How to translate AutoCAD DWG drawings

Method 1 — Edit the drawing manually in AutoCAD

The most direct method: open the DWG, find each piece of text, replace it with the translation.

1. Open the drawing.
2. Find a label or note.
3. Copy the source text.
4. Translate it.
5. Paste the translation back.
6. Check that it still fits the layout.
7. Repeat for the next text entity.
8. Repeat for the next drawing.

Advantages

• Maximum visual control.
• No additional translation workflow to set up.
• Practical for one or two simple drawings.
• You see immediately whether translated text still fits.

Limitations

• Relentless on a large set.
• Easy to miss text inside attributes, block definitions or paper space layouts.
• Repeated terminology has to be kept consistent by hand.
• Needs CAD software and someone comfortable working in it.
• Time grows almost linearly with the number of drawings.

Best for

A small number of drawings where the person translating already works comfortably in AutoCAD. We put numbers on what that costs at scale in docuredo versus manual DWG translation.

Method 2 — Extract the text to a spreadsheet

Move the translatable drawing text into Excel or CSV, let the translator work on it separately, then return the translations to the drawing.

Advantages

• Translators work in a familiar, text-based environment.
• Terminology is far easier to review as a list than by moving around a drawing visually.
• Works when the CAD operator and the translator are different people.

Limitations

• Extraction and reinsertion both have to be reliable.
• Something has to maintain the link between each spreadsheet row and the drawing entity it came from.
• Copy-and-paste on its own protects no drawing formatting and finds no hidden text entity.

Best for

Teams with a dependable extraction and reinsertion process, or who need a translator to work outside CAD entirely.

Method 3 — Convert or extract for a CAT tool

Professional translation teams work in CAT tools such as Trados or memoQ, for the translation memories, terminology databases and review workflows they provide. The traditional CAD route into one of those looks like this:

DWG → DXF or extracted text → CAT tool → translated text → drawing

That is a perfectly valid workflow when the translator’s memory is the centre of the process.

Advantages

• Fits established professional translation workflows.
• Existing translation memories can be reused.
• Strong terminology management.
• Translators stay in their normal environment.

Limitations

• Usually requires extraction or format conversion.
• Someone has to reinsert the translated content correctly.
• The translated drawing still needs visual verification.

Best for

Agencies and organisations whose Trados or memoQ terminology assets are the point. For the specific comparison, see docuredo versus TranslateCAD.

Method 4 — Send the drawings to a translation agency

For high-value projects, outsource the whole task. A technical translation agency handles translation, terminology, native-speaker review, file handling and delivery.

Advantages

• Professional linguistic review.
• Right answer for regulated, contractual or highly specialised content.
• Almost no internal translation workload.

Limitations

• Usually more expensive than a self-service workflow.
• Turnaround depends on the provider and the project size.
• The agency still needs its own technical method for getting the text out of the DWG and back in.

Best for

Projects where professional linguistic responsibility matters more than automation.

Method 5 — Translate the DWG directly in a browser

The newer workflow keeps the file a DWG throughout and separates translation from application. With docuredo:

DWG upload → scan drawing text → proposed translations → human review → apply approved text → download DWG

The distinction that matters is the order.

The machine does not translate the file and hand back an unchecked result: the review happens before the drawing is changed.

How docuredo’s DWG translation workflow works

Scan

Text is collected from the text-bearing entities in the drawing — single-line text, multiline text, block attributes, table cells, multileaders and manually entered dimension text overrides, in model space, in every paper space layout and inside block definitions. Repeated source lines are grouped across the whole set, so a title-block string shared by twenty sheets is translated once.

Review

Each unique line is shown with its proposed translation. The reviewer edits it, approves it, or keeps the original. The list exports to CSV and re-imports, which is how a native speaker outside the app checks a set.

Apply

Only approved translations are written back.

Verify

The resulting DWG set downloads for checking before delivery. Learn more about the complete DWG translation workflow.

Which translation method should you use?

For drawing sets arriving from Chinese suppliers, the specific workflow is translating Chinese DWG drawings to English.

What should be translated — and what should not?

The text in an engineering drawing is not all the same kind of thing.

Typically translatable:

• general notes;
• labels;
• title-block text;
• table cells;
• callouts;
• equipment descriptions;
• manually entered annotations.

Generally to be protected:

• geometry;
• measured dimensions;
• numerical values that are not language;
• layer structure;
• CAD entity relationships.

A reliable workflow has to tell language apart from engineering data — and default to leaving the drawing alone when it cannot.

Why human review still matters

Drawing annotations are short and often ambiguous. Consider TYP., CLR., AFF, VERIFY ON SITE, BY OTHERS.

A translation engine can understand the words and still pick terminology that does not match the engineering discipline or the client’s standard vocabulary. Machine translation is useful for speed; the engineer, translator or native speaker is the one who decides whether the terminology is right for the project. That is the argument for a review step before delivery, whichever of the five methods you use.

Translation consistency across drawing sets

The main practical advantage of pulling repeated drawing text out before translating is consistency. If a phrase appears on forty drawings, it should normally get the same approved translation on all forty — drawing status, project title, standard notes, room labels, component names, approval text.

A translation memory then makes each repeat project easier than the last by reusing terms that have already been approved.