Looking for freeware or opensource CAD that can read and edit .dwg [closed]

cad dwg

We have an engineer who needs CAD software which can read and edit .dwg files (preferably that runs on Windows but I could probably argue for a *nix box if needed). Before buying a commercial license I'd like to see, what if any, freeware or opensource CAD software exists. I've read through this post but the software here all specifies a license for personal use only. Everything I have found up to this point is a .dwg viewer only, is licensed for non-commercial purposes, or is paid software (with the possible exception of FelixCAD which I'm still looking into).

There are some really cool CAD packages such as BRL-CAD or Archimedes but these don't have the capability to work with .dwg files. My question then is, am I right that there is no freeware (with a commercial license) or opensource CAD software which can work with .dwg files? Or am I wrong and there is just such a package out there?


Solution 1:

New answer

DraftSight, free for individuals, reviewed here as :

DraftSight is a proprietary freeware 2D computer-aided design (CAD) software application. The product was developed by Dassault Systèmes and lets users create, edit and view DWG and AutoCAD DXF files.

DraftSight for Windows was released in February 2011 and was downloaded more than 1.8 million times as of December 2011.

Languages available include English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish and Russian.

Old answer (read comments first)

DoubleCAD XT

DoubleCAD XT™ is an AutoCAD LT work-alike. But free.

A9CAD

A9CAD is a general purpose two-dimensional CAD program. It supports industry standard DWG & DXF drawing formats.

HYCAD

HYCAD is a useful and general purpose CAD program, green and small but powerful.
HYCAD can export multiple format files, such as dwg dxf eps bmp jpg png etc. it is easy to learn and much like AutoCAD.

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