Google "Reads" Text in AutoCAD Drawings

Google now has the ability to search for text in .dwg drawing files stored on the Internet. For example, enter the following into the search engine:

handrail filetype:dwg

And you see something like this:

[DWG] FASTENERS
File Format: AutoCAD 1.4 - View as HTML
FASTENERS. HANDRAIL. 6" WIDE 16 GA. STEEL BACKING. PLATE SCREWED TO CT STUDS. 1" GYPROC FIREGUARD SHAFTLINER. HANDRAIL. 6" X 6" X 16 GA. STEEL PLATE. ...
www.gp.com/build/cad/dwg/gp99-49.dwg - Similar pages

Some notes about what we are looking at:

* Click on FASTENERS, and your Web browser attempts to open the file with AutoCAD.
* Click on View as HTML, and Google displays all the text found in the drawing in a CAD-looking font, in colors.
* Google reports only v1.2 through v1.4 formats, versions last used in the mid 1980s. I wonder if this is a mistake, and should be R12 through R14. [Yes: see below.]

* Every drawing displayed as HTML uses the same narrow Leroy font.

* When the dwg format is "Unrecognized", Google usually (but not always) displays no text when viewed as HTML.
* Clicking on Google's Images tab results in no images found, so clearly Google is only searching for text in drawings.

* Substituting other CAD file formats, such as .dgn, returns files but not text searches.
* Entering ".dwg" filetype:dwg returns 147,000 results.
* Google is apparently not a member of the Open Design Alliance.

The version numbers reported by Google are a puzzle. I opened some drawings, and found that the programmer at Google got it wrong:

Google = v1.4 --> DWG = AC1014 or AutoCAD R14 and LT 97
Google = v1.3 --> DWG = AC1012 or AutoCAD R13 and LT 95
Google = v1.2 --> DWG = AC1009 or AutoCAD R12

There are some interesting drawing filenames out there:

- www.compostingtoilet.com/LITRACK/FNX2000 Dimensions & Clearances.dwg
- www.tulsaconvention.com/download/Overview/WholeTCC.dwg
- www.ot.vt.edu/files/DWG/T&P_Fig_7-3_Proposed_Bike_Lanes.dwg

(Thanks to TenLinks.com for finding this tidbit at google-blog.)

Comments

[Morgan]

How do you print an 8.5 x 11 AutoCAD page in color?

[siva]

pls introducein ur mech,engg drawing basic thanking you siva

[Kent Elrod]

I think everyone should be warned about Google's new Desktop Search. It will look inside password protected XLS files. Even though Excel files password protection is fairly light weight, it keeps most people from peering inside. Now, just guess a word that might be in the file or use the file name as a search and the whole file is shown when you pick on the cached link in the results.

[Ken Anderson]

Seems to be working for some versions of the .dwf file format as well!
handrail filetype:dwf
I wonder what version(s) of the .dwf that it can deal with

[DougJ]

Displaying as JPG or BMP would require on-the-fly data conversion, which I think is beyond the scope of a search engine. This is a great reason to install the free VoloView plug-in from Autodesk, though.

[K.S.Senthil kumar]

This new feature in google has gained me a lot, but it would be better if the drawing had been displayed in the browser as a .jpg or .bmp file format. This would be helpful when students like me who browse in net cafes for .dwg files.

[Huw]

I noticed that in May and assumed they were testing, and that DWG would soon appear in the file type pull down on the advanced search page - but so far no change there.

Could it be a feature they abandoned working on when the 2004 format came out? It was never likely to be perfect anyway, with all those control codes in mtext, but encryption must make things a lot harder.