This project has been discontinued as I no longer have the license to use the necessary SDK.

(:table border=0 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 bgcolor=#ffffa1:) (:cellnr:) This project has been discontinued as I no longer have the license to use the necessary SDK.
(:tableend:)

• As of December 2012, I am no longer licensed to provide the freeware download.

http://www.savagesoftware.com/

To view this svg file you will need Firefox or use a free Adobe or Corel plug-in.\\

It is important to note that this utility relies on the OpenDesign Alliance OpenDWG Toolkit and Viewkit libraries.
It is no longer free (US$250 first time/US$100 yearly renewal fee) to become a basic Associate Member and you need to sign an agreement and you cannot redistribute the library or use them in commercial products. This is why there is a pre-compiled version of cad2svg included: you can use this free software, but to compile it yourself, you'll need to obtain the library from the OpenDesign Alliance.

The pre-compiled package is a static binary, so there is no pre-requisite requirements to use it.

Do this only if you need to.

• gcc (any version less than 2 year old should work and should already be installed on your machine, otherwise, apt-get? install gcc)

The compiled application includes copyrighted software libraries from Open Design Alliance ("Aliance"). These libraries are subject to a membership agreement with the Alliance and are only licensed for use in Applications from members of the Alliance. www.opendesign.com.

You cannot redistribute the provided compiled version of the application, either as a standalone software or as part of a package, unless you have an adequate membership from the Open Design Alliance.

• cad2svg-1.2.zip

• 1.2: 02DEC2010, added license changes required by Open Design Alliance.

I have left the souce code here, but there is no longer any executable that contains any property from the OpenDesign Alliance.

• gcc

It is important to note that this utility relies on the OpenDesign Alliance OpenDWG Toolkit and Viewkit libraries.\\

http://www.dwgtool.com/dwg-to-svg.htm

IMPORTANT:The compiled version of this tool is no-longer available as the OpenDesign Alliance, providing the library for accessing CAD data, requires the payment of a yearly fee, even for free (as in beer) software.
As per their requirement, I had to remove the compiled software from download.
Since the source code to the tool is mine, I have left it here, but there is no longer any executable that contains any property from the OpenDesign Alliance.

The compiled version of this tool is no-longer available as the OpenDesign Alliance, providing the library for accessing CAD data, requires the payment of a yearly fee, even for free (as in beer) software.
As per their requirement, I have to remove the compiled software from download.
Since the source code to the tool is mine, I have left it here, but there is no longer any executable that contains any property from the OpenDesign Alliance.

To view this svg file you will need a modern browser that supports SVG or use a free Adobe or Corel plug-in.\\

It is no longer free (US$250 first time/US$100 yearly renewal fee) to become a basic Associate Member and you need to sign an agreement and you cannot redistribute the library or use them in commercial products. Because I cannot afford to pay the membership fee for providing a free tool, you will have to get your own membership and compile the software if you want to use it (see OpenDesign Alliance website for details).

The compiled application relies on copyrighted software libraries available from the Open Design Allianc. These libraries are subject to a membership agreement with the Alliance and are only licensed for use in Applications from members of the Alliance. www.opendesign.com.

Note that you cannot redistribute a compiled version of the application, either as a standalone software or as part of a package, unless you have an adequate membership from the Open Design Alliance.

• cad2svg-1.3.zip Δ

• 1.3: 17NOV2011, removed compiled version due to termination of membership to Open Design Alliance.
• 1.2: 02DEC2010, addded license changes required by Open Design Alliance.
• 1.1: 18JUL2008, added original file size to verbose option printout.

This utility works and has been tested on Linux. It should work on most x86 Linux distribution without change, and it would certainly not take too much to adapt it to Windows.

The source code provided is free to use and modify. If you modify the source code and others could benefit from your change, then I require that you send me back your modifications so I can integrate them in the next version.

The compiled application includes copyrighted software libraries from Open Design Alliance ("Aliance"). These libraries are subject to a membership agreement with the Alliance and are only licensed for use in Applications from members of the Alliance. www.opendesign.com.

• cad2svg-1.2.zip

• 1.2: 02DEC2010, addded license changes required by Open Design Alliance.

This source code is free to use and modify. If you modify the source code and others could benefit from your change, then I require that you send me back your modifications so I can integrate them in the next version.

The compiled application includes copyrighted software libraries from Open Design Alliance ("Aliance"). These libraries are used subject to a membership agreement with the Alliance and are only licensed for use in Applications from members of the Alliance. www.opendesign.com.

You cannot redistribute the provided compiled version of the application, either as a standalone software or as part of a package, unless you have an adequate membership from the Open Design Alliance.

• cad2svg-1.1.zip Δ - 885,528bytes / md5: 870bff768c25bfd185fb257721cd0a50

• the produced SVG is a preview representation of the drawing: objects outlines are broken down into simple lines segments (polylines). This means that the produced graphic has lost all notion of the original cad objects (even curves are approximated into sets of line segments).

• See the test sample below to check-out what works and what doesn't.

• the produced SVG is a preview representation of the drawing: objects outlines are broken down into simple lines segments (polylines). This means that the produced graphic has lost all notion of the original cad objects (even curves are approximated into sets of line segments).
  See the test sample below to check-out what works and what doesn't.

Note that Firefox has native support for SVG but does not appear to support compressed SVGZ.

• Original DWG budweiser.dwg 229KB
• Uncompressed SVG budweiser.svg 236KB
• Compressed SVG budweiser.svgz 70KB

• Indicative performance (no formal tests were performed): it takes 2.2s to convert a 5.1MB dxf file into a compressed SVG file on an Athlon XP 1900 with 1GB of RAM. On more modern hardware this now takes a fraction of a second.

This example is a converted test dwg file of 229KB converted to a 70KB compressed SVG (236KB uncompressed).

• Original DWG budweiser.dwg 229KB
• Compressed SVG budweiser.svg 70KB

To view this svg file you will need Firefox or use a free Adobe or Corel plug-in.\\

• Supplied binary is standalone and does not depend on other installed libraries.

Note that Firefox has native support for SVG (as long as the file ends in .svg) without plugin.

The download package contains both a pre-compiled binary for Linux RedHat/Fedora (that should work on any x86 Linux) and the source code.
If you encounter issues, please let me know.

It is important to note that this utility relies on the OpenDesign Alliance OpenDWG Toolkit and Viewkit libraries.
It is no longer free (US$250 first time/US$100 yearly renewal fee) to become a basic Associate Member and you need to sign an agreement and you cannot redistribute the library or use them in commercial products. This is why there is a pre-compiled version of cad2svg included: you can use this free software, but to compile it yourself, you'll need to obtain the library from the OpenDesign Alliance.

This utility works and has been tested on Linux (RedHat 8, 9 and FC1, FC2, FC3, FC4). It should work on most x86 Linux distribution without change, and it would certainly not take too much to adapt it to Windows.

• cad2svg-1.1.zip Δ - 88,5528 bytes / md5: 7becf2c93f81fd1254f85fa5883da000

Versions

• 1.0: JAN 2004, Original
• 1.1: 18JUL2008, added original file size to verbose option printout.

Before you decide if this utility is right for you, note the following limitations:

• the produced SVG is a preview representation of the drawing: objects outlines are broken down into simple lines segments (polylines). This means that the produced graphic has lost all notion of the original cad objects (even curves are approximated into sets of line segments).

• There is a limit to the quality and precision of the output SVG: I wanted to do this to limit the size of the resulting file to the display size I was using, while still allowing a reasonable zoom factor for details. The advantage of this approach is that large AutoCAD files are converted into rather small SVG files. The drawback is that the resulting graphic is not very nice when zooming on details. The quality of the output is modifiable on the command line.

To view this svg file you will need to have a free Adobe or Corel plug-in installed.

Once you have the necessary libraries from the OpenDWG kits, untar the provided cad2svg source and copy the following OpenDWG Linux files in your cad2svg directory:

• cad2text.

(:comments:)

This utility works and has been tested on Linux (RedHat 8, 9 and FC1, FC2, FC3). It should work on most x86 Linux distribution without change, and it would certainly not take too much to adapt it to Windows.

http://www.savagesoftware.com/

It is important to note that this utility relies on the OpenDesign Alliance OpenDWG Toolkit and Viewkit libraries. It is free to become a basic Associate Member, but you need to sign an agreement and you cannot redistribute the library or use them in commercial products. This is why there is a pre-compiled version of cad2svg included: you can use this free software, but to compile it yourself, you'll need to obtain the library from the OpenDesign Alliance.

It is important to note that this utility relies on the OpenDesign Alliance OpenDWG Toolkit and Viewkit libraries. It is free to become a basic Associate Member, but you need to sign an agreement and you cannot redistribute the library or use them in commercial products. This is why there is a pre-compiled version of cad2svg included: you can use this free software, but to compile it yourself, you'll need to obtain the library from the http://www.opendesign.com/ OpenDesign Alliance.

This utility works and has been tested on Linux (RedHat 8, 9 and FC1, FC2, FC3). It should work on most x86 Linux distribution without change, and it would certainly not take too much to adapt it to Windows.

• the produced SVG is a preview representation of the drawing: objects outlines are broken down into simple lines segments (polylines). This means that the produced graphic has lost all notion of the original cad objects (even curves are approcimated into sets of line segments).

This example is a converted dxf file of 5.1MB converted to a 168KB compressed SVG (680KB uncompressed).

• Attach:cad2svg-1.00.tgz cad2svg-1.00.tgz Δ - 866,792 bytes / md5: 7badd6a97cbd28dfd1bdf61c752e6bea

This example is a converted dxf file of 5.1MB converted to a 128KB compressed SVG (680KB uncompressed).

To view this svg file you will need to have a free http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/main.html Adobe or http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel2/Products/Content&pid=1047023276653&cid=1047023286996 Corel plugin installed.

• Attach:cad2svg-example.svgz cad2svg-example.svgz Δ 168KB

See also

• {{Download/cad2text}}.

cad2svg is a simple Linux command-line utility that automatically converts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocad AutoCAD files (both dwg and dxf) to http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/ SVG.

The following example is a converted dxf file of 5.1MB converted to a 128KB compressed SVG (680KB uncompressed).

To view this svg file you will need to have a free plugin installed: http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/main.html Adobe or http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel2/Products/Content&pid=1047023276653&cid=1047023286996 Corel.

• Attach:cad2svg-example.svgz cad2svg-example.svgz Δ

• Output either compressed (.sgvz) or standard (.svg) SVG (use the -z or --compress option)

http:uploads/Download/cad2svg-example.svgz

Attach:cad2svg-example.svgz

• Indicative performance (no formal tests were performed): it took 2.2s to convert a 5.1MB dxf file into the compressed SVG file in the example below on an Athlon XP 1900 with 1GB of RAM.

Attach:cad2svg-example.svgz

If you modify it and other could benefit from your change, then send me back your modifications so I can integrate them in the next version.

• Attach:cad2svg-1.00.tgz cad2svg-1.00.tgz Δ 866792 bytes / md5: 7badd6a97cbd28dfd1bdf61c752e6bea

This utility works and has been tested on Linux (RedHat 8, 9 and FC1, FC2). It should work on most x86 Linux distribution without change, and it would certainly not take too much to adapt it to Windows.

Since this is a command-line utility, it is perfect for batch jobs.

• Quality of output is modifiable (use the -g or --geometry WxH option)

• Produced SVG is saved to filename.svg or .svgz by default but can be saved to any file (use -o or --name outputfile option)

Please bear in mind that this utility is only meant to produce a preview of AutoCAD files. Do not depend on its output to be accurate enough to replace the original drawing in a decision process!

The download package contains both a pre-compiled binary for Linux RedHat (that should work on any x86 Linux) and the source code.

It is important to note that this utility relies on the http://www.opendesign.com/ OpenDesign Alliance http://www.opendesign.com/downloads/guest.htm OpenDWG Toolkit and Viewkit libraries. It is free to become a basic http://www.opendesign.com/membership/join.htm Associate Member, but you need to sign an agreement and you cannot redistribute the library or use them in commercial products. This is why there is a pre-compiled version of cad2svg included: you can use this free software, but to compile it yourself, you'll need to obtain the library from the OpenDesign Alliance.

Do this only if you need to.

• http://gcc.gnu.org/ gcc (any version less than 2 year old should work and should already be installed on your machine, otherwise, {{apt-get}} install gcc)

License

This software is free to use and modify but can only be used in non-commercial application and must be redistributed along with its original and modified source code.

If you modify it and other could benefit from your change, then you must send me back your modifications so I can integrate them in the next version.

Download

• Attach:cad2svg-1.00.tgz Δ (866792 bytes md5: 7badd6a97cbd28dfd1bdf61c752e6bea)

cad2svg is a simple Linux command-line utility that automatically converts AutoCAD files (both dwg and dxf) to SVG.

This utility works and has been tested on Linux (RedHat 8, 9 and FC1, FC2). It should work on most x86 Linux distribution without change, and it would certainly not take too much to adapt it to Windows.

Capabilities

Since this is a command-line utility, it is perfect for batch jobs. I actually use it to automatically produce quality previews of AutoCAD files we have on our file servers. The output is saved in a database for quick retrieval.

Capabilities:

• Output either compressed (.sgvz) or uncompressed (.svg) SVG (use the -z or --copmpress option)
• Quality of output is modifiable (use the -g or --geometry WxH option)
• Supplied binary does not depend on installed libraries
• Produced SVG is send to standard output by default but can be directly saved to a file (use -o or --name outputfile option)

Limitations

Before you decide if this utility is right for you, note the following limitiations:

• the produced SVG is a preview representation of the drawing: objects outlines are broken down into simple lines segments (polylines). This means that the produced graphic has lost of notion of object.
• Text is also broken down into a set of lines, so it is not searchable. There is also currently no link to external fonts, so there are all rendered into a default sans-serif font outline. Non-latin text strings are rendered as garbage. See {{cad2text}} for text extraction.
• The is a limit to the quality and precision of the output SVG: I wanted to do this to limit the size of the resulting file to the display size I was using, while still allowing a reasonnable zoom factor for details. The advantage of this approach is that large AutoCAD files are converted into rather small SVG files. The drawback is that the resulting graphic is not very nice when zooming on details. The quality of the output is modifiable on the command line.
• The current converter only works on files created from AutoCAD version prior to Release 2002.
• Some objects may not be converted at all: bitmap graphics are ignored for instance.

Please bear in mind that this utility is only meant to produce a preview of AutoCAD files. Do not depend on its output to be accurate enough to replace the original drawing in a decision process!%

If you need a converter that does a better job, there is a commercial software available (no affiliation to me and I have not tested it): http://www.savagesoftware.com/products/cad2svg/

Example

cad2svg is a simple utility that automatically converts AutoCAD files from versions <=2000 to SVG.

This utility works and has been tested on Linux (RedHat 8, 9 and FC1, FC2). It should work on Linux distribution without change, and it would certainly not take too much to adapt it to Windows.

Why?

I needed a way to display AutoCAD files (both dwg and dxf files) on our intranet. This utility is part of a larger drawing management system that collects information from CAD files from our file servers and stores them in a database for easy search.

Installation

You can download 2 packages: one containing a pre-compiled binary for Linux RedHat (that should work on any x86 Linux) and another with the source code.

It is important to note that this utility relies on the http://www.opendesign.com/ OpenDesign Alliance http://www.opendesign.com/downloads/guest.htm OpenDWG Toolkit and Viewkit libraries. It is free to become a basic http://www.opendesign.com/membership/join.htm Associate Member, but you need to sign an agreement and you cannot redistribute the library or use them in commercial products. This is why there is a pre-compiled version of cad2svg: you can use this free software, but to compile it yourself, you'll need to obtain the library from the OpenDesign Alliance.

The pre-compiled package is a static binary, so there is no pre-requisite requirements to use it.

Compile

Pre-requisites:

• http://sources.redhat.com/binutils/ binutils (they should be already installed, otherwise, {{apt-get}} install binutils)
• http://gcc.gnu.org/ gcc (any version less than 2 year old should work and should already be installed on your machine, otherwise, @@{{apt-get}} install gcc)
• http://www.gzip.org/zlib/ zlib (it is usually pre-packaged for each linux distribution. For RedHat for instance, you need to install the zlib-devel-xxx.rpm package with {{apt-get}} install zlib-devel)

I know it's bad, but there is no makefile for this. Once you have the necessary librairies from the OpenDWG kits, untar the provided cad2svg source and copy the following OpenDWG Linux files in your cad2svg directory:

• ad2.a, ad2.h
• ad3.a, ad3.h
• adinit.a

We first need to transform the adinit.dat into an object file to be able to include it into our binary. This file contains initialisation code and data and must be included in your project for it to work:

objcopy -I binary -O elf32-i386 -B i386 adinit.dat adinit.a

Then just compile it all together:

gcc -Wall -o cad2svg cad2svg.c ad2.a ad3.a adinit.a -lm -lz --static

See also {{cad2text}}.