Introducing Open CAD Studio - DWG Authoring Tool

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Open CAD Studio is a new free open source tool, which can be used for all kinds of engineering designs. It edits DWG and DXF file format natively, which is a great feature as the DWG file format is an industry standard format since the eighties.

Open CAD Studio offers wide range of functionalities, including loading of 2D and 3D DWG files, wide range of 2D modelling tools, basic support for 3D modelling. It supports paper space objects and layouts, including built in PDF exporter. Users can of course use printing. The tool also supports layers, blocks, external references and other functionalities typical for a DWG project.

User interface of Open CAD Studio

Open CAD Studio has first been released at the beginning of 2026 and has provided rapid release cadence. The main developer of the software is Hakan Seven, a prolific software developer and geomatics engineer. As of summer 2026, the project has several other contributors, but most of the coding work is done by Hakan. The development of the software is AI assisted, which makes the development speed very rapid.

Can Open CAD Studio replace AutoCAD as your DWG editor? As of 2026, there are some workflows, which can be handled by Open CAD Studio instead of AutoCAD. Creating a DWG drawing and printing it is not a problem with Open CAD Studio. Opening and editing DWG from a contractor and sending it back to them is also doable. The project is still very young, so you might encounter issues with your workflow. If you are relying heavily on addons and scripts in AutoCAD, this is what Open CAD Studio can not replace yet.

The software is free and open source, distributed under the GPL-3.0 license. It is available on all platforms - Windows, Mac and Linux. The installation media can be downloaded from the product page for free and the software runs without any subscription, login, or license key. The application is localized to 12 languages with more in the roadmap.

Open CAD Studio can also run in your web browser, so a DWG editor is always available at your fingertips, the only needed equipment is browser and an internet connection. Even though Open CAD Studio Web runs in a browser, data privacy is guaranteed as none of your data leaves your computer - it all runs natively. Note that the web version has some limitations, so desktop version is recommended for the best experience. One can be said for certain: Open CAD Studio is the best free open source DWG authoring software on the market.

You can watch tutorial on creating simple chair 2D drawing using Open CAD Studio here:



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