Open a DXF in QGIS
and keep the drawing
QGIS can add a DXF file. What it gives back is usually not the drawing: everything lands in one layer per geometry type, text lands at the wrong size, dashed lines turn solid, hatches disappear. The free edition of EchoCad keeps the structure instead — and costs nothing, with no converter to install.
Scope, stated up front. The free edition reads DXF. It does not open DWG. If your file is a DWG, either save it as DXF from the CAD you already use — two steps — or use EchoCad Pro, which opens DWG directly. The reading code below is the same in both editions.
Install
- In QGIS: Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins, search for EchoCad and install it.
- Open Plugins → EchoCad → Import drawing… and pick the DXF.
EchoCad is in the official QGIS plugin repository, so the Plugin Manager
also brings you updates. On a machine with no internet, download echocad-<version>.zip
from the releases, carry it over and use Install from ZIP.
QGIS 3.34 LTR or newer is required; 3.44 and 4.x are checked as well.
What comes across
- One QGIS layer per CAD layer, split by geometry type. A hundred CAD layers become a hundred QGIS layers you can switch off, style and join.
- Entity colour, line type and line width — dashed, dotted and centre lines stay what they were.
- Hatch patterns rebuilt from the drawing’s own definitions, not approximated from a legend.
- Text at its original size, rotation and colour, so the plan still reads as a plan.
- Optional GeoPackage output. Leave it unchecked and the drawing opens as temporary layers.
- Ten interface languages — English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Chinese — following your QGIS language.
The same DXF, both ways
Public sample drawing (floorplan-task1.dxf), not a staged example.
This is what one drawing looks like; it is not a claim that QGIS fails on every file.
In our 50-drawing sample QGIS also opened some drawings cleanly. The difference shows up
on text, hatches and layer structure, and the measurement behind it is in
the docs.
Free and Pro
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| DXF — layers, colours, line types, hatches, text | yes | yes |
| DWG, R14 through 2018 and newer | — | yes, converter bundled |
| Drawings per run | one, by hand | a whole folder |
| Block attributes as attribute fields | — | yes |
| Mapping profiles (CAD layers onto your schema) | — | yes |
| Align to map, Z kept | — | yes |
| Processing toolbox algorithms and CSV report | — | yes |
| Works with no internet at all | yes | yes |
Get the free edition What Pro adds
Questions people actually ask
Does my drawing get uploaded anywhere?
No. There is no account, no phone-home and no cloud step. The import runs in QGIS on your machine, and the free edition needs no network at all — it is a reasonable choice for a closed network.
Why not just use ODA File Converter and the built-in importer?
Converting DWG to DXF is a fine workaround, and the free edition starts exactly there. Two things are left unsolved by it, though: the DXF still arrives as one layer per geometry type, and ODA File Converter itself is a separate install whose licence does not cover commercial use without registration. The DWG page lays out the three options.
Is the source open?
Yes — github.com/EchoPrime-Studio/echocad, GPL-2.0-or-later. Pro is a separate plugin id, so the two install side by side and never overwrite each other.
What if a drawing comes out wrong?
Ask on GitHub Discussions with the drawing’s layer list and a screenshot — the answer then helps the next person too. If you cannot show the drawing in public, write to echoprime.studio@gmail.com. Import failures are tracked against a 50-drawing public sample set, so a report either reproduces or becomes a regression test.
Version 0.1.0 · QGIS 3.34 LTR or newer · Windows and macOS (Linux works if you bring your own converter for Pro).