Translate AutoCAD DWG Drawings Online
Translate the text inside a set of DWG drawings into another language — title blocks, notes, labels, tables and leaders — while the geometry, layers and dimensions stay exactly as they are.
Upload your drawings, pick the target language, and get a list of every unique line of text with a proposed translation. You review that list before anything is written. Approve it, and the genuine AutoCAD engine writes your approved translations back into the drawings — same DWG version, no format conversion, no CAD seat required.
- You approve every line before it is written
- Numbers and measured dimensions untouched
- Original DWG version preserved
- No AutoCAD license required
Scan. Review.
Apply.
Every line of text is read out
Your drawings upload straight from the browser to secure Autodesk cloud storage, and AutoCAD in the cloud reads out every piece of text — without changing anything. Text that repeats across the set is collected once: a title-block line shared by twenty drawings becomes one line to review, not twenty.
You check every proposed line
Each unique line gets a proposed translation, informed by the one or two sentences you write about what the drawings are — so a structural drawing gets structural vocabulary. You edit anything that reads wrong, and switch any line to “keep” to leave it untouched.
Approved text is written back
Only after you apply does anything get written. Each drawing comes back in its original DWG version with your approved translations in place, plus an optional PDF plot of every drawing so you can spot text that no longer fits its label.
Every place text
hides in a DWG.
Drawing text does not live in one place. The scan covers all the entity types that hold text — in model space, in every paper space layout and inside block definitions — and you can switch any type off before it runs.
| Entity | What gets translated |
|---|---|
| TEXT | Single-line labels and notes across model space and every layout |
| MTEXT | Multiline notes — inline fonts, colours and stacking preserved |
| ATTRIB | Block attributes: title blocks, stamps, tags, part labels |
| DIMENSION | Written dimension overrides only — measured values are never read |
| TABLE | Table cells: schedules, legends, bills of materials |
| MULTILEADER | Leader and callout text |
| BLOCK DEFS | Text nested inside block definitions, not just placed instances |
What never changes.
A translated drawing is only useful if everything that is not language stays exactly as the engineer left it. Three guarantees are built into the engine, not left to the reviewer.
Numbers are never translated
The most repeated strings in a real drawing set are values like 10, 200 and 8. They are recognised before translation and kept as they are — they are never even sent to the translation model.
Measured dimensions are never touched
Only text someone typed as a dimension override is read; the values AutoCAD measures from the geometry stay computed, exactly as they should.
MTEXT formatting survives
Structural formatting — line breaks, stacked fractions, special symbols — must come back from translation exactly. A purely stylistic code, such as an inline font or colour switch, may be dropped, and the row is flagged in your review when that happens. A proposal that would break the structure is held back and the original line is kept, never mangled.
Whole lines, once: matching is exact and per entity — a short word like “Door” can never eat part of “Doorframe”, and an already-translated line can never be translated again. There are no partial or overlapping replacements.
Review it yourself — or send
it to a native speaker.
Machine translation of drawing text is good, not trustworthy. Drawing language is terse and full of abbreviations, so the review step is mandatory: nothing reaches a drawing until a human has approved the list.
Line-by-line review table
Original text and proposed translation side by side, editable in place. Everything you leave as keep goes back unchanged; keep is always the safe answer when you are unsure.
CSV export and import
Send the list to a colleague or a native speaker to check in Excel, then import their edits back. Rows are matched on the original text, so a reordered or partly-filled spreadsheet cannot corrupt the project.
Approve while the files are still there
The apply pass reuses the drawings uploaded for the scan, and those are deleted automatically. Approve your list the same day you scan; the project screen shows the time you have left.
It gets faster the more you use it.
Every line you approve is remembered — privately, for your account only. On the next drawing set, lines you have already translated are reused automatically: they are reused instead of being sent for translation again, and your own corrections always win over a machine proposal. Re-running a familiar drawing set gets faster the more you use it, and you can clear the memory at any time.
Your memory is yours. It is keyed to your account and never shared between customers — the most repeated text in a drawing set is the title block, which means client names, project names and addresses. See the Privacy Policy for how long it is kept.
Any language pair.
Type the language you need — the target does not come from a fixed menu, and the source language can be detected automatically from the text. Pairs we see most often:
- Chinese to English
- English to Chinese
- German to English
- English to German
- English to Spanish
- Spanish to English
- Russian to English
- English to French
- Japanese to English
- Korean to English
- Turkish to English
- English to Arabic
Working with fabrication drawings from a supplier, an international tender, or an acquired project archive — the workflow is the same: scan, review, apply.
3 credits per drawing.
Against 1 for a find-and-replace run. Each drawing is opened twice — once to read its text out and once to write your approved translations back — with the translation pass in between. Text repeated across the set is translated once, reviewed once and applied everywhere, so a consistent drawing set is less work to review, not more. Failed drawings refund their credits automatically.
See credit pack pricing
Credit packs, no subscription. Credits never expire, and new accounts start with 3 free.
See pricingCompare with TranslateCAD
If drawings go to a professional translator with Trados or memoQ today — typically via DXF extraction — see how that compares with reviewing proposals in the browser.
CompareBatch find & replace
Staying in one language and correcting a client name, a project number or a misspelled note across a set? One credit per drawing, up to 1,000 drawings per batch.
See find & replaceFrequently asked
questions.
Which file types can be translated?
AutoCAD DWG files. Drawings are processed by the genuine AutoCAD engine in the cloud and come back as normal DWG files in the same version they went in — nothing is converted to another format along the way.
Do I need AutoCAD installed?
No. Everything runs in your browser, and the processing happens on Autodesk's own cloud engine under our account. AutoCAD LT users and people without any CAD seat can translate drawings the same way.
What text in the drawing gets translated?
Single-line and multiline text, block attributes such as title blocks, table cells, leader notes and dimension text overrides — in model space, in every paper space layout and inside block definitions. You can switch any of these types off before the scan.
Will dimensions or numbers be changed?
No. Measured dimension values are never touched — only manually written overrides are even read. Pure numbers, units and codes are recognised and kept as they are; they are never sent for translation.
Can I check the translation before it is written into my drawings?
Yes — that step is mandatory, not optional. The scan produces a list of every unique line with a proposed translation. You review and edit that list, and nothing is written into any drawing until you apply it. Lines you leave as keep go back unchanged.
Which languages are supported?
Any language pair. Common requests are Chinese to English, German to English and English to Spanish, but any combination works — type the language you need. The source language can be detected automatically from the text.
What happens to text formatting inside MTEXT?
Inline formatting is preserved. Structural codes — line breaks, stacked fractions, special glyphs — must come back exactly for a proposed translation to be applied; a purely stylistic code such as an inline font switch may be dropped, and those lines are flagged in your review list. A proposal that would break the structure is held back and the original line is kept unchanged, ready for you to check.
What does a translation cost?
3 credits per drawing, compared with 1 for a find-and-replace run — each drawing is opened twice, once to read the text out and once to write your approved translations back. If a drawing fails to process, its credits are refunded automatically.
What happens to my files?
Drawings upload directly from your browser to Autodesk cloud storage, are processed, and are permanently deleted within 48 hours. Approved translations are kept in your private, per-account translation memory so text you have already translated is reused instead of being translated again — and you can clear it at any time.
Translate
a drawing set.
Upload up to 20 DWG drawings, pick a language, and review every line before it is written back. New accounts get 3 credits free — no credit card, no password, we email you a sign-in link.
No AutoCAD installation required. Files delete automatically within 48 hours.
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