Can I use git with .dwg (autocad)?

Question

Version control with .dwg is really a problem. I'm wondering if it is possible to use git to control the version? or just commit my changes in the file?

If this is not possible, then what is a good way of version control .dwg?

I find this: Can GIT, Mercurial, SVN, or other version control tools work well when project tree has binary files? It says svn works with cad, is it the only solution now?

Answer 1

If You like just to be able to track the history, move back and forth in time then GIT and Autodesk Vault (since dwg is proprietary Autodesk solutions are usually a first choice) are almost equal. None of them can do the diff of dwg files. Yes, Autodesk product can't do diff on Autodesk files.

If Your main operation is through GUI both are also comparable, although for GIT You have much wider choice.

Git, when You will get advanced, will allow You to do much more things that Autodesk Vault can do. The most critical thing is "history branching" without which any serious job is impossible. Remember those file "version with something.dwg", "need to try this.dwg" and so on? With GIT you can just use "alternative history".

Git will struggle a bit with attempts to figure out differential compression between files, so with large binary files You may expect some slow down. You do have however two options:

• to tell GIT that file is binary, so not to struggle or (check .gitattributes options);
• to tell GIT to handle files through so called GIT-LFS extension.

Also GIT should be configured in such a way so that it would never attempt to do any file modification. I do mention it, because it may be configured to, for an example, change "end-of-line" characters between Linux and Windows. I'm not sure what are defaults, because I always configure it to "don't touch files".

I do use GIT for Autodesk Inventor, LibreOffice and other files. No problems, except large disk consumption and lack of ability to see differences between versions. But what to expect, if You need to keep 50 or more copies to track the history?

Good side of GIT is, that You don't have to have any kind of server to benefit from it. It will keep the history on Your disk and You don't have to share it with anyone. You may, if You like, but You do not have to. This is a low investment starting point which is worth to try. Surely You will find some limitations, but in my case this is a good and cost effective tool.