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DXF
What is a DXF file?
The CAD interchange format every drafting program can open.
What DXF is
DXF is a plain-text format you can open in any editor. It stores shapes and coordinates rather than pixels, so it stays sharp at any size — a logo scaled to a billboard loses nothing. It is used for CAD and moving data between programs.
The extension is .dxf, and the full name is Drawing Exchange Format. Both matter less than what the file can hold, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Where DXF came from
Autodesk published it in 1982.
A format that has been readable for that long is a format worth trusting with something you want back in ten years.
The specification is published, but by its owner
It is written down and implementable, though the vendor decides what the next version looks like. In practice that is enough for the file to keep opening; it is not enough to be sure of it.
Nothing is thrown away
DXF stores its content exactly. Saving it again changes nothing, so it can be opened, edited and re-saved as often as you like without accumulating damage — which is what makes it a working format rather than a delivery one.
It keeps the layers
DXF stores the parts of an image separately rather than flattened together, which is what makes it a working file. Almost every format it converts into flattens them, and the flattening is not reversible — keep the layered original.
What opens DXF
AutoCAD, LibreCAD and FreeCAD read it, and so do most programs of the same kind.
If a file will not open, the format is rarely the problem — it is more often that the program predates it. Converting to something older is the reliable way past that, and it is what the rest of this site is for.
Opening it in a browser
No browser reads it.
That is the single most common reason to convert it: not that the format is bad, but that the place you want to show the file cannot read it.
It is a working format
DXF is meant to be opened and changed. Keep the file in this format for as long as the work is going on, and export from it whenever a finished copy is needed.
The facts, in one place
| Extension | .dxf |
|---|---|
| Media type | image/vnd.dxf |
| Published by | Autodesk |
| First published | 1982 |