Autodesk Viewer vs CAD Viewer

Autodesk Viewer is a free browser application for uploading, viewing, and sharing 2D and 3D design files, including Revit and AutoCAD projects. Supported formats include DWG, STEP, RVT, IGES, and SolidWorks. Its tools cover navigation, model browsing, properties, measurement, explode and section views, markup, printing, and screenshots. Users can share design views by link and collaborate with annotations and drawing tools. A shared view is a converted representation, not access to the source file, so stakeholders cannot retrieve or edit the original through it. Files saved in the service are not searchable, but anyone with the share link can access the design. Views last 30 days by default, and owners can extend the expiry date. An Autodesk Account is required. Viewer works in browsers on Windows, Mac, and Chrome OS. Autodesk Support states that Viewer data is stored in the United States, with no regional storage option. RVT support covers Revit 2015 or later; DWG object-enabler viewing is limited to AutoCAD Architecture, Plant 3D, and Civil 3D.

CAD Viewer is a free, open-source browser WebGL runtime for viewing and editing DWG and DXF drawings. It displays model space, layouts, layers, blocks, and external references. Write mode supports creating, editing, and deleting drawing entities with AutoCAD-style commands. Review tools place arrows, text, clouds, rectangles, circles, and callouts over a read-only drawing background. Measurement tools cover distance, area, angle, and arc length, with results exportable as a JSON sidecar file. The product can export a self-contained HTML viewer for offline use with pan, zoom, layers, and distance measurement; exports can be password- and expiry-protected. Full-viewer examples include HTML and PDF export, while the simple viewer offers lazy-loaded HTML, PDF, and SVG plugins. Parsing and rendering occur on the client, and drawings are not uploaded, cached, or mirrored to a server. It can be embedded through iframe or npm, and a Google Drive integration opens drawings from Drive. The responsive interface supports phones, tablets, and desktops, with touch operations documented for mobile. Read-only mode disables markup, drawing, and modification commands.