English Japanese

Open DXF Files — Free Online DXF Viewer

View DXF drawings from AutoCAD, Jw_cad and other CAD software in your browser. Zoom, pan, switch layers, and save as PNG or PDF. The file is read in your browser and never uploaded.

Your files stay safe — processed entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

Drop a .dxf file here

or click to choose a file

DXF (text) from AutoCAD, Jw_cad and other CAD software. The file never leaves your device.

How to open a DXF file without CAD software

DXF is the format CAD programs such as AutoCAD and Jw_cad use to exchange drawings. On a computer or phone without CAD software, double-clicking one finds nothing to open it with.

This page shows the drawing in your browser, with nothing to install. The file is not uploaded; it is read on your device.

1

Choose the file

Drop the .dxf on the box above, or click it to choose the file. On an iPhone, save the attachment to the Files app first.

2

Look at the drawing

The whole drawing is shown. Zoom with the wheel or a pinch, drag to move, and use "Layers" to switch layers on and off.

3

Save or print if you need to

"Save as PNG" saves what you see as an image. "Print / Save as PDF" fits the whole drawing to A4 or A3 and opens the print dialog; choose "Save as PDF" as the printer there to get a PDF.

The DXF viewer showing a floor plan with room names, windows, doors and a dimension, with the layer and print buttons above it.
Screenshot A sample floor plan (a Shift_JIS DXF) opened in the DXF viewer on this site. The Japanese room names come out as they should.

Changing the drawing — adding lines, fixing dimensions — needs CAD software. To look at it, print it or pass it on as a PDF, this page is enough.

How this DXF viewer works

DXF is a text format for exchanging drawings between CAD programs. This viewer reads it with an open-source (MIT, MPL 2.0) parser, builds each object, and draws it on screen — all in your browser, without sending the file anywhere.

Working out the encoding
Up to the 2004 format a DXF is written in the code page it declares ($DWGCODEPAGE); from the 2007 format it is UTF-8 by rule, whatever the declaration says (per the documentation of ezdxf, a DXF library). Software that trusts the declaration garbles the Japanese in newer files. In this viewer: First the bytes are checked as UTF-8; if they read cleanly, the file is read as UTF-8. A DXF from the 2007 format on is UTF-8 by rule, so when only a few sequences are broken it stays UTF-8 and the number of unreadable characters is shown under the drawing; otherwise UTF-8 is compared with the declared code page (Shift_JIS when none, or a Western one, is declared) and whichever reads better is used — the page says so when that is Shift_JIS. Older files are read in the declared code page (Shift_JIS when none is declared, or a Western one if Shift_JIS does not read). Characters written as \U+XXXX are turned back into the characters.
Drawing the objects
Blocks (INSERT) are expanded with nesting, mirroring, rotation and arrays; dimensions are drawn from the dimension blocks stored in the file. Linetypes, layer colours, hatches (solid and pattern) and text alignment follow the drawing. White lines are drawn black so they show on white paper, and bright colours such as yellow are darkened a little.
Built not to freeze
Reading the file and building the objects happen in a Web Worker, away from the page. Each zoom or pan only redraws prepared bundles of lines, grouped by colour and linetype, and the text.
Printing and PDF
For printing, the drawing is turned into an SVG fitted to A4 or A3 and handed to the browser's print dialog. Text goes in as SVG text, so a PDF saved from there is searchable.
The parser
DXF is read by the parser part of dxf-viewer (npm), used unmodified: the code derived from dxf-parser is under the MIT license, the parts dxf-viewer added are under MPL 2.0. It is fetched when you drop a file, not when the page opens. Licenses of dxf-viewer's parser (MIT, MPL 2.0)

What it does not do

Binary DXF and DWG files do not open. Line weights are not applied; every line is thin. Text uses your device's fonts, not CAD's SHX lettering. Multileaders (MULTILEADER), images, 3D solids, tables, external references and some other objects are not drawn, and their number is shown. Layouts (paper space) are not shown — model space is, unless it is empty. A drawing that expands to an extreme size is drawn until a limit and the page says so; a hatch with too many pattern lines is drawn as its outline. Files over 80 MB (30 MB on phones and tablets) do not open.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the file uploaded?
No. The file is read by a program that runs in your browser; it is not sent to this site or anywhere else. The only thing downloaded is the reader itself, the first time you open a file.
Can it open Jw_cad drawings (.jww)?
No, this viewer opens DXF only. A drawing saved from Jw_cad as DXF opens.
Can it open DWG files?
No. DWG is AutoCAD's own format and is built differently from DXF; the viewer says so when you give it one. Asking the sender for a DXF or a PDF is usually the quickest way.
Will Japanese text come out garbled?
First the bytes are checked as UTF-8; if they read cleanly, the file is read as UTF-8. A DXF from the 2007 format on is UTF-8 by rule, so when only a few sequences are broken it stays UTF-8 and the number of unreadable characters is shown under the drawing; otherwise UTF-8 is compared with the declared code page (Shift_JIS when none, or a Western one, is declared) and whichever reads better is used — the page says so when that is Shift_JIS. Older files are read in the declared code page (Shift_JIS when none is declared, or a Western one if Shift_JIS does not read). Characters written as \U+XXXX are turned back into the characters. A file older than 2007 that declares a Western code page but holds Shift_JIS text can still come out garbled.
Can I make a PDF?
Yes. "Print / Save as PDF" fits the whole drawing to A4 or A3 and opens the print dialog; on a computer, choose "Save as PDF" as the printer. Text goes in as text, not pictures, so you can search and copy it in the PDF. Some phone browsers cannot make a PDF from the print dialog.
Do line weights and lettering match the CAD program?
No. Line weights are not applied — every line is drawn thin — and text is drawn in your device's fonts, so it differs a little from CAD's SHX fonts in shape and width. Positions and sizes follow the drawing.
Some objects are missing.
Multileaders (MULTILEADER), images, 3D solids, tables, external references and some other objects are not drawn; when a drawing has any, their kinds and numbers are listed under it. Objects in layouts (paper space) are not shown either, and their number is listed too (when model space has nothing drawable, the layout is shown instead). A hatch with too many pattern lines is drawn as its outline only, and those are counted.

Related articles

How to Open a DXF File Without CAD Software (Free, No Install)

A DXF is a CAD drawing, and a computer without CAD software has nothing to open it with. How to view one in your browser and turn it into a PDF with nothing to install, which free programs open it (Jw_cad, LibreCAD) and DWG TrueView, when to ask for a PDF instead, and why Japanese text comes out garbled.