How to Open and Save Drawings

Quick answer: BricsCAD’s open and save behaviour is governed by around 20 system variables, plus specific handling for drag-and-drop, drawings embedded as OLE objects in other applications, and fonts it doesn’t recognise.

System Variables That Control Opening and Saving

Octave’s documentation lists these without individual descriptions, so treat this as a starting point for further lookup rather than a full explanation of each one. Grouped loosely by what their names suggest:

• Save-related: SAVEFORMAT, SAVETIME, SAVEFILEPATH, ISAVEBAK, ISAVEPERCENT
• Proxy graphics (for entities BricsCAD doesn’t fully recognise): PROXYGRAPHICS, PROXYNOTICE, PROXYSHOW, PROXYWEBSEARCH
• File locations and history: DRAWINGPATH, PLACESBARFOLDER1, RECENTFILES, SHOWFULLPATHINTITLE, THUMBSIZE
• Compatibility and checks: COMACADCOMPATIBILITY, AUTOSAVECHECKSONLYFIRSTBITDBMOD, CLOSECHECKSONLYFIRSTBITDBMOD, INDEXCTL, XLOADCTL, MTFLAGS, VBAMACROS

Opening a Drawing by Drag-and-Drop

Drag a file onto the BricsCAD window with the left mouse button held down, then release, to open it directly. Drag with the right mouse button instead, and a context menu appears with more options; which ones show depends on whether you’re dragging a drawing file or something else.

Options include:

• Default by File Extension: opens a drawing, attaches a PDF or raster image, or inserts the file as an OLE object (an Excel spreadsheet, for instance), whichever is appropriate for that file type.
• Insert Here: inserts a drawing as a block in the current drawing, or attaches/inserts other file types the same way as above.
• Open: opens a drawing file.
• Open as Read-only: opens it without risk of overwriting the original; you can only save changes under a new name.
• Create Xref or Create Xref Overlay: attaches the file as an external reference. The distinction matters if that drawing later gets attached to a third drawing: an attachment becomes a nested xref, but an overlay is ignored entirely in that scenario.
• Import: brings in the geometry only, into the current drawing.
• Create Hyperlink Here: creates a hyperlink to the file instead of opening or attaching it.

Recognised drawing file extensions are DWG, DXF, and DWT. Dragging multiple files processes them one after another.

Opening Drawings Embedded as OLE Objects

If a drawing is embedded as an OLE object inside another application, a DWG inside a Word document, for example, double-click it there to open it in BricsCAD, in a tab named after the original file. You can edit and save it from there.

Drawings embedded from older BricsCAD versions open automatically in whichever BricsCAD version you currently have installed, not the original version. If COMACADCOMPATIBILITY is on, AutoCAD drawings embedded as OLE objects will open in BricsCAD too, not just BricsCAD-originated ones.

Replacing Unknown Fonts

Open a drawing that references fonts BricsCAD doesn’t recognise, and a “Missed font(s)” notification appears in the bottom-right corner. Click Specify font replacement to open the Font Substitution dialog, where you can choose replacements for whatever’s missing from the default font mapping file. This usually comes up with Big Fonts, which bundle characters for multiple languages.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between Create Xref and Create Xref Overlay when drag-and-dropping a file? It matters if that drawing is later attached to a third drawing. An attachment becomes a nested xref in that case; an overlay is ignored entirely.

Does opening an old BricsCAD OLE object use the original version it was created in? No, it opens in whichever version of BricsCAD you currently have installed, not the original.

Can AutoCAD drawings embedded in other apps open directly in BricsCAD? Yes, if COMACADCOMPATIBILITY is turned on.

Why does BricsCAD sometimes ask me to replace fonts when opening a drawing? It happens when a drawing references fonts BricsCAD can’t find, often Big Fonts, which bundle characters for multiple languages. A notification lets you pick replacements via the Font Substitution dialog.