DWG and DXF files

CADCraft’s own format is DXF. It also opens and saves DWG, so you can work with drawings from other CAD programs.

Open a drawing

Choose File › Open… (Ctrl+O) and pick a file. CADCraft opens:

Format	Versions
DXF	R12 and later, text (ASCII) or binary. Binary DXF must be R13 or later
DWG	2000 and later
DWT	Drawing templates
SVG	Shapes, paths, groups and Inkscape layers become CADCraft objects. Text, fills and images are left out

To start a new drawing from a template, choose File › New from Template….

Save a drawing

File › Save (Ctrl+S) saves in the drawing’s own format: a drawing you opened as DWG is saved as DWG. A new drawing is saved as DXF unless you change it.

File › Save As (Ctrl+Shift+S) saves in another format. CADCraft saves DXF and DWG in versions 2000, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2018. To set the format and version for new drawings, use Tools › Options › Open and Save, or File › Default Save Format.

When you save over a file, CADCraft keeps the old one as a .bak backup copy. To turn this off, clear Create backup copy with each save in Tools › Options › Open and Save.

Saving can drop objects

CADCraft doesn’t yet understand everything other CAD programs put in a drawing. Objects it doesn’t model, such as 3D solids, are kept when you save as DXF, but some are lost when you save as DWG or as a newer DXF version. Before File › Save would remove something from the file, CADCraft asks you: choose Save Anyway, Save As… to keep the original file as it is, or Cancel. Always keep the original of a drawing someone sent you.

Export and plot

To get	Choose
A PDF	File › Export to PDF…, or File › Print… to set up the plot first
A DXF, DWG, SVG or PNG file	File › Export…, then give the file the extension you want: .dxf, .dwg, .svg or .png
Every sheet as its own PDF	File › Batch Publish…

See Print for paper sizes, scale and plot styles. To add another drawing to the open one, see Import another drawing.

PDFs keep the drawing as vector lines, with layers you can turn on and off in a PDF reader, and can hold several sheets in one file.

Fonts

CADCraft draws text with the TrueType and OpenType fonts (.ttf, .otf, .ttc) installed on your computer. To use a new font, install it in your system’s font folder, then restart CADCraft.

CADCraft reads SHX fonts and big fonts when it can find the .shx file: next to the drawing, or in a folder named by the CADCRAFT_SHXPATH environment variable. It doesn’t look in other CAD programs’ folders. If the file isn’t found, the text is drawn with CADCraft’s own drafting font instead, so it may be a slightly different size from the original.

Choose a replacement font

Two settings change which fonts CADCraft falls back on. Set them with the SETVAR command, or for every session with an environment variable.

Setting	Environment variable	What it does
FONTALT	CADCRAFT_FONTALT	The font used instead of one that can’t be found, such as an SHX file. Give a file name or family name, for example Noto Sans CJK TC. Empty uses CADCraft’s own drafting font
FONTFALLBACK	CADCRAFT_FONTFALLBACK	Fonts tried first for characters the text’s font doesn’t have, separated by commas, for example Noto Sans CJK TC, msjh.ttc

A single . clears either one.

Right-to-left text

Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Hebrew text is laid out right to left, and Arabic-script letters join correctly. CADCraft’s own drafting font has no Arabic letters, so it draws them from an installed font that has them. To choose the font, install one such as Vazirmatn, and either use it in the text style or set FONTFALLBACK to its name. Restart CADCraft after you install a font.

Limits

• DWG files are converted on the way in and out, so very large DWG drawings can be slow to open.
• CADCraft can’t yet import PDFs, or open DGN or DWF files.
• The web version opens and saves DXF only, not DWG.