DotSoft offers some products in two flavors, 2CAD & 2DWG. Sometimes we get questions on what the differences are, so we’ll attempt to explain in this post.
The basic difference is that 2CAD versions require a supported CAD engine to be installed and the add-on runs inside of the CAD engine. The 2CAD product pulls the content into the current drawing as a block.
The 2DWG versions are windows standalones and you don’t need any CAD software installed. The 2DWG versions write a DWG (or DXF) file directly to the designated drivepath. This file can then be inserted (or referenced) into a large number of other applications.
Here are the current products:
| 2CAD | 2DWG | Description |
|---|---|---|
| XL2CAD | XL2DWG | Captures Microsoft Excel content (tables) for display in a drawing. |
| WD2CAD | WD2DWG | Captures Microsoft Word content (paragraphs) for display in a drawing. |
| PDF2CAD* | PDF2DWG | To extract PDF file contents for display in a drawing. |
* This product is actually called PdfImport, but was labeled this way for continuity in the table.
So in summary, if you have a somewhat recent version of AutoCAD (no LT) or BricsCAD Pro you can consider the 2CAD version (see the product page for supported engine versions). All others (including AutoCAD LT, Revit, Inventor, MicroStation, IntelliCAD) should look at the 2DWG version.