DWG to PDF Converter
Share a drawing with a client, contractor or permit office as a PDF that opens on any device. Upload the AutoCAD DWG, choose the model or the layout sheets, and get a vector PDF that prints at the scale it was drawn.
CAD Converter
or drop DWG, DXF, DWF … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Model space is the full drawing. All layouts exports each paper-space sheet as its own page, as set up in AutoCAD.
Fit to page scales the drawing to fill the sheet. Actual size keeps drawing units 1:1 (1 mm in the drawing = 1 mm on paper) and may span a larger page.
Same as source uses the size set in each layout. A1 and A0 are the usual plotter sheets for architectural drawings.
Auto turns the page to match the drawing's longer side.
Monochrome prints every line black, like plotting with a monochrome.ctb style — best for printed plans on white paper.
White suits printing. Black looks like the AutoCAD drawing area; transparent works for placing the drawing in other documents (not available in JPG).
300 DPI is print quality; 150 is enough for screens. At A1 and 600 DPI an image is 14,000 px wide, so higher values make very large files.
Only used when the input is a photo or scan (JPG, PNG). Outline draws the edges of shapes, good for logos and laser cutting; centreline draws single lines through strokes, good for scanned line drawings and plotters.
Pixels darker than this become lines. Raise it if faint lines are missing, lower it if background noise turns into shapes.
Higher values give fewer, smoother curves; lower values follow the pixels more closely but create more points.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the DWG files
Drop up to 20 drawings, 95 MB each. If the drawing uses external references, bind them in AutoCAD first so they are inside the file.
- 2
Choose layouts and scale
The page exports All layouts at Actual size (1:1), so each sheet keeps its paper size and viewport scale. Switch What to export to Model space for a quick overview, and pick Monochrome under Colors for black-line plans.
- 3
Convert to PDF
Press Convert to PDF and download. Every layout becomes one page of the same PDF; files are removed after 30 minutes.
Model space or layouts: what to export
DWG has been AutoCAD's native format since the first release in 1982; the 2018 version of the format is still what current AutoCAD releases save by default. A drawing has two worlds. Model space holds the geometry at real-world size: a 6 m wall is drawn 6,000 mm long. Layouts, or paper space, are the sheets: a title block, notes and viewports that show the model at a scale such as 1:50 or 1:100.
Architects and engineers plot from layouts, because that is where the scale, border and sheet number live, so this page exports All layouts by default. Choose Model space when the drawing has no layouts, or for a quick picture of everything fitted onto one page.
Colors in CAD are often used to mean pen widths rather than real colors. Plotting with Monochrome, the same idea as AutoCAD's monochrome.ctb plot style, prints every line black so yellow and light-cyan lines do not vanish on white paper.
DWG
AutoCAD Drawing
DWG is the native file format of Autodesk AutoCAD, used since 1982. It stores 2D and 3D design data, including geometry, layers, dimensions, blocks and metadata, and is the standard for architecture, engineering and construction drawings. The format is proprietary and changes between AutoCAD versions, so older software may not open newer files. Viewing requires AutoCAD, a free viewer such as DWG TrueView, or a compatible CAD program.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1982 · Autodesk
Portable Document Format
PDF was created by Adobe in 1993 and became the open ISO 32000 standard in 2008. It fixes text, fonts, images and layout so a document looks the same on every screen and printer. PDFs can contain forms, signatures, links, attachments and searchable text, and the PDF/A variant is used for long-term archiving. The fixed layout makes PDFs hard to edit, and scanned PDFs contain only images unless OCR is applied. Every browser and operating system can open them.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- No
- Introduced
- 1993 · Adobe
A DWG only opens properly in CAD software, so people turn it into a PDF to share a drawing for review, printing, tender documents or permit applications with people who have no AutoCAD licence.
DWG to PDF paper sizes
| Size | Pixels | cm | in | DPI | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A0 | 9933 × 14043 | 84.1 × 118.9 | 33.1 × 46.8 | 300 | Site plans, large-format plotters |
| A1 | 7016 × 9933 | 59.4 × 84.1 | 23.4 × 33.1 | 300 | Standard architectural sheet in ISO countries |
| A3 | 3508 × 4961 | 29.7 × 42 | 11.7 × 16.5 | 300 | Reduced sets for meetings and review |
| Tabloid | 3300 × 5100 | 27.9 × 43.2 | 11 × 17 | 300 | US half-size sets (ANSI B) |
| Letter | 2550 × 3300 | 21.6 × 27.9 | 8.5 × 11 | 300 | Details and attachments to letters |
Line weights, colors and background
The PDF is vector, so the pixel figures above only matter if a print shop rasterizes the file. What changes the look is Use line weights: with it on, a 0.50 mm wall outline and a 0.18 mm dimension line print at those widths from the ISO 128 pen series. With it off, every line is hairline-thin, which some people prefer for dense drawings on screen.
Keep Background white for anything that will be printed. To edit the geometry rather than view it, convert to an exchange format with DWG to DXF instead; every other drawing type lives on the CAD converter.
Fix common DWG to PDF problems
The PDF shows a tiny drawing in one corner.
Model space contains stray objects far from the main drawing, so the extents are huge. Export layouts instead, or delete the stray objects in CAD and upload again.
Parts of the drawing are missing.
They are external references or images stored in separate files. Bind the xrefs in AutoCAD (or package them with eTransmit and bind) so everything sits inside the DWG.
Text appears in a different font.
Custom SHX or TrueType fonts that are not part of the file are replaced by a standard font, so text widths can shift. Stick to standard fonts in drawings you share.
The sheet comes out at the wrong scale.
Use Actual size (1:1) and leave Page size on Same as source; Fit to page or a forced A4 page rescales the sheet.
DWG to PDF questions
How do I convert DWG to PDF without AutoCAD?
Upload the drawing here and press Convert to PDF; nothing needs installing. Autodesk's free DWG TrueView can also plot to PDF, but it is a large Windows-only download.
Will the PDF be to scale?
Yes when you export layouts at Actual size (1:1): a layout set up on A1 with a 1:100 viewport gives an A1 page on which 1 cm equals 1 m. Fit to page shrinks or enlarges the drawing to fill the sheet, which is fine for viewing but breaks any printed scale bar.
Can I export all DWG layouts into one PDF?
That is the default here. Each paper-space layout becomes a page in tab order, so a set of plans, sections and elevations arrives as one document. To join PDFs from several DWG files afterwards, see how to merge PDF files.
Is the text in the PDF searchable?
Text in TrueType fonts usually stays real text you can search and copy. Text in AutoCAD's SHX stroke fonts is drawn as lines, so search may not find it, even though it looks the same.
Why is the PDF so large, and can I shrink it?
Hatches, embedded raster images and dense survey points add up; turning off unused layers before export helps most. Afterwards, compress PDF reduces embedded images.
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