Read a dwg with notepad++

[aitorm]

I am trying to open a dwg file with a text editor. I know it could sound bizarre, let me explain why I need this:

I have many files full of blocks, attributes, texts, parameters, constrains... But they are in Spanish and I need to bulk translate them into English, but there is no tool that completely translates a dwg file. If I could open a dwg file with a text editor that shows drawing's texts all along with the other dwg's info, I could cherry pick the spanish words and translate them directly from a notepad. I guess I would need to decode the file first, but I don't know how to do that.

Thank you

[cadffm · Accepted solution]

The file is compressed and thus practically encrypted.

If you like to go this way, save the files as ASCii DXF first, this is a plain Text Format.

Use DXF2013 if you have a Product 2013-2017,

use DXF2018 if your Product is newer.

[aitorm]

That's what I want! thank you so much

[Ed__Jobe]

There are other solutions out there that don't require working with dxf. They and work like the FIND command. Searching the app store, I found this one. If you have 'many files', then translating them via dxf is going to get tedious very fast. Using custom programming, you can iterate over any type of drawing entity very quickly. I have an old vba command that selects all text and you can edit them all in one dialog. That's just an example. You might try asking on one of the programming forums (lisp, vba,.Net) for help.

[aitorm]

Thank you so much. I did try those apps, but they do not offer a full translation (i.e. parameters inside blocks, document title, etc...). However, it looks plausible to program something (not myself 😅) so I will try to ask for it in its pertinent forum.

Do you have that VBA on hand?

Thank you again.

[Ed__Jobe]

I can't attach a dvb to this forum. Please make a request in the vba forum.