EDRW File Documentation

Summary

An EDRW (eDrawings Drawing) file is a lightweight, shareable snapshot of a 2D engineering drawing published from SolidWorks or another CAD app via the eDrawings plug-in. It is for viewing, measuring, and marking up, not editing, much like a PDF of a drawing. Open a .edrw free with the official eDrawings Viewer (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android); its MIME is application/octet-stream. You generally cannot convert it back to editable CAD such as .slddrw or DWG.

Technical details

FeatureValue
Full nameeDrawings Drawing
File extension.edrw (older: .edrawing)
MIME typeapplication/octet-stream
Format typeCompressed eDrawings publication of a 2D CAD drawing (binary)
DeveloperDassault Systèmes (SolidWorks)
Introduced2000 (eDrawings, SolidWorks Corporation)
ContainerProprietary, ZIP-like compressed package
Magic numberNone publicly documented; identify by extension and origin
Open standardNo — proprietary publication format
PurposeView, zoom, measure, and mark up — not editing
ContainsDrawing sheets, views, dimensions, annotations, optional markup/measure data
Editable?No — the parametric source lives only in the original .slddrw
ViewereDrawings Viewer (free, Windows/macOS/iOS/Android); SOLIDWORKS
Export formatsPDF, JPG/PNG (view snapshots)
Sibling types.eprt (3D part), .easm (3D assembly)
Related extensions.slddrw, .sldprt, .sldasm, .easm, .eprt
Specificationedrawingsviewer.com

What is an EDRW file?

An .edrw file is an eDrawings drawing, one of three file types in the eDrawings family created by SolidWorks (now part of Dassault Systèmes). The three are .eprt for a single 3D part, .easm for a 3D assembly, and .edrw for a 2D drawing, which is the eDrawings equivalent of a SolidWorks .slddrw drawing sheet. eDrawings was introduced in 2000 so that engineers could send CAD content to colleagues, customers, and suppliers who do not own CAD software; the recipient needs only the free eDrawings Viewer.

An .edrw file is produced when someone “publishes” or saves as eDrawings from a SolidWorks drawing, or exports eDrawings from another CAD system (AutoCAD, Inventor, Solid Edge) through the eDrawings plug-in. It is a compressed container holding the drawing’s views, dimensions, annotations, and sheet layout so the drawing can be panned, zoomed, measured, and marked up in the viewer. Older SolidWorks builds used the spelled-out .edrawing extension for the same thing; modern files use .edrw, and the same viewer opens both.

A publication format, not the source CAD file

The defining property of an .edrw file is that it is a lightweight publication, comparable to a 2D PDF of a drawing, rather than the editable source. When a drawing is published to eDrawings, its parametric intelligence — the dimensions as driving relations, the sketch constraints, the sheet formats as editable objects — is flattened into a representation optimised for viewing and review. The file records the views, the dimension and annotation text, GD&T callouts, tables, and title-block metadata, plus optional markup and measurement data when the publisher enabled those tools.

Because that parametric data is left behind, an .edrw is excellent for review and approval but a dead end for re-engineering. It is the format you send to a supplier to have a part quoted, or to a reviewer to collect red-line comments, precisely because the recipient can see and measure everything without being able to alter the design intent.

Measurable geometry and markup

Two optional capabilities are set by whoever publishes the file. The first is measure: when the publisher enables it, the eDrawings file carries enough geometric information that a recipient can measure distances and dimensions in the viewer, not just read the printed dimension text. This is controlled at publish time so a company can choose whether external recipients may take measurements. The second is markup: eDrawings includes review tools that let a recipient add comments, clouds, and dimensions on top of the drawing and send them back, which is how eDrawings is used as a review-and-approval loop rather than a one-way export.

The compressed container and its siblings

An eDrawings file is a proprietary, compressed, ZIP-like package. There is no publicly documented constant signature for it, so the reliable way to identify one is by its extension and origin (it was exported from SolidWorks or an eDrawings plug-in) rather than by fixed magic bytes. Inside, it packages the drawing sheets and views, the dimensions and annotations, the optional markup and measurement data, and the document metadata used for review.

It helps to keep the three eDrawings types straight, because they are not interchangeable. .edrw is a 2D drawing; .eprt is a single 3D part; and .easm is a 3D assembly. All three open in the same free viewer, but an .edrw is a flat drawing and contains no 3D solid, while .eprt and .easm contain 3D geometry. That distinction matters when people try to export a STEP model or a 3D format from an .edrw: there is no 3D body in a 2D drawing to export.

Getting a shareable copy: PDF and images

The conversions that actually work from an .edrw are the ones that produce another view of the drawing. Opening the file in eDrawings Viewer and using Save As or Print to PDF gives a document anyone can open; setting a view and exporting a JPG or PNG gives a picture of the drawing. Both keep it as a review artifact, not editable CAD.

The conversions people hope for but that do not work are the reverse ones. You cannot turn an .edrw back into an editable SolidWorks .slddrw, nor reliably into editable AutoCAD DWG or DXF, because the dimensions, relations, and sheet data live only in the original source drawing. When you need an editable file, the honest answer is to ask the sender for the original .slddrw, or for a DWG/DXF exported directly from the source CAD. Likewise a STEP export must come from the original 3D model, not from a 2D eDrawings publication.

References