I have eDrawings 2010 and want to create a usable DXF to import into a CAM software. When I do a "save as", eDrawings will create a DXF file, but it is not a valid DXF. I cannot open it in AutoCad, SolidWorks or my CAM softwares.
I am not able to create the DXF's using any other software; I must use eDrawings. What options do I have to make eDrawings create a usable DXF?
Because it is embedded into our in-house-made engineering routing software.
Were you able to output usable DXF's in earlier versions of eDrawings that was embedded into the company document management system?
Cheers,
Anna
I'm not sure. I don't believe I ever tried. I am able to save as a DWG, though.
Steve,
If you are able to create a .dwg file from the e-drawings, can you take those dwg files into ACAD and create your dxf's from there?
Hi Scott,
Yes we could, but I would prefer not to, to keep the steps to a minimum. That is actually similar to the process we are using currently. We export the DWG out of eDrawings, open it in SolidWorks to create the DXF (the guys doing this work do not have AutoCAD as I do)then feed the DXF into our CAM software which only accepts DXF's. So by being able to save a DXF directly out of eDrawings, we could save ourselves a LOT of time based on the number of times we do this each day.
Steve
Steve,
Understand completely. Maybe a macro could be created to perform these steps.
Thanks for the idea, Scott. I will ask about that.
But do you know what the deal is with eDrawings 2010? Is it supposed to output good DXF's? Any idea what the reason could be that it isn't? It does make the file. It just isn't usable. Settings? I'm not a fluent SolidWorks or eDrawings user so I am not familiar with settings or properties that can be set that may be causing my problem.
Is anyone out there using eDrawings 2010 to create DXF's successfully?
Sorry Steve. I have no idea what the deal is.
What service pack are you running? Depending on which one you are running I would look to
see if there is a more up to date one. If so download that one and see if it fixes anything.
Looks like we are using 10.5.0.132 2010 sp05
How many versions/sp's behind are we?
I can probably download the newest version on my PC, but will require an act of (enter your favorite IT god here) to update it in the software it is embedded in.
Where are these files coming from originally? Can you not have whoever is creating them simply save them as DXF's to begin with rather than DWG's?
I just checked eDrawings 2012, and I don't even see a way to save as DWG or DXF, so it certainly doesn't look like upgrading would help.
Hi Patrick,
Great suggestion and we are working on that, but as hard as it may be to have IT update to a newer version, asking the people creating the DWG's to change their process may take a much higher power yet. Asking, sweet-talking, begging, bribing and talking with their supervisors has yet to get me anywhere. I'm not giving up on these suggestions, I'm just hoping there is an easier answer than resorting to pulling teeth and water torture.
Why must you use eDrawings only?
How about Draftsight? It is a free and very good AutoCAD clone.
http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/free-cad-software/
Cheers,
Anna