File Formats: Drawing Interchange Format (DXF)

Drawing Interchange Format (DXF)

DXF (Drawing Interchange Format) was first introduced by AutoDesk AutoCAD, and is one of the most widely used CAD/CAM/CAE applications in the world. DXF is very popular and is supported by most 3D formats on PC platforms.

A DXF file is an ASCII file containing 2D and 3D components representing a drawing. Those components are known as Entities. The DXF file can represent almost any CAD drawing using those entities, and can connect a group of entities together (such as windows, doors, etc.) and use them later in the file. The DXF file has seen many changes through the years, from version 2.6 to the latest release version 14. However, the latest release of AutoCAD still manages to open files created with any of the earlier versions.

LEADTOOLS supports all current variations of the DXF format (versions 2.6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14).

Users can save a DXF file to any of file formats supported by LEADTOOLS.

The file constants associated with this file format are:

Constant	Write Support	Description
FILE_DXF	Yes	[58] AutoDesk AutoCAD ASCII format Release 12.
FILE_DXF_R12	Yes	Same as FILE_DXF
FILE_DXF_R13	Yes	[290] AutoDesk AutoCAD ASCII format Release 13.

When DXF files are rasterized, they are 24 BPP.

The following table indicates which objects LEAD can save:

Object:	Save:
Arc	Supported
Attdef	Not Supported
Attrib	Not Supported
Circle	Supported
Clone	Supported
Ellipse	Supported
Elliptical Arc	Not Supported
Insert	Not Supported
Leader	Not Supported
Lines	Supported
MText	Supported
Polygons	Supported
PolyLine	Supported
Raster	Not Supported
Solid	Not Supported
Spline	Not Supported
Text	Supported
Tolerance	Not Supported
Vertex	Supported
WPolyLine	Not Supported
3DFace	Not Supported

Required DLL: LFDXF. For a listing of the exact DLLs needed, refer to ePrint Files.