DXF File

  • DXF(Drawing Exchange Format) is a CAD file developed by Autodesk.
  • It is for enabling data interioperability ( Data exchange between CAD and other downstreams like CAx).
  • The data format of a DXF is called "tagged format" which means "each data element in the file is presented by an integer number that is called as group code".
File Structure: 
The basic organization of a DXF file is as follows:
  • HEADER section – General information about the drawing. Each parameter has a variable name and an associated value.
  • CLASSES section – Holds the information for application-defined classes whose instances appear in the BLOCKS, ENTITIES, and OBJECTS sections of the database. Generally does not provide sufficient information to allow interoperability with other programs.
  • TABLES section – This section contains definitions of named items.
  • Application ID (APPID) table
    Block Record (BLOCK_RECORD) table
    Dimension Style (DIMSTYPE) table
    Layer (LAYER) table
    Line type (LTYPE) table
    Text style (STYLE) table
    User Coordinate System (UCS) table
    View (VIEW) table
    Viewport configuration (VPORT) table
  • BLOCKS section – This section contains Block Definition entities describing the entities comprising each Block in the drawing.
  • ENTITIES section – This section contains the drawing entities, including any Block References.
  • OBJECTS section – Contains the data that apply to non-graphical objects, used by Auto LISP and Object ARX applications.
  • THUMBNAIL IMAGE section – Contains the preview image for the DXF file.
  • END OF FILE


Uses:
  • All user specified information in drawing file can be represented in DXF format virtually.
  • Used for data exchage between AutoCAD and other programes.
History:
  • DXF was originally introduced in December 1982 as a part of AutoCAD 1.0.
Notes:

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