formats except 3D. Drafsight will read 3D files wont it? Just depends how you View as in Top, Bottom, Left, Right, SE, SW etc. Fairly immaterial as it'll stop working at the end of 2019 and you'll be required to pay for using it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeSharp01 Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 On 22/06/2019 at 17:42, Onoff said: Drafsight will read 3D files wont it? Just depends how you View as in Top, Bottom, Left, Right, SE, SW etc. Fairly immaterial as it'll stop working at the end of 2019 and you'll be required to pay for using it. All true but you don't get the full 3D experience although your can view the parts and the price will be $99 which is cheap enought. I am relearning the full solid works for a course I am teaching next session although I am not teaching SW the students will be using it and I need to talk the talk. It's got much bigger , or it feels that way, since I last used it about 8 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 1 hour ago, MikeSharp01 said: All true but you don't get the full 3D experience although your can view the parts and the price will be $99 which is cheap enought. I am relearning the full solid works for a course I am teaching next session although I am not teaching SW the students will be using it and I need to talk the talk. It's got much bigger , or it feels that way, since I last used it about 8 years ago. You've used it before obviously. Something I would like to learn is Solid Works. My boy can use it but won't touch AutoCAD oddly enough whereas I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMagic Posted June 24, 2019 Share Posted June 24, 2019 I've used the online https://viewer.autodesk.com/ a few times and works well. One tip is that if your DWG doesn't have units set up correctly, theres a tool in the viewer that allows you to set the scale from the drawing itself. Provided you have one known good measurement on the drawing, you can choose that, tell the viewer what that was and the rest of the measurements will be perfect. Only downside is that they automatically purge your drawings after 30 days if you're not using it, just login again to reset the timer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted June 24, 2019 Share Posted June 24, 2019 Apparently Fusion 360 will load 2d and 3d DWG files and it's free for home users. It has a tape measure function you can use to measure any distances that don't have dimensions specified. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 I think with any of the good, free software you have to go into it on the understanding that when the user base is big enough or the individual stored content such that they can in effect hold to ransom with threats of data loss, the developers may change the t&cs of use, sell the product on, charge for it or bring out a tiered service, restricting the basic user. Doesn't always happen but you've only to look at Photobucket, Flickr and of course Draftsight. I pay btw to be a pro user on Flickr. Got to the point I had so much on there and downloading it all would have been a pain that I paid up what I thought was a reasonable monthly fee. Imo it's that good. Photobucket was so ad laden and slow, even before the big changes to 3rd party access that I just gave up with it. Draftsight stopped working on my Linux PC and became clunky on one of the Windows ones. No such thing as a free lunch etc! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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