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Revision as of 13:51, 10 August 2021

This documentation is a work in progress. Please don't mark it as translatable since it will change in the next hours and days.

Draft DXF

Menu location
-
Workbenches
Draft
Default shortcut
-
Introduced in version
-
See also
FreeCAD and DXF Import, FreeCAD and DWG Import

Description

Draft DXF is a software module used by the Std Open, Std Import and Std Export commands to handle the DXF file format.

Qcad drawing exported to DXF, which is subsequently opened in FreeCAD

Importing

The importer has two modes, settable under Edit → Preferences → Import/Export → DXF: One is built-in, C++-based and fast, the other is legacy, coded in Python, slower, and requires the installation of an add-on, but can sometimes handle some entities better and can create more refined FreeCAD objects. Both support all DXF versions starting from R12.

3D objects inside a DXF file are stored under a binary ACIS/SAT blob, which at the moment cannot be read by FreeCAD. Simpler entities like 3DFACEs, though, are supported.

The following DXF objects can be imported:

  • lines
  • polylines (and lwpolylines)
  • circles
  • arcs
  • splines
  • ellipses
  • layers
  • texts and mtexts
  • dimensions
  • blocks (only geometry. texts, dimensions and attributes inside blocks will be skipped)
  • points
  • leaders
  • paper space objects

Exporting

Files are exported in the R14 DXF format which can be handled by many applications.

The following FreeCAD objects can be exported:

  • all of FreeCAD's 2D geometry such as Draft objects or sketches
  • 3D objects are exported as a flattened 2D view
  • Compound objects are exported as blocks
  • texts
  • colors are mapped from objects RGB colors to autocad color index (ACI). Black will always be "by layer"
  • layers are mapped from group names. When groups are nested, the deepest group gives the layer name.
  • dimensions, which are exported with "Standard" dimstyle.

Installing

For licensing reasons, the required DXF import/export libraries needed by the legacy version of the importer are not part of the FreeCAD source code. For more information see: FreeCAD and DXF Import.

Preferences

For more information see: Import Export Preferences.

Scripting

See also: Draft API and FreeCAD Scripting Basics.

You can export elements to DXF by using the following function:

importDXF.export(objectslist, filename, nospline=False, lwPoly=False)

Example:

import Draft, importDXF

Polygon1 = Draft.makePolygon(3, radius=500)
Polygon2 = Draft.makePolygon(5, radius=1500)

objects = [Polygon1, Polygon2]

importDXF.export(objects, "/home/user/Pictures/myfile.dxf")