For those who are not familiar, CGM is a scalable file format which allows you to shrink and blow up things and keep fairly good resolution. For the nerds, it’s a 2D vector format.

Recently, WebWis has come into play, and sadly, most of the semi-common models of documentation are as verbatim from the old WIS CDs, including this CGM file format for all pictures/etc. This means that many models are unavailable to view online unless you have an old WIS CD.

I’ve tracked down a copy of Free ActiveCGM as provided, and have placed it >> right here <<. Unzip the archive, run Setup, and when it starts IE, right click the “Warning” banner at the top, allow it to run, and you’ll see a window with ActiveCGM running within IE.

You may now view CGM files in Internet Explorer.

For those concerned, this was a direct copy as I found it, the software is FREE (not a part of WIS, it was offered by a company which no longer exists), and as I am not bundling it with anything else, it is not in violation of any license.

It is old software (circa 2002), and is 32 bit ActiveX. you’ll need to run a 32 bit Internet Explorer for it to work. If you are running Vista x64, or Windows 7 ×64, this discussion may be of some assistance, but I don’t run any of those, so I can not assist with any further requirements for making it work.

Same goes for this link to ISO View. Good luck, and Happy SAABing!

E: The latest ISOView version above is v7.3. Here is the latest download link for ISOView 7.3 (32 bit), available from the same resource above.

ISOView /should/ be able to handle CGM itself, but it seems like the ActiveX enabled WIS doesn’t use it for rendering. I haven’t figured a workaround for this yet, but I haven’t tried too hard since XP capable computers are cheap and plentiful.