FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

  • My conversion is already running for hours, and nothing seems to happen. Is this normal? - answer
  • The resulting illustrator file gives errors when opening - answer
  • How do I know the DXF file is compliant with the standards? - answer
  • What is the picture being drawn while converting and what do the colours mean? - answer
  • I can not set the "grouping" options, because they are dimmed - answer
  • What's with this 'Use Polyline startwidths' option? - answer
  • How does DXF to Illustrator deal with filled elements? - answer
  • How does the option 'Group Blocks' work? - answer
  • How about DXF version 14 files? - answer

DXF to Illustrator Home Page

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My conversion is already running for hours, and nothing seems to happen. Is this normal?

No, it's not! With an up-to-date configuration (Powermac G3, 64 Mb memory), anything longer than about half an hour for every 100 Mb is not normal. Your file conversion is "stalling", ie. it is stuck in an endless loop.

This can happen, because the world of CAD files (DXF) and illustration files (Illustrator) are so basically different that we need some tricks to achieve certain things. These tricks are controlled by the options in the setup menu. These are work-arounds to overcome some basic DXF-Postscript incompatibilities. Sometimes they will result in erroneous files (error messages when opening in your illustration software) or stalling of the conversion. As can be seen in the help-texts in the setup dialog, these include the "join consecutive lines", the "Group Blocks" and in some cases the 3 "fill ..." options.

Try to redo the conversion with these options turned OFF. Again, anything taking over an hour or so without any apparent change in the progress bar can be halted (use the "Force Quit" option of the MacOS by holding down CMD+option+esc).

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The resulting illustrator file gives errors when opening

Any conversion program deals with the problem of "garbage in - garbage out"... Therefore, a succesfully converted file still can be erroneous. You will then notice that Illustrator of Freehand refuses to load the file or give error messages when opening it. Unfortunately, DXF is not as standardised as we would like. First, try to set all setup options that potentially can give trouble to OFF (see this item above) and retry... If you're still having no succes, you can let us have a look at the DXF file (see below).

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How do I know the DXF file is compliant with the standards?

Unfortunately, DXF is not as standardised as we would like. Our program works on the official guidelines of AutoDesk, proprietors of the DXF format, but not all software (even Autodesk's own AutoCAD) complies to that standard in all situations. If your DXF file keeps giving you problems, you can send it to us and we will have a look at it to try to locate the trouble.

Please do NOT try to send big files (over 10 Mb) as an email attachment! Use an FTP program to transfer it (preferably as a ZIP- or Stuffit-archive) to our FTP server using the following parameters, and send us an email after succesful transfer with the name of the file, the trouble you're having with it and any details you can get on the source of the file (which application was used to generate it, on what platform, etc.).:

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What is the picture being drawn while converting and what do the colours mean?

The picture being drawn on-screen while converting is a conversion preview. In the conversion preview all elements that are converted are drawn, but in a simplified form. Therefore, all lines will be drawn with a 1 point thickness and in either black, blue or green, regardless of the settings you made. Text that is converted is not shown. The colours have the following meaning:

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I can not set the "grouping" options, because they are dimmed

The grouping options are dimmed when you've chose "1.1 with Layer Info" as the output file format,. This is because otherwise an illegal "nesting" of layers would be possible. If you want to use grouping by layer or by layer, colour and linestyle, choose one of the other option as "Illustrator File Format"

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What's with this 'Use Polyline startwidths' option?

Lineweights are not implemented in the DXF-format. Most DXF-out convertors "fake" lineweights by converting the elements to POLYLINEs, which support a 'startwidth' and 'endwidth'. DXF to Illustrator can convert these 'startwidths' to (scaled) Postscript lineweights. As Postscript doesn't support variable lineweights, the 'endwidth' of an element is ignored. If you uncheck this option, all lines will have a linewidth of 0.1 point.

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How does DXF to Illustrator deal with filled elements?

The only filled elements supported by the DXF format are SOLIDs (a rectangle or triangle). Most DXF-out convertors convert filled elements to closed POLYLINEs or ARCs.

DXF to Illustrator gives you the option to fill the SOLIDs, CIRCLES or closed POLYLINEs and ARCs in the DXF file. Fills will always have the current DXF line colour, as the DXF format doesn't allow separate line- and fill-colours. Note that most DXF-out convertors will convert ellipses to closed ARCs, not to CIRCLEs!

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How does the option 'Group Blocks' work?

Grouping of DXF BLOCKs can be selected with a checkbox, regardless of the other grouping options chosen. BLOCKs with elements on various layers will become a group on the first layer encountered in the BLOCK definition record. Text within BLOCKs will be separated from the BLOCKs and converted as normal text. WARNING: If BLOCK nesting is too complex, the conversion can stall or the converted file can be erroneous (error message such as "offending operator: U"). If this happens, the only solution is to turn grouping of BLOCKs of (see also this item).

Note that "Cells" (as used for example in Microstation DGN-files) will be converted to BLOCKs by most DXF-out convertors, thus losing any "cell-family" information.

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How about DXF version 14 files? 

Using the current version of DXF to Illustrator (2.2) your DXF version 14 file will not convert correctly if it contains the new ACAD 14 "LWPOLYLINE" type. In case you have an ACAD 14 or higher version file and it contains the new "LWPOLYLINE" type, you'll have to first save them as DXF 13 or earlier version files before opening in DXF to Illustrator.

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Last update: July 12, 2002 Comments & questions: dxftoill@itc.nl