new autocad drawing

[jackson6612]

Hi

 

When you click File > New, you get a menu "Look in 'Template'" with "Filename" and "Files of type" at the bottom of this menu.

 

1: Do I also have to look in Template when creating a new drawing?

 

2: Under "Files of type" I get .dwt, .dwg, .dws. What are these? I think to make a new drawing I have to use .dwt? Could you please explain it a bit?

 

3: Someone has told me that when saving a drawing you have to write extension .dwg at the end of a file name, otherwise it won't open in future. Was that someone correct?

 

Video:

 

Please help me. Thank you.

[ReMark]

A dwt is a drawing template file.

 

A dwg is an AutoCAD drawing file.

 

In case you come across it a bak is an AutoCAD backup file.

 

Another one you might see is a dxf file. That is a drawing exchange file used between different CAD programs to exchange drawings.

 

You do not have to type in the file extension of dwg if that is already the "file of type" you are saving to in the first place. AutoCAD will take care of put the "dwg" after the file name.

[ReMark]

Here's another one: a dwl file. The dwl file contains infomation on who opened a drawing, what computer, and the time/date the drawing was opened.

 

A dws is a drawing standards file type. For cross checking drawings against company CAD standards.

[jackson6612]

Thanks, ReMark.

 

A dwt is a drawing template file.

 

A dwg is an AutoCAD drawing file.

 

When making a new drawing I have to select "acad.dwt". Why can't I select, let's say, acad.dwg to create a new drawing? What is that dwt template thing? I understand what a template is - a defined pattern. That would mean there would also be other template in the AutoCAD. What is the difference between those template and how would it affect if I choose some other template?

 

How do I make an AutoCAD drawing a read-only drawing so it cannot be modified later?

 

Could you please recommend me a simple software to view AutoCAD drawings? Also a converter to JPEG image files?

 

Thanks.

[eldon]

When making a new drawing I have to select "acad.dwt".

 

Another alternative to creating a new drawing is to Start from Scratch.

[Cad64]

If you use a .dwg file as your template file, you will have to always remember to do a "Save As" on your first save. If you accidentally hit "Save" instead of "Save As", you will save all of your changes to your .dwg template. It's too easy to make that mistake. That's why we have .dwt template files. If you select acad.dwt to start your drawing, then you make changes and hit "Save, you will be prompted for a .dwg file name and asked where to save the file. You cannot accidentally overwrite a .dwt template file.

 

You can right click on the drawing icon in explorer and set the "Read-Only" flag, but anyone with any computer knowledge can uncheck that box and edit the drawing if they want to. If you're looking for a way to permanently lock a drawing, there is no reliable way to do this other than maybe using a 3rd party program like DWGLock. Although I've never used it so I don't know how well it actually works.

 

You can use DWG TrueView to view Autocad drawings.

 

Why do you need a jpg converter? Just print to PDF.