Comparison
Generic translator vs CADlingua
A text translator treats a DXF/DWG drawing as a string of characters and rewrites anything that looks like text — including dimensions, part codes and symbols. CADlingua understands the drawing structure: it translates only the prose and leaves geometry, dimensions and codes exactly as they were. That is the difference between an unusable drawing and one you open in SolidWorks without fixing anything.
What happens to each part of the drawing
| Generic translator | CADlingua | |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions (Ø50, R5) | Rewrites the dimension text; may alter the value or symbol | Untouched — never changes a dimension value |
| Tolerances (±0.1, H7) | Treated as translatable text and corrupted | Preserved literally |
| Symbols (Ø, °, ±) | Risk of substitution or encoding loss | Kept as-is |
| Part codes | Translated as if they were words | Recognised and left untouched |
| File format | Often forces a PDF conversion — the CAD is lost | DXF/DWG in, DXF/DWG out with identical geometry |
| Non-Latin languages | Uneven results with CJK, Cyrillic, Arabic | Supports CJK, Cyrillic, Greek and Arabic |
The problem: a drawing is not a document
Anyone can run a PDF through a translator and get reasonable text. A drawing is different: figures like "Ø50" or "R5" are not prose — they are geometry with meaning. A general-purpose translator cannot tell a descriptive note from a dimension, so it rewrites both. The result is a drawing where measurements have changed, part codes have been "translated" and technical symbols are lost. For a workshop that is not a minor annoyance: it is a drawing that cannot be manufactured, and a dimension error that reaches production costs material and time. Translating drawings requires understanding the structure of the drawing, not just its characters.
What CADlingua does differently
CADlingua is a CAD-aware pipeline built on DeepL. It parses the DXF or DWG file, separates translatable prose from the entities that are geometry — dimensions, tolerances, symbols, codes — and translates only the former. Coordinates go in and come out identical; only the descriptive text changes. It returns the file in the same format, ready to open in SolidWorks, AutoCAD or any DXF viewer. It is configured per company: your glossary, the proper nouns you want preserved, and the grammar of your part codes. The engine is validated against 7 real production drawings, and supports any language, including non-Latin scripts.