Acrobat no longer converts DWG — what to do instead

For years you could drag a DWG into Acrobat and get a PDF. In current versions that no longer works: you get a notice along the lines of “Conversion of AutoCAD files to PDF has been disabled.” Adobe's own forums carry hundreds of posts reporting it.

Why it happened

Acrobat's DWG support was never Adobe's own code — it relied on Autodesk technology. When the arrangement between the two companies ended, the feature went with it. Older Acrobat releases (2017 and earlier) may still manage it in a limited way, and only for DWG versions of that era.

What still works

If you have AutoCAD

In the PLOT dialog choose “DWG to PDF.pc3” as the printer, set the scale explicitly and switch off fit-to-page. Our piece on scaled export covers which scale suits which drawing and what usually goes wrong.

If you do not

Autodesk's free DWG TrueView will open and print the file; it needs installing and runs on Windows only. Browser-based tools need no installation — but most turn the file into a picture, and the difference that makes is worth understanding before you rely on one.

If you need it now

DWGtoPDF opens the drawing in your browser and produces a vector PDF at the scale you pick, with no installation and no licence. Scale, layers and text all survive.

The one question to ask first

Who is going to use the PDF, and for what? If it is only to be looked at, resolution is enough. If anyone will measure on it, or it goes into a tender or a permit application, it has to be vector and to scale — otherwise it comes back after delivery.