For example the line type table (LTYPE) defines the pattern of dashes, dots, text and symbols in the DXF file and how they’re scaled. This section contains definitions for several different tables, each of which contains a number of different symbol entries. The CLASSES section holds the information for application-defined classes whose instances appear in the BLOCKS, ENTITIES, and OBJECTS sections of the database. For example, the Header section will define which AutoCAD version the DXF file uses (the $ACADVER variable) or the unit used to measure angles in the file (the $AUNITS variable) It’s like the Settings functionality in your phone, which contains the different variables associated with the drawing and its associated values. This section contains general information about the drawing. Sections in a DXF file are arranged in the following order: Section End of an entity is indicated by the next 0 group, which begins the next entity or indicates the end of the section. The BLOCK and ENTITIES sections of DXF file contain Entities and the use of group codes in these two sections is identical. Thus, entries in DXF are referred to have as graphical objects while objects objects are referred to as non-graphical objects. Objects have no graphical representation here but entities have it. A section ends with a 0 followed by the string ENDSEC.ĭXF file format considers objects different from entities. Each section is composed of group codes and values that define its elements.
AUTOCAD FONTS EXAMPLES CODE
This is followed by a group code 2 and a string indicating the name of the section (for example, SECTION1).
Each section starts with a group code 0 followed by the string, SECTION. Each group code and value are on their own line in the DXF file. Each section is composed of records where each record consists of a group code and data item. File Format SpecificationsĭXF file format uses the group code and value pairs to arrange the contents into sections. However, Autodesk now publishes the DXF specifications and available to general public. In the earlier stages, Autodesk didn’t share any file format specifications and due to this, correct imports of DXF files was not easy. With the release 10 of AutoCAD (and above) in 1988, support for both ASCII as well as binary DXF file format was introduced in AutoCAD. Initial versions of AutoCAD only support ASCII file format of DXF. The history of DXF file format dates back to 1982 when it was introduced as part of AutoCAD 1.0. Thus, data can be imported from other formats to DXF to AutoCAD as per the DXF file format interoperability specifications. DXF makes it possible to represent almost all user-specified information in a drawing file.ĭXF file format was developed by Autodesk as CAD data file format for data interoperability between AutoCAD and other applications. This group code actually represents the element that follows and indicates the meaning of a data element for a given object type. Each element in the file has a prefix integer number called a group code. DXF, Drawing Interchange Format, or Drawing Exchange Format, is a tagged data representation of AutoCAD drawing file.