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 supports Geometric text, layout support, adding support for loading different paper spaces from DXF file.

This file format supports loading with different units and viewing multi-degree spline.

This file format is not supported in the Imaging Pro toolkits. Read and write support for this format is provided in the Document and Medical Imaging toolkits.

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, MemoryFile::Save, or  LFile::FeedLoad.

Related Formats: CGM - Computer Graphics Metafile, CMX - Corel Presentation Exchange Format, DGN - Intergraph Format, DRW - Micrografx Designer DRaWing, DWF - DWF Format, DWG - DWG FormatEMF - Windows Metafile Formats, GBR - Gerber Format, PCL - Printer Command Language Format, PCT - Macintosh Pict Format, PDF - Portable Document FormatPS - PostScript Document FormatRTF - Rich Text Format, SHP - ESRI Shape FormatSVG - Scalable Vector Graphics Format, VEC - LEADTOOLS Vector Dump Format, VPG - WordPerfect Vector Format, WMF - Windows Metafile Formats, NAP - North American Presentation Layer Protocol Syntax (NAPLPS), WMZ - Compressed Windows Metafile Format, MIF - MapInfo Interchange File Format, E00 - ArcInfo Interchange File Format

Help Version 21.0.2021.7.2
Products | Support | Contact Us | Intellectual Property Notices
© 1991-2021 LEAD Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LEADTOOLS Vector C++ Class Library Help

Products | Support | Contact Us | Intellectual Property Notices
© 1991-2021 LEAD Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.