Selecting a Default Application for Vectorworks Files

Vectorworks files have a .VWX suffix at the end of their names after the release of Vectorworks 2008. Prior to this, Vectorworks files were marked with a .MCD (From then the application used to be called MiniCAD)

(These two file extensions are the only file types that Vectorworks can open directly. Other files formats can be brought into Vectorworks via the File > Import commands.)

However on some machines if you double click a Vectorworks file, your operating system may not know with what application to open it. Alternatively, some users maintain multiple versions of Vectorworks on their machines and wish to select a particular version to open Vectorworks file by default.

To change the application used by your operating system, first close Vectorworks entirely, scroll to your specific OS below and follow the provided steps:


 

Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows  8:

1) Right-click on a .MCD or .VWX file icon   and choose "Properties"

2) Next to "Opens With" click "Change"

3) Your Vectorworks application should be listed here, select the desired application and click OK. (If it is not listed here, click "Browse" then select the application from your Program Files folder)

4) Click OK on the Properties menu.

If you did not see any icon before on your Vectorworks file, it should now change (along with all other files with that extension) to reflect either a preview of the document itself or the version of Vectorworks it is going to open with.


 

Mac OSX 10.5 and later:

1) Right-click or control-click on a .MCD or .VWX file icon and choose "Get Info"

2) Your Vectorworks application should be listed here, select the desired application and click OK. (If it is not listed here, click "Other..." then select the application from your Applications folder)

3) Click "Change All" and then "Continue"

4) Close the Get Info window.

If you did not see any icon before on your Vectorworks file, it should now change (along with all other files with that extension) to reflect either a preview of the document itself or the version of Vectorworks it is going to open with.