Cad File Format

  . CAD stands for Computer Aided Design.
  . It is software used by engineers, architects and other professionals to create drawings or technical illustrations.
  . Can create 2D and 3D drawings.
  . Can be used to design products like electronic boards etc.
  . CAD drawings will be formed from polygons, lines, circles, curves, text etc.
  . We can edit individual elements that make image.

Different CAD programs:

 . There are many programs to design drawings in 3D and 2D models. Few of them are:

    - AutoCAD

    - IntelliCAD

    - SketchPro

    - Scan2CAD

    - CorelCAD

 . We can also use online editors to create 2D 3D drawings.

CAD File Formats:

   . We can save the drawings designed in various formats.

DWG:

  . Stands for AutoCAD DraWinG database file.

  . It is native file format in AutoCAD.

  . It handles 3D geometry.

  . Stores information like colors, line weights, x-references.

  . Encodes information in 0's and 1's

  . It is not supported by all other softwares expect AutoCAD.
  . It can be converted into PDF to share the files but receiver could not edit the individual elements.

DXF:

  . Stands for Drawing Exchange Format File.

  . DXF is open source used by almost all CAD softwares.

  . It uses plain text or ASCII format.

  . It is of larger size since every information is spelled in text and numerals.

  . It supports only 2D lines, text, polygons and circles.
  . DXF is used when we want to share drawings between different CAD or vector based programs.

Opening CAD files:

  . We cannot open and view any CAD files directly.

  . We need software required to open and edit files.

. Also we can use online viewers  like AutoDESK online viewer to view the CAD files.