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, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15(2000), 18( 2004)).

You can load any of the DXF files as either vector images or raster images. Users can load a DXF file, and save it to any of the file formats supported by LEADTOOLS.

This file format is not supported in the non-vector toolkits. Read support and write support for this format are provided in the LEADTOOLS Vector Imaging Pro toolkit and are unlocked when the Vector features are unlocked.

The file constants associated with this file format are:

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

When DXF files are rasterized, they are 24 BPP. You can read and write vector DXF files at 8 BPP.

The following table indicates which objects LEAD can load and which objects it can save:

Object:	Load:	Save:
Arc	Supported	Supported
Attdef	Supported	Not Supported
Attrib	Supported	Not Supported
Circle	Supported	Supported
Clone	Supported	Supported
Ellipse	Supported	Supported
Elliptical Arc	Supported	Not Supported
Gradient	Supported	Not Supported
Insert	Supported	Not Supported
Leader	Supported	Not Supported
Lines	Supported	Supported
LWPolyline	Supported	Not Supported
MText	Supported	Supported
Point	Supported	Supported
Polygons	Supported	Supported
PolyLine	Supported	Supported
Raster	Supported	Supported (DXF13)
Region	Supported	Not Supported
SeqEnd	Not Supported	Not Supported
Simple Ray Object	Supported	Not Supported
Simple Construction Line	Supported	Not Supported
Simple Multi-Line	Supported	Not Supported
Solid	Supported	Not Supported
Spline	Supported	Not Supported
Table	Supported	Not Supported
Text	Supported	Supported
Tolerance	Supported	Not Supported
Vertex	Supported	Supported
Wipeout	Supported	Not Supported
WPolyLine	Supported	Not Supported
3DFace	Supported	Supported
3D Solid	Not Supported	Not Supported

Required DLL: LFDXF. For a listing of the exact DLLs needed, based on the toolkit version, refer to Files To Be Included With Your Application.

This format does not support LEAD's redirected IO feature, therefore it cannot be used with LMemoryFile::LoadMemory, LMemoryFile::Save, or LFile::FeedLoad.