2004

Table Of Contents

88 | Chapter 8 Open an Existing Drawing

Overview of Opening Drawings

To open an existing AutoCAD drawing, you can choose Open from the File

menu to display the Select File dialog box.

You can also open drawings by dragging them from Windows Explorer into

AutoCAD. If you drop one or more drawings anywhere outside the drawing

area—for example, the command line or the blank space next to the tool-

bars—AutoCAD opens the drawings. However, if you drag a single drawing

into the drawing area of an open drawing, the new drawing is not opened

but inserted as a block reference.

You can double-click a drawing in Windows Explorer to launch AutoCAD

and open the drawing. If AutoCAD is already running, the drawing opens in

the current session rather than in a second session.

Check Drawing Authenticity

If the

DWGCHECK system variable is set to On (1), AutoCAD checks the DWG

file format and displays an alert box if

■ The drawing file format is AutoCAD LT 97 or later or AutoCAD Release 14

or later AND

■ The file was last saved by a program other than AutoCAD LT 97 or later or

AutoCAD Release 14 or later

To avoid checking for file authenticity each time you open drawings, clear

the Always Show This Dialog Box option when the alert is displayed. Alter-

natively, you can set

DWGCHECK to Off (0).

Change the Default Drawing Folder

Each time you start AutoCAD, the last used paths in each particular standard

file selection dialog box are remembered across AutoCAD sessions. Alterna-

tively, you can configure AutoCAD to always default to a particular path by

changing the default drawing folder.