Autodesk DWG TrueView 2013 Download and Install Tips

Autodesk’s DWG Viewer freeware DWG TrueView 2013 is built on the same viewing engine as AutoCAD 2013 and enables you to open and view DWG and DXF files, just as you would in AutoCAD.

DWG TrueView supports side by side with other Autodesk products. However, TrueView does not support side by side install with other versions of TrueView. As with the System Requirements for AutoCAD 2013 Windows Vista is not a supported operating system but you probably will have no problem running TrueView on it.

• Open and view DWG and DXF files
• Support for visual styles and views in both 2D and 3D
• Support for layers
• Obtain geometric information from drawings such as distance, mass, and volume
• Plot DWG files to a plotter
• Create DWF, DWFx, PDF, JPG, and PNG files from DWG files
• Publish sets of drawings or sheets to a plotter, or DWF, DWFx, and PDF files
• Convert DWG files forward and backward with versions as early as AutoCAD Release 14

When you want to download visit DWG TrueView click on Download DWG TrueView and on Download Now.

Or you might see this message.

If you don’t want to install the Akamai NetSession Interface download manager there seems to be no alternative. Reason to not install Akamai is that their program (C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Akamai\netsession_win.exe) will keep running all the time on your machine and take up resources.

But here you can find direct download links for DWG TrueView 2013.

DWG TrueView 2013 32-bit (233 MB)http://download.autodesk.com/esd/dwgtrueview/2013/SetupDWGTrueView2013_32bit.exe 

DWG TrueView 2013 64-bit (304 MB)http://download.autodesk.com/esd/dwgtrueview/2013/SetupDWGTrueView2013_64bit.exe

Or in this window click on “click here” at the bottom.

Click on OK

Click on here to download using your browser.

Similar tip to avoid Akamai works with download of the trial for the full version of AutoCAD 2013.

To install DWG TrueView 2013 you must first install Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 Update 1 on your system.  Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Update 1 (available from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/net/Download.aspx) Make sure to select one of the downloads that are for server and development as it is not enough with only the Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 Client Profile, you need the full version. When you check what programs you have installed you must be able to locate Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 Extended. Strange thing though is that full AutoCAD 2013 does not require the Full .NET Framework.

Now you’re ready to install.

If you don’t have Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 Extended installed you will after some minutes get this error message: “.NET 4.0 is not installed. DWG TrueView 2013 cannot be installed without this component. See your system administrator for more information.”

Here is what DWG TrueView 2013 look like when installed and having a drawing opened.

Ribbon with Files, Output, Navigation, View

Layers and Measure

Object Snap and User Interface

DWG Convert

Access to basic Options like Files

Display

and Plot and Publish

Known Issues and Limitations

The following are known issues with this release:

Platform

Installing the 32-bit version of DWG TrueView 2013 on a 64-bit platform is not supported.

DWG Convert EXE's and ZIP's Fail

When you use DWG Convert to create an EXE or ZIP file, the file is not created. This usually occurs if you are using multiple languages. The names of the files generated by AutoCAD-based products use Unicode standards and can be shared internationally. However, WinZip and EXE use a technology that is currently not Unicode-compliant.

ZIP files with non-ASCII characters cannot be exchanged and unzipped between systems with different code pages. That should not prevent using accented or Asian characters that match or are included on the current code page (German characters on English or German operating systems should work. Japanese characters on Japanese operating systems - or where the code page is set to Japanese - should also work).

Opening Damaged Drawings

When opening a damaged drawing, a dialog box appears asking the user to fix the file with the Recover command. This command is not implemented in TrueView. Instead, use the Check and fix errors option as follows:

1. Click the DWG Convert button.
2. Select the damaged file.
3. Click Conversion Setups.
4. Select "Standard" and click New.
5. Name the new setup (for example, Recover).
6. In the Modify Conversion Setup dialog box, set the Conversion packaged type to Folder (set of files).
   Note Do not select In-place (overwrite files) as this may result in conversion errors.
7. In the Action area, select Check and fix errors, and click OK.

With this new conversion setup, you will be able to recover your drawings.

Related post: .NET Framework requirements and versions