AutoCAD Tip: How to find the version of DWG format without using AutoCAD

By Dennis Collin

AutoCAD tends to update its DWG format every 3 or 4 releases which means sometimes users are unable to open an AutoCAD drawing that was created in a newer version. A question often asked is how I can find out what version of AutoCAD created it without installing a newer build of AutoCAD?

An answer is to open the DWG file in Notepad and look in the first line of text. The line should read something like.

Refer to this table to find out what DWG version it is

• MC0.0 - DWG Release 1.1
• AC1.2 - DWG Release 1.2
• AC1.4 - DWG Release 1.4
• AC1.50 - DWG Release 2.0
• AC2.10 - DWG Release 2.10
• AC1002 - DWG Release 2.5
• AC1003 - DWG Release 2.6
• AC1004 - DWG Release 9
• AC1006 - DWG Release 10
• AC1009 - DWG Release 11/12 (LT R1/R2)
• AC1012 - DWG Release 13 (LT95)
• AC1014 - DWG Release 14, 14.01 (LT97/LT98)
• AC1015 - DWG AutoCAD 2000/2000i/2002
• AC1018 - DWG AutoCAD 2004/2005/2006
• AC1021 - DWG AutoCAD 2007/2008/2009
• AC1024 - DWG AutoCAD 2010/2011/2012
• AC1027 - DWG AutoCAD 2013/2014/2015/2016/2017
• AC1032 - DWG AutoCAD 2018/2019/2020/2021/2022

If the specific version is required do a text string search of a u t o c a d (with spaces between characters) You may need to cycle through a few options.

If the file needs to be converted to a compatible versions click here to read an earlier post on how to convert drawings without an AutoCAD license.