Rodeo

Rodeo is a free, open-source drawing and 3D modelling app that runs in the browser. It opens, edits and saves Vectorworks .vwx files, read through a reverse-engineered model of the file format, and opens or imports AutoCAD DWG and DXF, Revit, Archicad, SketchUp, Rhino, IFC, PDF and common mesh formats.

Use it at rodeo.build. No account is needed, and the files you open stay on your computer unless you save them to the cloud.

Status: v0.2, early. It reads VW 2018+ files (checked on Vectorworks 2022 and on the 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 releases of a public demo project) and the 2D of VW 2013 files (checked on one file), draws 2D geometry, sheets and a textured 3D model, and edits layers, classes and 2D objects. Files it writes re-read cleanly in both implementations, but have not yet been opened in Vectorworks. Keep originals and check edited copies in Vectorworks or the free Vectorworks Viewer before relying on them.

Using Rodeo

The user guide covers the app menu by menu and tool by tool:

Area	Pages
Getting around	Files · Workspace · Layers and classes · Import and export · Branches
Drawing and editing	Drawing and attributes · Dimensions · Selecting and editing · Symbols and plug-in objects
3D	3D view and rendering · 3D modelling
Documents	Sheets, viewports and worksheets
Disciplines	Architecture · Site and landscape · Interiors · MEP · Detailing and machine parts · Stage and lighting · ConnectCAD
Automating	Scripts

PARITY.md lists every Vectorworks feature and whether Rodeo has it yet.

Convert files without opening them at rodeo.build/convert, in your browser, or on the command line with npx @rodeo.build/cli convert model.rvt model.ifc (cli/README.md).

Agents of your own: Claude (web, desktop and phone), ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor and other MCP agents sign in and drive your open drawing (Window › Connect an Agent…), or work on files on your computer with npx -y @rodeo.build/cli mcp.

Running it yourself

The editor is a static site and needs no server:

cd web
npm install
npm run dev        # http://localhost:5173
npm run build      # static site in web/dist (typecheck + bundle)

Accounts, cloud drawings, sharing and live collaboration come from the optional server in server/. docs/SETUP.md explains how to run your own, and docs/PLATFORM.md lists its API and settings.

The repository

Path	What it holds
web/src/core/	the format library: container, Snappy, records, geometry, attributes, document model, edit session with undo
web/src/app/	the editor: canvas renderer, tools, panels, file I/O, the 3D view
web/src/import/, web/src/export/	the other formats: DWG, DXF, PDF, IFC, Revit, Archicad, SketchUp, meshes
web/src/features/	self-contained features (agents, collaboration, plug-ins, search, stage, ...)
web/src/platform/	the editor's side of the server's API
web/scripts/vwx.ts	a Node command line
web/src/convert/	the converter: any format read into a drawing and written out without the editor (the converter page, the rodeo command and MCP use it)
cli/	the npm package @rodeo.build/cli, the rodeo command
web/vendor/	generated third-party builds (rvt-rs)
server/	accounts, cloud drawings, collaboration, billing; server/scripts/ holds its tests
cloudrender/	the GPU worker behind Render Image's cloud option (Modal)
openvwx/, tests/	the original Python reader and command-line tool, and its tests
docs/guide/	the user guide
docs/	the server's API and settings, and how to run your own
brand/	the Rodeo logo and icons
FORMAT.md	what is known of the .vwx format: start here to work on the format
PARITY.md	the checklist of Vectorworks features and Rodeo's progress on each

The project was called openvwx before it became Rodeo, and that name remains inside: the Python package, storage keys, the plug-in API's namespace.

Contributions are welcome: see CONTRIBUTING.md. Report security problems privately, as SECURITY.md describes.

Python tool

The Python reader in openvwx/ has no dependencies and is kept as an independent second implementation of the format.

python3 -m openvwx info drawing.vwx        # version, record counts
python3 -m openvwx layers drawing.vwx      # layer list
python3 -m openvwx classes drawing.vwx     # classes and usage counts
python3 -m openvwx tree drawing.vwx --depth 3
python3 -m openvwx svg drawing.vwx out.svg --layer "Ground Floor"
python3 -m openvwx edit drawing.vwx "Ground Floor" out.vwx --rename "GF Plan" --visibility visible --move-to 0
python3 -m openvwx verify drawing.vwx      # lossless re-encode check
python3 -m openvwx serve drawing.vwx       # small layer/class viewer

How editing works

The file is a Snappy-compressed stream of records forming a tree (see FORMAT.md). openvwx keeps every record's bytes and only rewrites what an edit touches, so anything it doesn't understand (3D, plug-in objects, worksheets, record data) passes through unchanged. New objects, layers and classes are cloned from existing records of the same type in the file, then given new GUIDs, fresh tree addresses and new geometry. An unedited file re-encodes to an identical record stream.

Limits for now: symbols can't be edited inside; text keeps its size when scaled and its font is drawn as Arial (the font face isn't decoded yet); images stay upright when rotated (their centre turns) and are scaled and mirrored as their box; stretching a rotated rectangle or a circle unevenly turns it into a polygon; ellipses can be moved but not reshaped; reshaping a polyline turns its curves into straight segments; a plug-in object keeps its cached drawing when its parameters change (it is redrawn when Vectorworks next resets it); creating an object type the file has never contained (for example the first group or symbol instance) fails because there is no record to copy; and pasting between files matches classes, line types and symbols by name but keeps colour indices as they are.

Roadmap

PARITY.md is the checklist of Vectorworks features and which of them Rodeo has; the items below are the format work behind them.

1. Confirm edited files open in Vectorworks / Vectorworks Viewer.
2. More sample files (other VW versions, Mac vs Windows, Spotlight, landscape).
3. The rest of the bitmap fill pattern table, image fills; plan viewports in 3D or rendered views; data visualisation by object types other than slabs; viewport class overrides of fill and pen; DXF export of sheets.
4. Native dimension objects, worksheet formulas and database rows; text fonts and styles.
5. 3D: Parasolid solids (free-form surfaces show only their edges), the site model's NURBS drape, 3D editing.
6. Desktop app: wrap web/dist with Electron or Tauri.

Notes

• samples/ is git-ignored: real drawings contain client names, addresses and phone numbers. Don't commit or publish them, or names and text from them. The checks and the Python tests read samples/sample.vwx when it is there, and the dev server serves it at /__sample.vwx for the "Try sample" button; it is never copied into the build.
• Third-party code: the editor's dependencies are listed in web/package.json and are MIT, ISC, BSD, Apache-2.0 or MPL-2.0 licensed. web-ifc (MPL-2.0) reads IFC, rvt-rs (Apache-2.0, built into web/vendor/) reads Revit, and the SCOWL dictionaries (MIT and BSD) back Check Spelling; their licences ship in web/public/licences/ and are linked from Help > About. The 3D view's solid subtraction follows Evan Wallace's csg.js (MIT), and the DWG reader follows the Open Design Alliance's published specification, cross-checked against ACadSharp (MIT). Run Script loads Pyodide (MPL-2.0) from jsDelivr when first used.
• Rodeo reads and writes Vectorworks files by reverse engineering the format for interoperability, which the EU Software Directive (Art. 6) and US law (DMCA §1201(f)) permit. Rodeo uses no Vectorworks program code or libraries; a drawing it starts carries only the fixed bytes every Vectorworks file shares, such as the default colour table.

Licence

Rodeo is free software: you can redistribute it and modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. If you run a modified copy as a service that others use over a network, you must offer them its source code; point SOURCE_URL in web/src/app/menubar.ts (Help > About) at your own.

Copyright © 2026 Cal Bass and the Rodeo contributors.

Vectorworks is a registered trademark of Vectorworks, Inc., part of the Nemetschek Group. AutoCAD, DWG and Revit are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., Archicad of Graphisoft SE, SketchUp of Trimble Inc., and Rhinoceros of Robert McNeel & Associates. Rodeo is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them; their names are used only to say which files Rodeo reads and writes.