Open a Drawing (Concept)

AutoCAD 2008 User's Guide > Start, Organize, and Save a Drawing > Open or Save a Drawing >

Open a Drawing

Concept

Procedure

Quick Reference

You open drawings to work on them just as you do with other Windows applications. In addition, you can choose from several alternative methods.

To open a drawing, you can

Use Open on the File menu to display the Select File dialog box.
Double-click a drawing in Windows Explorer to launch AutoCAD. and open the drawing. If the program is already running, the drawing opens in the current session rather than in a second session.
Drag a drawing from Windows Explorer into AutoCAD.
If you drop a drawing anywhere outside the drawing area—for example, the command line or the blank space next to the toolbars— the drawing is opened. However, if you drag a single drawing into the drawing area of an open drawing, the new drawing is not opened but inserted as a block reference.
Use DesignCenter to open drawings.
Use the Sheet Set Manager to locate and open the drawings in a sheet set.

TrustedDWG™ Drawing Files

DWG, DWT, and DWS files that are created with Autodesk applications and RealDWG™-based applications are trusted by Autodesk. When you open a TrustedDWG file, the following icon displays in the application status bar or the drawing status bar.

If the DWGCHECK system variable is set to On (1), an alert box is displayed if

The drawing file format is AutoCAD Release 14 or later and
The drawing file was not saved by an Autodesk application or RealDWG-based application.

For more information about TrustedDWG, click the TrustedDWG icon.

Recover Defective Drawing Files

In some circumstances, it is possible that a drawing file becomes defective. This can result from hardware problems or transmission errors. If a drawing file is corrupt, you might be able to recover it. See Repair, Restore, or Recover Drawing Files.

Change the Default Drawing Folder

Each time you start AutoCAD, the My Documents folder is the default path in each standard file selection dialog box. Alternatively, you can configure AutoCAD to always default to a specified path by changing the default drawing folder using the REMEMBERFOLDERS system variable.