Parse DWF drawings into structured vector JSON — the cleanest parse path.

In many AEC and manufacturing workflows, the source DWG file stays with the design team. What gets shared externally — with contractors, fabricators, clients, or document management systems — is a DWF export: a compact, read-only delivery format that preserves layers and geometry without exposing the editable source.

If your software receives DWF as the primary input — from a client portal, an email attachment, or an FTP drop — you need to parse the DWF directly. Converting it back to DWG adds complexity and round-trip fidelity risk. CADLens parses DWF natively.

DWF parsing is the right choice in these scenarios:

• Construction document management — parse published drawing sets (issued-for-construction DWFs) to extract layer names, entity counts, and drawing extents for a document index.
• Fabrication intake — accept DWF files from architects and engineers as the authoritative delivery format, extract geometry for pricing or scheduling.
• Digital archive systems — ingest legacy DWF archives, extract metadata and render PNG thumbnails at scale without installing Autodesk software.
• Compliance and QA tools — compare layer structure and entity distribution across a set of published drawings programmatically.

Authentication is an API key in the Authorization: Bearer header. The base URL is https://api.cadlens.co/v1.

Step 1 — Upload the DWF file:

POST /v1/parse
Content-Type: multipart/form-data
Authorization: Bearer <api_key>

file=<your-drawing.dwf>

// Response
{ "jobId": "job_03pn..." }

For files under roughly 2 MB, pass ?wait=true for a synchronous response. For larger files, the job is queued and you can pass a webhook_url field to receive a callback on completion.

Step 2 — Poll for status:

GET /v1/jobs/job_03pn...
Authorization: Bearer <api_key>

// Response
{
  "jobId": "job_03pn...",
  "status": "COMPLETED",   // PENDING | PROCESSING | COMPLETED | FAILED
  "fileName": "site-plan.dwf",
  "fileSize": 192000,
  "createdAt": "2024-10-14T14:00:00Z",
  "completedAt": "2024-10-14T14:00:05Z"
}

Step 3 — Retrieve the result and preview:

GET /v1/jobs/job_03pn.../result   // vector JSON
GET /v1/jobs/job_03pn.../image    // signed PNG URL

The result schema is versioned at 2024-01. A typical DWF result for a published site plan:

{
  "jobId": "job_03pn...",
  "status": "COMPLETED",
  "metadata": {
    "units": "m",
    "boundingBox": { "width": 120, "height": 80 }
  },
  "layersJson": [
    { "name": "SITE-BOUNDARY", "colorHex": "#ffffff", "entityCount": 1  },
    { "name": "BUILDINGS",     "colorHex": "#808080", "entityCount": 24 },
    { "name": "ROADS",         "colorHex": "#ffcc00", "entityCount": 38 },
    { "name": "ANNOTATIONS",   "colorHex": "#00ff00", "entityCount": 61 }
  ],
  "vectorJson": [
    {
      "type": "POLYLINE",
      "layer": "SITE-BOUNDARY",
      "closed": true,
      "vertices": [
        { "x": 0,   "y": 0  },
        { "x": 120, "y": 0  },
        { "x": 120, "y": 80 },
        { "x": 0,   "y": 80 }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "imageUrl": "https://cdn.cadlens.co/results/job_03pn.../preview.png?..."
}

• DWFx (beta): the DWFx variant (Open Packaging Convention format) is supported in beta. Use standard DWF for production workloads.
• File size: approximately 10 MB per file on standard plans.
• Entity count: up to approximately 50,000 entities per drawing.
• Processing time: up to 30 seconds on standard plans; DWF files are typically among the fastest to process.
• Multi-sheet DWF: when a DWF contains multiple sheets, CADLens currently parses the first model-space sheet. Multi-sheet support is on the roadmap.
• Embedded raster content: raster images embedded in a DWF are not extracted; only vector entities are returned.