Draft DXF

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Draft Module

Menu location
Draft DXF
-
Workbenches
Draft
Default shortcut
-
Introduced in version
-
See also
FreeCAD and DXF Import, FreeCAD and DWG Import
Contents 1 Description 2 Importing 3 Exporting 4 Installing 5 Preferences 6 Scripting

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, legacy one is code in Python slower, requires the installation of an add-on, but can sometimes handle some entities better and can created 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")