File Operations

Create new drawing #

Choose Menu “File/New” to create a new drawing with drawing template (.dwt), new drawings start from either a default drawing template file or a custom drawing template file that you create. Drawing template files store default settings, styles, and additional data.

Open drawing #

Choose Menu “File/open” to choose the drawing to open, it supports AutoCAD .dwg .dxf .dwf files, version R14 to the latest 2022, and also can open raster image formats—.bmp .jpg .png .gif .tif

Save as #

Like you can digitize or vectorize a drawing, you can also convert DWF files back to DWG and DXF. DWGSee gives you the possibility to do such file conversion: DWG to DXF, DXF to DWG, DWG to DWF, DXF to DWF, DWF to DWG and DWF to DXF. It sounds completed, but just simply accomplished with the ‘save as’ feature. You can get an editable CAD drawing if the target format is DWG or DXF.

Step 1. Open a Drawing file, go to “File” > “Save as…” or click the “Save as” button on the navigation bar.

Step 2. In the open “Save as” window, give the new drawing file a name and from the drop down menu of the “Save as type”, select DWG or DXF format and the CAD version. Choose where you want to keep the new drawing file and click “OK”.

Lock drawing with password #

Menu: File–Encrypt drawing…

Enter the password and Click OK.

Save layout as separated drawing #

Menu: File–Save current layout to a file

Step1, Switch to the layout you need to save

Step2, Click “File–save current layout to a file”

Step3, Edit the file name and choose the output folder to save.

Smart copy objects to new drawing #

This feature can allow you smart copy the selected objects to new drawing.
Step 1. Go to Menu “File” and find the smart copy option. (Open the drawing and move to model space at first)

Step 2
Choose the selected layer to copy
Choose the selected line type to copy
Choose the selected color entities to copy
Choose the selected drawing entities to copyStep 3
Save the copied drawing to another new drawing.

Note: Please just use smart copy function in the model space.

Export to pdf #

If others share some AutoCAD designs, you had better to change your AutoCAD drawing files to PDF documents which is more accessible. DWGSeePro offers the “Export to PDF” function while you can add markups before conversion and merge several drawings into the final PDF.

Step 1

Option1. Find the “Export to PDF” button on the toolbar.

Option2. Go to “File” > “Export” > Choose “Convert to PDF”

Step 2. 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.

Step 3. Go to next step and set the page size, output color and image resolution.

Step 4. 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.

Export to image #


Step 1. Option1. Find the “Export to Image” button on the toolbar.

Option2. Go to “File” > “Export” > Choose “Convert to JPG, BMP…”

Step2. In the open window, choose an output format (BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF) and go with the other options.
Note: If you need the markup to be preserved in the output, tick the “Exporting with markup” checkbox.

Step 3. Click “Next” and wait for the conversion. You can view or email the image directly to others.

When you zoom in on a raster image you see grainier and grainier set of dots. When you zoom in on a vector image you continue to see a smooth text, shape or whatever. The advantages of vector images are low-size and high-resolution. You no longer have to produce a huge image size just to maintain a reasonable degree of resolution.

Etransmit #


Package current drawing and dependent files with zip file, and then share to others.
Menu: File/eTransmit

Print current layout #


Option 1 Menu:  File/Print

Option 2 Click “Print” button on the toolbar

Option3 Hotkey: Ctrl+P

Print Scale setting

Print area: Current view, extent, selects the windows to print.

Line width setting

You may change the line width/color to print, and you also can load .ctb file. If the line weight shows light in the print result, you may set the zero-width lines to larger.

Print Preview

Please note, this print button is working for printing current active layout, if you need print all layouts of the drawing, please use following batch print.


Batch print #


You can take advantages of DWGSee batch printing to finish this task in few minutes, simply browse and select all files to be printed, and then choose to print all layouts, with or without model space, then press print button to send all of them to printer.

Step 1. Go to “File” > “Batch Print”.

If you are in the DWGSee “Browser Mode”:
Option1. Go to “File” > “Batch Print”


Option2. Hold “Ctrl” and click the drawings that you need one by one in current folder, when finished, right click on any of the highlighted file and select “Batch Print”

Step 2.

Press “Add” and choose a bunch of files to the print list, you may select bulk layouts to be printed.


Note1: You may also use the “Layout Select” button to choose “Paper Space”, “Model Space” or “All Layouts” in one go.

Note2: You may still set the number of copies, print in black and white, etc. in the other two tabs “Print Scale” and “Line Width”.

Step 3.

If it is the first time you use the DWGSee print function, please click “Print Setup” to set the printer properties, or just press the “Print” button and wait for your papers.

Markup file manager #


Open/Save/Close markup


In DWGSee, measure and markup tools are stored in the markup menu category. So that either it is a measurement or markup on screen, they will all be stored in a same *.MRK file once you clicked the “Save Markup” button.
To open an existing markup, please go to “File” > “Markup”>“Open Markup …”
To close an open markup, please go to “File” > “Markup”>“Close Markup…”
To save the current markup, please go to “File” > “Markup”>“Save Markup…”