Files with dwf extension can be found as CAD files in special Autodesk Design Web Format. Used by both AutoCAD and Inventor.

Detailed description

Software that open dwf file

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DWF file extension - Autodesk Design Web Format

What is dwf file? How to open dwf files?

File type specification:

3d graphics, CAD-CAM-CAE file type icon 3d graphics, CAD-CAM-CAE file type

dwf file icon: dwf filetype icon

File extension dwf is associated with Design (Drawing) Web format used by AutoCAD and Inventor.

Design Web Format (DWF) is a secure file format developed by Autodesk for the efficient distribution and communication of rich design data to anyone who needs to view, review, or print design files. Because DWF files are highly compressed, they are smaller and faster to transmit than design files, without the overhead associated with complex CAD drawings (or the management of external links and dependencies).

With DWF functionality, publishers of design data can limit the specific design data and plot styles to only what they want recipients to see and can publish multisheet drawing sets from multiple AutoCAD drawings in a single DWF file. They can also publish 3D models from most Autodesk design applications.

Historically, DWF was a 2D plotter file format created by Autodesk for their AutoCAD software. As of 2006, Autodesk introduced DWF-3D which was an entirely new file format. DWF can be considered an empty "container file format" (similar to PDF) that actually contains many other internal files (a DWF file is actually just a ZIP file with a different file extension). In the early 2000s TechSoft American wrote Autodesk a 3D WEB streaming file format + 3D file viewer based on their HOOPS toolkit and HSF 3D file format which would morph into DWF-3D. Hence, as of 2006, the DWF-3D file format was based on an internal HSF 3D file as well as many additional XML files for such data as part hierarchy, meta data and other related information.  DWF-3D can generally be considered as Autodesk's "conduit" from their CAD programs out to their 3D file viewers such as "Design Review".

MIME file types:

application/dwf
application/x-dwf
drawing/x-dwf
model/vnd.dwf
image/vnd.dwf
image/x-dwf

Updated: March 28, 2024

The default software associated to open dwf file:

Autodesk Inventor icon

Autodesk, Inc. logoAutodesk Inventor  Microsoft Windows software

Company or developer:
Autodesk, Inc.

Autodesk Inventor is 3D solid modeling and design tool used to design and simulation 3D digital prototypes.

Autodesk Inventor shares 2D data from the AutoCAD and 3D design data from other Autodesk's applications. Autodesk Inventor is available for Microsoft Windows.

AutoCAD icon

Autodesk, Inc. logoAutoCAD  Microsoft Windows software

Company or developer:
Autodesk, Inc.

A CAD designing software with the powerful, flexible features. It is a CAD development platform that provides tools to build custom AutoCAD-based software products for specific markets. The default file formats using by AutoCAD are: DWG and DXF.

AutoCAD for Mac icon

Autodesk, Inc. logoAutoCAD for Mac  Apple macOS / Mac OS X software

Company or developer:
Autodesk, Inc.

AutoCAD for Mac software—it’s AutoCAD, for the Mac, bringing robust 3D free-form design tools and powerful drafting capabilities to your platform of choice. It takes full advantage of the macOS platform, with an intuitive, graphical user interface that makes it easy to bring your ideas to life.

Help how to open:

Use Autodesk AutoCad, Autodesk DWF Viewer or any capable CAD viewer to work with the .dwf files.

How to convert:

DWF is similar to PDF in its purpose. And like you can scan a PDF document and get data back, you can also recover DWF files back to DWG (using third party utilities). You will most likely loose substantial amount of information, structure and precision of the original drawing so it is far from perfect.

Find conversions from dwf file:

dwf to dwfx

dwf to dwg

dwf to dxf

dwf to igs

dwf to pdf

dwf to step

dwf to stp

Find converter to dwf file type:

dwfx to dwf

iam to dwf

iges to dwf

ipt to dwf

sat to dwf

step to dwf

stp to dwf

File identification strings:

HEX code: 28 44 57 46 20 56
ASCII code: (DWF.V

List of software applications associated to the .dwf file extension

Recommended software programs are sorted by OS platform (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android etc.)
and possible program actions that can be done with the file: like open dwf file, edit dwf file, convert dwf file, view dwf file, play dwf file etc. (if exist software for corresponding action in File-Extensions.org's database).

Hint:
Click on the tab below to simply browse between the application actions, to quickly get a list of recommended software, which is able to perform the specified software action, such as opening, editing or converting dwf files.

Software that open dwf file - Autodesk Design Web Format

Programs supporting the exension dwf on the main platforms Windows, Mac, Linux or mobile. Click on the link to get more information about listed programs for open dwf file action.

Microsoft Windows:

Main software associated with dwf file by default:
Autodesk Inventor small icon Autodesk Inventor
AutoCAD small icon AutoCAD
Other suggested software:
Autodesk Design Review
DoubleCAD small icon DoubleCAD

Apple macOS / Mac OS X:

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