Setting the Default CAD Program in Windows

You can manually set the program that opens DWG files on your computer. This is also called setting the "file association" in Windows. Most often this is done when you install a program that natively opens a specific file type, but in the case of DWG files, this would only be AutoCAD, by AutoDesk. Fortunately, Windows lets us change these associations manually.

Here is how this works in both Windows 10 and Windows 7.

Setting Default CAD Video

Watch the training video above, or follow the instructions below.

You may see the following message if when you click the CAD link in the WinBidPro menu tree. If so, here is how to get it working properly.

Choose the program that opens DWG files

Open the Windows File Explorer and navigate to Local Disk C: then open the WinBidPro folder.

2. Look for a file called CoverPage11x17.dwg. Double-click on this file and you will see something like the images below.

In Windows 10

In Windows 7

3. Click the Select a program from ... option and click OK Then the following window will open.

4. You may only see the WinBidPro CAD program in the list, but if you have something like DraftSight or TurboCAD installed, you can pick one of those other programs.

5. Another way to get to one of these windows is to right-click on a DWG file and select Properties, then you can click the Change button like in the Windows 10 image above.