Program that Will Open a CAD File?

https://www.autodesk.com/viewers/all-viewers

https://www.edrawingsviewer.com/view-cad-files-free

SE: Thanks for the references, both have now come back with a "file not supported."

It sure does confuse people when I have a CAD file with the extension .cad!

How do I open a .CAD file? How do I open a .CAD file? How to open a AutoCAD drawing

1. Click File > Open > Browse.
2. Next to the File name box, click the All Visio Files dropdown, and then select AutoCAD Drawing.
3. Find the . dwg or . dxf file on your computer, and then double-click it to open it. The AutoCAD file will appear as a new Visio drawing

gshaiffer: You misunderstand. This is not a .dwg or a .dxf file. It is a .cad file. Again, the extension is .cad. It is a CAD file, but most CAD programs will NOT open the .cad file. Once I can get it open, I plan to save it as something that current programs will handle.

Try opening the file as text, and see if there are any ASCII characters in the first 10 or 20 lines of the file. These might give you a clue as to the origin of the file.

I had a CAD program that ran on DEC PDP11 computers, in the ‘80s, even before AutoCAD was running on Windows 3.1 I think, I can’t remember the file suffix for the life of me, tho.

You might get lucky and find that your file is vectors, and be able to process the file to extract the information you need, even without the source software.

Or how about this?

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autosketch/convert-cad-file-to-dwg/td-p/8972461

I think the originating program was QuickCAD, using the extension .cad. I thought it was on the old XP computer that I finally got fired up yesterday--but no such luck!

My mind so far refuses to get around computer vectors. I still think of a vector as a line segment with direction and length. (Brainwashed by mathematics???)

So you can't even find the file? Boy, you do need help....haha

Guess I confused things with my antecedent for"it." The file is present in at least 3 places not counting backups, but the creating program is not.

Reply to #1: Autodesk had a lot of "red tape," so I'll have to try again later. The second's robot didn't understand me. I have asked for a reply from a real person.

Here is clip from AutoCAD forum, it’s in that link? Change .cad to .skf ?

Only too willing to help, if you have any other drawings that may be needed in the future it would be good to convert them now as Autosketch was abandoned by Autodesk in 2008 leaving thousands of files out in the cold. On saving to .DWG I found the 1:200 scale was changed to fit the extended drawing on an A4 portrait sheet. Resetting to 1:200 and Landscape A3, plus changing the orientation point, I got it back to the original format but if I saved it to .DWG it repeated the previous conversion. I would be surprised if your files were converted back to .CAD files, just that the originals were archived as .CAD, that is the standard format for the old Draffix program before it was superseded with Autosketch. So much so that I found by changing the .CAD to .SKF it still loaded albeit still scaling to A4 when saved as a .DWG. If you have many or prefer not to make them "public" Autosketch V10 is till available from, http://happyplanetsoftware.com/browse/search/?q=Autosketch In the mean time only to willing to help.

That’s right, I think AutoCAD is vector based, as opposed to raster based. A line segment of a length and angle is what drawings are all about, yes?

(The link I posted does look like the solution)

That's right, .CAD was used by QuickCAD. The OP should be able to download a QuickCAD version even if it is a trial version then export the file in a more useful format.

My response was result of a quick google search. Appears that those who identified it as an Autodesk obsolete file are on the right track.

https://www.filesuffix.com/en/extension/cad is another search result that may help.

That site also lists the following information about .cad file extensions.

Description:
CAD file is a Autodesk QuickCAD Document. Autodesk QuickCAD is a user friendly 2D drafting program. As of September 30, 2004, Autodesk no longer offers QuickCAD 8 software, nor is Autodesk planning any more releases of QuickCAD.

The following softwares are capable of converting .cad files to other formats:

XnView

For example, using the softwares above, a .cad file can be converted into one of the following formats:

bs, art, ima, ofx, wfx, rfa, psf, ppt, ch, prn, img, pict, cal, ppm, scr