Draft DXF

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Revision as of 09:39, 4 March 2020 by Roy 043 (talk | contribs) (Edited list of DXF objects: removed references to V0.13, added 'incomplete.)
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
File → Export → Autodesk DXF 2D (*.dxf)
Workbenches
Draft
Default shortcut
Ctrl+E
Introduced in version
-
See also
FreeCAD and DXF Import, FreeCAD and DWG Import

Description

This function opens a DXF file, any version from 12 to 2007, to a new document.

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

Opening

The following DXF object types are currently supported:

  • lines
  • polylines and lwpolylines
  • circles
  • arcs
  • layers (layers containing objects are converted to FreeCAD Groups)
  • texts and mtexts
  • dimensions
  • blocks (only geometry. texts, dims and attributes inside blocks will be skipped)
  • points
  • leaders
  • ... List is incomplete.

Other DXF entities are currently not imported because there is no corresponding FreeCAD object. As new functionality gets implemented, it will be possible to import more entity types.

Installing

Note: for licensing reasons, the DXF import/export libraries are not part of the FreeCAD source code anymore. For that reason, they must be installed by you, the user, after you install FreeCAD. There is a way to allow FreeCAD to do that automatically, or you can do it manually.

Automatically

Starting from version 0.15, you only need to mark the Edit → Preferences → Import/Export → DXF/DWG → "Allow FreeCAD to automatically download the DXF libraries" option to have FreeCAD take automatically care of downloading and installing these libraries. For older versions, you will need to do it manually.

Manually

Libraries must be downloaded from https://github.com/yorikvanhavre/Draft-dxf-importer There is a very complete step-by-step tutorial that will explain you the necessary steps.

Importing

This works the same way as opening, but it will add the contents of the DXF file in the active document instead of creating a new document.

Tutorial: Dxf Importer Install

Exporting

The exported DXF is compatible with Autocad version 12 and up, so it should open in about any application that supports dxf format. Currently the following FreeCAD objects get exported:

  • lines and wires (polylines)
  • arcs and circles
  • 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

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")