bCAD
A free DWG & DXF viewer and mark-up tool from Bury Associates
Open a CAD drawing straight in Chrome, measure it, mark it up and drop survey points - without firing up a full CAD package or uploading your drawing anywhere. bCAD is the CAD sibling to our PDF tool, bScaler.
What bCAD is for
You get sent a DWG or DXF. You just want to look at it, check a dimension, work out an area, or pull a few coordinates off it - but opening it means launching AutoCAD or hunting for a free viewer that wants your email address first.
bCAD opens DWG and DXF drawings in a browser tab. It reads native DWG files directly (no need to convert to DXF first), shows the layers and colours as drawn, and gives you measuring, mark-up, survey-point and export tools on top. It runs entirely on your own computer - your drawing is never uploaded.
Installing bCAD
bCAD will be available on the Chrome Web Store. Once it's live you'll be able to add it in two clicks:
- Open the Chrome Web Store listing - bCAD on the Chrome Web Store (link coming soon - the store version is on its way).
- Click "Add to Chrome", then confirm. The bCAD icon appears in your toolbar.
- Click the icon to open bCAD in a new tab. Pin it from the puzzle-piece menu for one-click access.
Prefer an early copy before it's on the store? Get in touch and we'll send you the current build with simple install instructions.
The quick version - how to use it
- Open a drawing - click Open (or drag a DWG/DXF onto the window). bCAD reads the layers, colours, line types, hatching and text, and works out whether it's a 2D or 3D drawing.
- Find your way around - scroll to zoom, hold Space (or the middle mouse button) and drag to pan, or use Fit and Box zoom.
- Measure, mark up or place points - use Distance, Area, Point and Draw. Snapping locks onto the drawing's own geometry.
- Export - send points to CSV, a marked-up DXF, or a PDF snapshot.
Everything bCAD can do
The full toolset, grouped by what you're trying to get done.
Viewing & layers
đNative DWG & DXF
Opens DWG files directly, as well as DXF. Reads layers, ACI colours, dashed line types, hatching, text and blocks the way they were drawn.
đ§2D / 3D aware
bCAD works out whether a drawing is 2D or 3D. On 3D drawings it captures true X, Y and Z; on 2D it keeps things flat and simple.
đī¸Layer control
Turn layers on and off, all on, all off, invert, or isolate a layer by clicking an object. "Off by clicking" lets you switch off layer after layer just by clicking things you don't want to see.
âYour own layers
Create new layers and pick their colour, then draw onto them. Set any layer as the current drawing layer.
đ§ąBlocks handled sensibly
Ordinary blocks - trees, doors, symbols - render with their real colours. Big bound-xref imports (the kind that dump everything onto one layer) are exploded onto tidy, colour-coded layers so you can still read the drawing.
đSelect & identify
Click any element to see what it is - its type, layer, colour, and the block it came from.
Measuring & survey points
đDistance & area
Click along a line for distances with a running total, or round a shape for an area. Each measurement gets its own colour and is listed with totals in the side panel.
đˇī¸Labels your way
Cycle what each measurement shows: total, segment lengths, points only, lines only - and for areas, an optional perimeter length. Drag any label to reposition it.
đNumbered survey points
Drop numbered points with a feature code that carries over and auto-increments. Capture X, Y and Z, with the code optional.
đ¯Snapping
Snap to endpoints, mid-points, centres, along a line, intersections and perpendicular - individually, or all on/off with one toggle. Snaps even work on the line you're drawing.
đCoordinates & datum
Set a coordinate system so points read as real eastings and northings, or set a datum so points read as levels. Stack several elevations on one sheet - lock earlier levels when you move the datum so they stay correct.
đOrtho
Lock new lines to right angles - square to the drawing, or square to two points you pick (handy for buildings sitting at an angle on the sheet).
Drawing & editing
âī¸Draw tool
Add polylines, circles and multi-line text on your current layer, in its colour. Press D while drawing to type an exact distance or radius.
đ¨Edit anything you've added
Click a drawn item in the side panel to change its colour, layer, a circle's radius, or a text's wording and size - with a live size slider.
âŠī¸Undo & clear
Ctrl+Z steps back through your mark-up. Clear wipes your mark-up and drawn items (with a warning first) - the original drawing is untouched.
đĒMovable pop-ups
Every panel and dialog can be dragged out of the way so it never sits over the bit of drawing you're working on.
Units & exporting
đMetric or imperial
Switch between metres, millimetres and imperial at any time, set the decimal places, and tell bCAD what one drawing unit represents. Save your choices as the default for every drawing you open next.
đ§ŽPoints to CSV
Export your survey points to CSV, choosing which fields to include and the order they come out in.
đĻMarked-up DXF
Export a DXF with your polylines, circles, text, measurements and every label drawn on top. Survey points come out as a cross with a circle, the way surveyors expect.
đPDF snapshot
Export a clean PDF of the current view with your mark-up on it - easy to email to a client or drop into a report.
Handy shortcuts
- Space + drag (or middle mouse button) to pan; scroll to zoom; Fit to see the whole drawing.
- Double-click or Enter finishes a measurement or polyline; Esc cancels.
- Press D while drawing to type an exact distance or radius.
- Ctrl+Z to undo.
A couple of honest caveats
bCAD is a viewing and mark-up aid, not a replacement for full CAD software. Measurements are only as good as the drawing you were given, so always verify anything critical against a reliable source. bCAD reads a wide range of DWG and DXF files, but the odd unusual or very old file may not open perfectly - if one gives you trouble, let us know and we'll take a look.
bCAD runs entirely in your browser on your own machine. Your drawings are never uploaded to us or anyone else. See the bCAD Privacy Policy for the detail.
Who makes it
bCAD is built by Bury Associates, a surveying company that's been producing land and measured building surveys since 1997. We built it because we wanted it ourselves - and figured other people dealing with CAD drawings all day would too. It's free. If it saves you a bit of time, that's the idea.
Also worth a look: bScaler, our free tool for scaling and measuring PDF drawings in the browser.