AutoCAD drawings.

[Rick]

I have several project drawings that are in '.dwg' format which is the Autocad file type.

I can view these by importing into Photoshop or VISIO, but I can't edit them, they appear as a single item ... rather than the individual elements of the drawings.

AutoCAD is not a cheap product and has a reputation for being a steep learning curve .... anybody know of any other suitable drawing package, presumably with fewer 'bells & whistles' which will allow me to edit these files?

Rick

[Joe]

have a search for "intellicad"

[TimM]

There are hacked versions of ACAD around which cannot possibly be recommended. Or you could try autosketch?

[Chris Hodges]

One of the PC magazines currently has turboCAD (old version of course) on the coverdisc.

[Dave]

In Visio you could insert the dwg (as a CAD drawing) then right click the drawing and choose "convert", this allows you to convert it to Visio shapes (or to delete layers) - now you can edit using Visio.

Dave S

[BillR]

One drifted my way. Copies anyone?

[Rick Hughes]

I'll certainly try this, but the only way I could get into my copy of VISIO

200 was to import it ... and it then appears as a locked object - can't edit.

Rick

[Frank]

get yourself over to suprnova.org and download a copy of autocad

[The Natural Philosopher]

Turbocad learning edition is a free dwonload from somewhere.

Corel draw also works.

[mike ring]

[e-mail] (Rick) wrote in news:c3924c67.0311070805.399605e7 @posting.google.com:

I've used turbocad learning edition, it's excellent, better than Sketch 3 (was it, the last DOS version, the windows ones were ruggish)

can also get the manuals in PDF form.TBH I don't know if it does .dwg files because I never met them, it was *.?xd or summat - it seems a long time ago.

I now find it too finicky, but I would like to find a good sketching prog, but I generally end up using vectors in Paintshop Pro

mike r

[gnome]

Somebody I know got into serious trouble at work having got a no dongle version of ACAD 2000 off the net, along with a dogy serial number. Not recommended. Full AutoCAD is around £3000 but the LT version can be got for around £500. If you have a serious interest and are not short of a few bob the LT version might be a possibility. It is not that difficult to learn the basics.

Eric

[Colin Wilson]

I prefer this client personally (i`ve had less problems overall)

couple of bugs with torrent files still seem to persist - on this specific client it can bomb if you use your mouse to make dropdown selections (so I use tab and the cursors, and it hasn`t crashed since) and every now and then, you`ll find one file that just doesn`t want to complete - someone somewhere will have a damaged file and although the client thinks its done, when it does the checksum on the file the last part is constantly corrupt. Leaving the file for a few days and trying again usually resolves it, as long the person with the corrupt file has buggered off...

• if at first suprnova.org doesn`t load, reload the page - it uses several cloned sites to stay online and will redirect you each time you reload it.

[John Rumm]

What if you select the object and select "ungroup"?

[Tony Williams]

Have you seen David Snell's wProCAD+. It is an excellent dwg programme by a UK author, so you get immediate support. It reads .DWG filetypes (but doesn't write them). Price is £150.

Goto for more information and a free download of a demo to try out. It is not the complete prog (obviously) but enough to see how you would get on with it.

[dg]

As .dwg is the main CAD file standard, then most if not all CAD software can import dwg files for editing.

However, Autodesk have changed the dwg standard a few times and so there may be some compatability issues - a 2004 dwg will not open in Autocad 3.3 or earlier for instance.

Also layers may not import correctly.

There are shareware, and 30 day trials available of many CAD programs.

dg

[PoP]

This doesn't really assist you, but I'm responding to comments made on this thread about TurboCad etc.

I was recently looking for a drawing package, and was very put off by the cost of most of them.

I then found DeltaCad -

I was so impressed with it for 50 bucks that I immediately bought a licensed copy.

I have very little experience with drawing packages so I'm in no position to compare one with t'other. The slight negatives I feel for DeltaCad relate to what appears to be a slightly clunky user interface. I may be doing it a dis-service here, maybe other drawing packages are no different. But the price tag was very attractive for me.

PoP

[geoff]

It would be a bit difficult for anyone to reply to that offer, since it would by necessity have to be offlist

[Rick Hughes]

Dave - tried this, dwg imported OK - but there is no option to 'convert' under right click ? can you shed any light on this.

Under right click there is 'CAD drawing object > properties' but nothing that relates to converting to VISIO shapes.

Rick

[The Natural Philosopher]

Corel draw is on ebay for under a hundred in pertfectly acceptable cversions.

Unless you are really DEEP into CAD graphics, it does everything you need, and covers bitmaps, and color graphics as well.

[Dave]

...snipped

What version have you got? In the 2002 version there are 2 options: properties and convert. Unfortunately I don't have 2000 installed any more so can't check that.

Dave S