DWG stands for “DraWinG” and is therefore used as a file extension for drawing files. There are numerous Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) programs that can view, edit and generate this file. DWG files contain 2D and 3D objects or blueprints information about a drawing. The file extension DWG was originally used and released in the 70’s and was licensed by Autodesk. Overtime, the DWG standards have been modified again and again and so there have been so many revisions for the format and structure of files with a DWG file extension.
DWG file extension used to be a native file extension to programs like AutoCAD, PowerCAD and many more. Licensing restrictions however have made it unreachable for the open-source software group. But as of the moment, there are several free applications that can be used to view and convert DWG files into another format. These applications include but are not limited to AutoDWG – DWG to image/PDF converter, Bentley View, Volo View Express, and many more.
Many design enthusiasts like using the DWG file extension because they can use it to store high dimensional design data and metadata information. It is also very useful in a way that there are several CAD programs that manage CAD packages that can access this kind of file. In fact, it is supported by several hundred of other programs, which is why it is a relatively popular file extension. DWG files are related to DFX files in a way that the latter is the ASCII version of the former. But of course, DWG has become the standard for drawing applications and it still is until today.
