Documentation

How conversion works

You upload a DWG file. We validate that it's genuinely a DWG file by checking its file signature, not just its extension. We then send it to CloudConvert, a third-party conversion API, with the settings you chose, and return the converted file to you. We never rename a file extension and present that as a conversion — every output comes from a real conversion engine call.

Current status

This site is under active development. The upload and settings interface is live, but the live connection to CloudConvert has not yet been enabled in production. Until it is, converting a file will show an honest "not yet connected to a live conversion engine" message rather than a fabricated success.

Why DWG conversion isn't perfect

DWG is a proprietary, versioned format that Autodesk does not fully document publicly. No conversion engine — ours included — can guarantee it preserves every layer, font, external reference (XREF), dimension style, or custom CAD object across every DWG version. Common failure points include:

• Fonts that aren't available to the converting engine, requiring a substitution
• External references (XREFs) that point to files not included in the upload
• Custom or third-party CAD objects the engine doesn't recognize
• Very old or very new DWG versions the engine has partial support for

Where a specific conversion path has a known limitation, it's stated on that tool's page and in the conversion result — not buried in a footnote.

File retention

Uploaded and converted files are retained for 24 hours, then deleted. See the Privacy Policy for the full detail.

Extracting DWG files from a ZIP

If you have a ZIP archive that might contain DWG files, the extract DWG files from ZIP tool pulls out any genuine DWG files it finds — checked by file signature, entirely in your browser. It doesn't convert anything; it only extracts DWG files already inside the archive.

Reporting an inaccurate conversion

If a conversion produced a result that doesn't match what the tool's capability statement said to expect, tell us through the contact page — include the output format and, if possible, a description of what went wrong. We use these reports to correct capability statements that turn out to be wrong.