DXF and DWG Files

DXF is the drawing format nearly every CAD program reads and writes; DWG is AutoCAD's own. Import either with File › Import › Import…, and save DXF with File › Export › Export…, choosing Autocad Files. Lines, arcs, curves, text, raster images, hatches and dimensions all come across.

An imported drawing often has lines drawn twice, or lines that stop just short of each other: Edit › Clean Up Drawing… puts that right before cutting (see Cleaning Up a Drawing).

Layers

A die-making drawing's layers say what each line is: cut, crease, perforation and so on. When you import a DXF, each DXF layer is put on one of ParametrIQ CAD's layers by its name:

The name only has to contain the word (KNIFE_2PT is a cut), and case doesn't matter, except for V-CUT and VCUT, which must be the whole name. The rules are tried from the top, so CUT-CREASE is a cut crease rather than a cut.

ParametrIQ CAD's own layer names (Cut, Crease, Partial Cut …) and the DDES3 and CF2 line type layers (DDES3 201, CF2 41 …) always come back to the same layers, so a DXF you exported reads back exactly.

Any other DXF layer keeps its own name and colour: it is added to the layer table as a layer of its own. If one DXF layer has lines of several colours or line types, each gets a layer of its own, named after it (for example Stuff (#FF0000)).

The outlines of filled areas (hatches and solids) only go on the Tape layer; otherwise they keep a layer of their own, so that a filled area never turns into a cut.

Your own rules

Every die-maker names layers differently. You can add your own rules in a text file named dxf-layers.txt in the PiQ folder of your application data (on Windows, %APPDATA%\PiQ\dxf-layers.txt). Your rules are tried before the ones above, unless you switch off Use my layer rules in the import options. One rule a line:

# comments start with #
KNIFE*      = Cut
*RILL*      = Crease
MATRIX*     = CF2 40
COUNTER*    = DDES3 201
TABLE*      = keep          (its own layer, whatever the rules below say)
colour 1    = Crease
colour 5    = Perforation

• Names use wildcards: * for any run of characters, ? for any one. Case doesn't matter.
• colour n matches the AutoCAD colour index of the entity (or of its layer) when no name rule matches.
• Targets: Cut, Crease, Partial Cut, Perforation, Tape, Dimension, Reverse Crease, Cut Crease, V-Cut, DDES3 n or CF2 n (that die-making line type's layer), or keep for a layer of its own.
• Text in brackets after a target is a note and is ignored.

Rules ParametrIQ CAD can't read are listed in the messages after the import.

Dimensions

Linear, aligned, angular, radius, diameter and ordinate dimensions are read as ParametrIQ CAD dimensions on their points, so they follow the drawing when you change it. Their text height, arrow size, gaps, decimal places and any text of their own come across from the DXF dimension style.

Switch off Dimensions as dimensions in the import options to have them come in as their lines and text instead, or, with Lines of other dimensions off, be left out.

On export, dimensions are written as DXF dimensions too (a perpendicular dimension as an aligned one), each with a dimension style for its sizes and a block of the lines and text ParametrIQ CAD draws, so other programs show exactly what you see. Switch off Dimensions as DIMENSIONs in the export options to write them as their lines and text.

Hatches and fills

Hatches read from a DXF come in as fills bounded by their outlines (hidden elements on the hatch's layer): a pattern hatch as hatch lines at its angle and spacing, a solid hatch in its colour (with its transparency), a gradient hatch as a gradient (linear, cylinder, spherical, hemispherical and curved, and their inverted forms). Leave Hatches off in the import options to leave them out. Hatch pattern lines (off) brings in each line of a hatch's pattern as well, and Join hatch boundaries (on) makes each boundary one closed outline.

On export, fills are written as HATCHes: hatch lines as a user-defined pattern, a solid fill as a solid hatch in its colour, a gradient as DXF's two-colour gradient nearest it (a radial one as spherical; conic and four-corner gradients as linear ones between their colours). Holes in a fill are the hatch's inner boundaries. Gradients are kept in ASCII DXF only: a binary DXF writes them as solid colours.

What else comes across

• Geometry: lines, arcs, circles, ellipses, splines and polylines (with their bulges) come across exactly, in any plane.
• Blocks come in as parts: each INSERT that places its block full size (turned and moved, in the plane of the drawing) is a part at the insertion point, turned by the insert's rotation, on the insert's layer; a block that inserts others has them as parts within it, and a MINSERT array is a part for each copy. An insert that scales or mirrors its block is drawn in place instead, scaled and mirrored as the drawing says. With Blocks as parts off in the import options, every block is drawn in place; blocks nested deeper than Deepest block nesting (16) are left out. When you export, each part's drawing is written once as a block (with this drawing's values for the variables it shares), and each part as an INSERT of it. Parts within parts are blocks inserting blocks. Switch off Parts as blocks in the export options to write them drawn in place.
• Line types and line weights: a layer's dash pattern becomes a line type, and line widths become lineweights (DXF's widest is 2.11 mm), both ways.
• Text (TEXT, MTEXT and block attributes) comes in as text with its font, alignment and formatting, and is written back as TEXT, or MTEXT for more than one line, or with Text as outlines as the outlines of its letters.
• Raster images are read from their files, as the drawing names them or in the drawing's folder. DXF keeps images in files of their own, so on export each image is written beside the DXF, named after it (Box_1.png, Box_2.jpg …), unless Raster images is off in the export options.
• Units: the drawing's units ($INSUNITS) are converted to yours. Exports are written in your drawing's units.
• Versions: exports are AutoCAD 2013 DXF unless you choose another in the export options (2000, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 or 2018), as ASCII or, with Binary DXF, binary. Shapes of lines and arcs are written as one LWPOLYLINE each unless Polylines as LWPOLYLINEs is off.
• Hidden layers and entities: a layer that is off or frozen comes in as a hidden layer of its own (never mapped onto Cut, Crease …), or is left out with Leave out hidden layers, and a layer set not to plot comes in not plotted. An invisible entity comes in as a hidden element. Show them in the Layers and Properties panels.
• Left out unless you switch them on in the import options: paper space and leaders. 2D solids, 3D faces (their visible edges, seen from above) and multilines come in unless switched off.
• Always left out: rays, and things ParametrIQ CAD has no element for (3D solids, meshes). The messages after the import say what was left out.

Stone templates from digitisers

A countertop template from a digitiser (Prodim Proliner, Laser Products LT-55 and LT-2D3D …) is a DXF too: bring it in with File › Import › Import Stone Template… instead, which joins its lines into pieces and cut-outs and reads the edges' profiles from its layers. See Stone Templates from Digitisers.