beginner troubles ... issues with DXF file.

[dA_gHoSt]

Hi All,

I hope this is the wright place to post for help.


my problem is I am trying to import a *.DXF into FreeCAD 0.19 [easy enough]. Then edit it into a 3D model having watched several FreeCAD tutorial videos on this topic, several times.

Q1 - are the tutorials skipping over or just missing steps, because when I follow there steps I end up with a different result?

Q2 - which workbench should I be in when importing?

Q3 - If the line segments have a brake in them, and are not joined, looped or continuous, would that cause my design to fail?

Q4 - If Q3 is true, how do I correct that? name of the feature in the menu structure?

Thanks.

[GeneFC]

This is the correct place.

If you want help you will need to provide a few more details, including sample dxf and FCStd files showing the problem.

Please follow the "Important: . . . " red banner above.

In general it is possible to do what you want, but there are a lot of important details.

Gene

[papyblaise]

By default a DXF will be imported into DraftWB
but there may be several problems
several features can be imported one on top of the other
there may be T-lines
figures are rarely closed and unconstrained
it is therefore necessary to rework the imported figures, transformed them into closed sketches

[heda]

hi, welcome to the forum.

to begin with it is inherently hard for anyone but yourself to actually see what is on your screen

Q1 - to the best of my knowledge, there are only user created tutorials on youtube (and a bunch of them are on outdated versions for fc), no official ones, could be that they are skipping steps, but likely not, since it would be hard to get the results on the screen with truly skipping steps - anyways, you would have to put links to the clips that you are watching for anyone to have an opinion about it...

Q2 - don't think that matters, but could be wrong

Q3 - yes, a wire/loop that is not closed cannot be used to create a solid

Q4 - depends how you made your import, to sketch or as part/draft objects?

it might be "easy enough" to import dxf, but there are different settings that can be set, which leads to different starting points, including workbenches.

the simplest way to get actual help on the forum is just to post the files, both the dxf and you fc-file so it is possible to see what you have tried so far.

btw - there are plenty of threads in the forum where people are helped on this specific topic, personally I prefer written words and pictures to clips as learning tool - for the simple reason that they are likely more accurate - but I realize that I'm probably in the minority with that preference.

[dA_gHoSt]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the great replies and suggestions gentleman. For the record written instructions I like because it easier to follow, Heda. Also video tutorial is also great cause it helps to visualize things.

files are attached as requested, no hick-ups hopefully.

After reading your comments and re-watching another tutorial video, I noticed something. When I get to the section where you click on the line segments to manipulate them. My line segments do not highlight the same way they do in the 2 video tutorials I re-watched. the circles have a small dot and a separate circular line segment which appears to start and end at the dot... is that right?

Which leads me to believe I have a problem with my DXF file, but ironically I followed another tutorial video to try and mitigate any import errors. something about scale line weight check box.

I used Illustrator 17 or Creative Cloud 2014 to create my Ai file which I later exported as a DXF file and then imported in to FreeCAD.

personally I think my FC file will be trash, but I guess it will help to know where exactly I messed up.

thanks a tone GeneFC, papyblaise and heda for taking the time

[thomas-neemann]

in my opinion it is an unfavorable dxf file. the circles are not circles, but many arcs. this is probably difficult to improve automatically in retrospect.

[chrisb]

Can you please change the subject of the first post. It is scanned by search engines as the title of the topic.

[heda]

fc file is geometrically ok (not so sure about the dimensions though...),
it is the dxf that is trash (using your own words), meaning that it is all bsplines (instead of circles and lines) except the frame.

anyways, attaching a padded file, the only thing I did was to move the sketch into the body (drag/drop), and ran Sketcher_ValidateSketch for "missing coincides" and fixed that (34 of them) before padding.

firstly, can't help but think that you are better off doing this in fc directly (sketch?!), and then export from fc rather than the other way around.

secondly, there are ways with small help scripts to for example make these circles that are bsplines back to circles, but regardless of help scripts (like finding center and radius of the fake circle and create a real one) it is about the same amount of work compared to making it from scratch in fc directly - so not that attractive...

thirdly, there might be some settings in the programs you export from, possibly that will reduce the amount of exported bsplines rather than the fundamental geometries, or maybe not, since there are few commercial programs which really are vested in making usable exports out of the box...

btw, it seems like you found your 2 stray arcs from the original dxf, and correctly did not include them in the merged sketch.

btw2, I had to pad with 500 mm to get some sort of realistic thickness on it, if one takes the area of the face, you have around 50 thousand m2, that's quite some square meters - maybe something with scaling somewhere, since the long edge in the fc file is some 280 meters, whereas when I import the dxf I get 432 mm, i.e. a factor that does not make much sense...

[dA_gHoSt]

what would you like it to be Chris?

[dA_gHoSt]

If I can get more fluent in FreeCAD, I am looking forward to leaving Illustrator behind.

I would be using Inkscape instead of Ilustrator if it just had better alignment tools like Illustrator.

just as a point of enquiry, what do you guys use for DXF file editing/exporting if not using straight FreeCAD?

Heda, isn't the dimensions of the base plate 280mm[W] x 432mm[H] on your computer?

Heda, are you basically saying you do not want dead space or borders around the artwork/shapes? have I got that right?