To Compare two Versions of a Drawing

Click Plug-ins tab > DWG Compare, or enter DWGCOMPARE, to display the Drawing Compare palette.

1. Under the Select Drawing heading, click the Browse button [...] to navigate to and select appropriate DWG files for both the Original and Compare version.
2. In the Select Drawing heading, click the green check button to compare the two drawing versions.

   In the drawing area, the Original version of the drawing is displayed with comparison results overlaid in color to highlight the differences between the drawings.

   The comparison results are listed in the Drawing Compare palette.

3. Select a comparison result to populate the Object Properties section of the palette.

Tip! Click the Zoom Toggle button, at the right edge of the Compare Results heading, to zoom the view to the selected comparison result.

Use the Previous and Next buttons, in the Compare Results heading, to quickly step through the comparison results.

To End the Comparison

Important! Closing the Drawing Compare palette does not end the comparison.

• In the Select Drawing heading, click the red X button, or enter ENDCOMPARE.

The ENDCOMPARE command also runs REGENALL which removes the comparison objects from the Original Version of the drawing, displayed in the drawing area.

The installer that ran when you downloaded this app/plug-in from Autodesk App Store will start installing the app/plug-in. OR, simply double-click the downloaded installer to install the app/plugin.

You may need to restart the Autodesk product to activate the app/plug-in.

Note:

If you have an older version of the plugin already installed in your computer, the new plugin won't override it. Instead 2016-2019 version will coexist with the previous version.

To uninstall this plug-in, exit the Autodesk product if you are currently running it, simply rerun the installer, and select the "Uninstall" button. OR, click Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features (Windows 7/8/8.1/10) and uninstall as you would any other application from your system.

• During a comparison, the Original Version drawing is opened and is overlaid by representations of geometry and differences from the Compare Version drawing. Any changes you make, while DWG Compare is active, are made to the Original Version of the drawing. You can save changes you make, but you cannot merge the drawing versions. DWG Compare is not an integration tool. If necessary, you must manually integrate the differences between the original and compare versions of the drawing.
• Temporary graphics display new objects in Green, modified objects in Yellow, moved objects in White, deleted objects in Red. Unchanged objects are displayed as Grey.
• Comparison results in the Drawing Compare palette are displayed in bold text initially, indicating that they have not been viewed.
• Only Model Space objects are compared. If necessary, the plug-in will switch to the Model tab when the comparison starts.
• Press Shift and click to select multiple consecutive results, or press Ctrl and click to select multiple non-consecutive results.
• Comparison also detects object height changes (z value).

• Only DWG files can be compared using this plug-in.
• Saving the Original Drawing when the overlaid comparison results are displayed does not save all displayed geometry to the original file. However, the drawing thumbnail image is updated to display the original and compared geometry.