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CoCreate Software GmbH & Co. KG.
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Section 1: General Notes
Section 2: Supported MI, AutoCAD and SVG Versions
Section 3: Limitations
Section 4: Configuration file
DXF/DWG version 12.00 is supported on the following operating systems
The MI version currently written by Designer Drafting 12.00 is 2.90. Following matrix shows the supported MI, AutoCAD and SVG versions of the CoCreate/DXF Translator.
_______________________________________________________ | Translator Reads | Translator Writes ------------+--------------------+--------------------- MI Version | 2.50 and newer | 2.90 - ------------+--------------------+--------------------- AutoCAD: | | - DWG Version | 12, 13, 14, 2000 | 14, 2000 - DXF Version | 12, 13, 14, 2000 | 14, 2000 - ------------+--------------------+--------------------- SVG Version | | 1.0 - ________________________________________________________
Positioning of text, including dimension text, is not completely correct. This is caused by:
Font's baselines in Designer Drafting and AutoCAD are different.
When text is anchored in point different than the left lower corner for correct calculations the exact data about character width is required (the only way to obtain this data is by reading Designer Drafting and AutoCAD fonts). Because of this, when translated to AutoCAD, multiline text will always be justified to the left regardless of the anchoring point.
Dimension arrow position (inside or outside) can change after the translated dimension is updated in AutoCAD, or re-translated back to Designer Drafting. This is because AutoCAD recalculates it depending on the available space between the two extension lines.
Detailed information about external reference in log file:
User should load external file manually and insert it into parent file
using correct insertion point, rotation and scaling factor. (example:)
Move to part named 'sPart'
This part contains a short reference to the configuration file switches.
This switch is used in DXF/DWG->MI translation. It defines whether AutoCAD
hatches are converted into contours. When this switch is set to ON, all
non associative hatches are converted into contours. This means that a
hatch is not translated, only its contours are converted into polylines.
User can hatch these contours manually in OSDD. If both switches CreateManualHatch
and HatchToContours are set to ON, also all associative hatches are converted
into contours. In this case, no hatch is translated into MI drawing.
ON -> DXF/DWG hatches are converted into contours
OFF -> DXF/DWG hatches are translated into MI hatches (default)
This switch is used in DXF/DWG->MI translation. It defines if AutoCAD
hatches are translated into Designer Drafting automatic or manual hatches.
OFF -> Automatic hatches (default)
ON -> Manual hatches
This switch is used for DXF/DWG->MI translation. It controls how to set
the drawing units. Default value is OFF.
When set to ON, the drawing units will be set based on the values of
Units and UnitsScale parameters.
When set to OFF, the drawing units will be based on AutoCAD MEASUREMENT
variable: 0 for inches and 1 for millimeters.
Units parameter specifies the units used in the DXF/DWG -> MI
translation, and UnitsScale the scale of the units used. If switch
CustomUnits is set to ON, both parameters (Units and UnitsScale)
should be set correctly.
The following table is an example, which shows the relationship between these two
parameters, if original file is drawn in Metric units (millimeters):
Units UnitsScale ----------------------------------------------- micrometer um 0.001 millimeter mm 1.0 centimeter cm 10.0 meter m 1000.0 kilometer km 1000000.0 microinch unich 0.0000254 mil mil 0.0254 inch in 25.4 foot foot 304.8 yard yard 914.4 mile mile 1609344.0 user unit user unit See below
In case, that original drawing is drawn in English units (inches), values in
table should be correctly recalculated.
In the case of user unit, Units are user defined and the corresponding
UnitsScale factor must be calculated. For example, if the user wants
units to be 2 inches, UnitsScale must be set to 2x25.4 = 50.8.
The default settings are mm and 1.0 for Units and UnitsScale
respectively.
This setting controls the font-mapping from Designer Drafting to AutoCAD fonts. The customization process uses six parameters:
This setting is used at MI->DXF/DWG/SVG translation. It controls the font-mapping from Designer Drafting to AutoCAD fonts. The mapping is controlled by the following parameters:
Note: "Magic" information can be obtained from a DXF file containing the font.
This setting is similar to the previous one, but it is used for mapping of 2-byte Designer Drafting fonts to AutoCAD fonts. The mapping is controlled by the following parameters:
Note: "Magic" information can be obtained from a DXF file
containing the font.
Microsoft supplies TrueType Collections (.ttc) instead of standard TrueType
Fonts (.ttf) for some fonts with Windows XP operating system. User should correct default
font mapping for font "msmincho", depending on supplied font files on installed operating system,
before translating kanji characters into SVG file format. "msmincho.ttc" should be replaced
with "msmincho.ttf" in DXFDWG.con file, if installed operating system has only
"msmincho.ttf" font file.
This setting is used to define the global line type scale for the translated
DXF/DWG drawing. It can be set to zero or negative to force recalculation
based on overall drawing size.
Default is 1.0
This setting(s) is used to define the mapping of AutoCAD linetypes to MI linetypes. The first parameter is the AutoCAD linetype name and the second is the name of the corresponding Designer Drafting linetype name.
This setting(s) define how to map arrows from AutoCAD to MI. The mapping is defined with the following parameters:
This setting(s) define how to map arrows from MI to DXF/DWG/SVG file format. The mapping is defined with the following parameters:
This switch controls the translation of the Kanji characters. It can be ON of OFF (default).
It is used for DXF/DWG to MI translation. It forces the top scale to be
kept or to be recalculated. Default value is OFF.
When set to ON, the Top part will be within a block in AutoCAD and its
drawing scale preserved. This behavior is considered as version 8.7
behavior.
When set to OFF, the Top part will exist as a "loose" entity, with all
subsidiary parts placed within AutoCAD blocks.
Defines the default polymarker for DXF/DWG/SVG points. By default is set to 2.
This switch controls the MI start section and it is intended to be used for user-supplied text describing the contents of the drawing.
Defines how the DXF/DWG linesizes are converted. There are four possible values:
Defines if AutoCAD layers that are "Frozen" and "Off" are translated to MI file. By default it is set to OFF.
This configuration switch determines how the pensize and linesize are translated. There are five possible values:
This switch is used for MI->DXF/DWG translation. Controls whether dimension subfixes are translated or not. By default is set to ON.
This switch is used for MI->DXF/DWG translation. Controls whether dimension superfixes are translated or not. By default is set to ON.
This switch controls the translation of Paper space or Model space.
By default is set to OFF.
ON -> Paper space is translated
OFF -> Model space is translated
AutoCAD 2000 and later versions can create files with more than one Paper space. They are called Layouts. To translate selected Layout use the LayoutName switch.
When TranslatePaperspace is set to ON, translator considers only followed switches:
This switch controls which Layout is translated. It has effect only when
TranslatePaperspace is set to ON and input file is at least AutoCAD 2000 file.
If specified layout name is not found in the file, the default Paper space layout is translated.
This switch is used for MI->DXF/DWG translation. Controls whether
dimensions are translated into geometry or into dimension entity.
By default is set to OFF.
ON -> Translates dimension into geometry.
OFF -> Translates dimension into dimension entity.
This switch is used for DXF/DWG->MI translation. Controls whether
dimensions are translated into geometry elements or into dimension
element. By default is set to OFF.
ON -> Translates dimension into geometry elements.
OFF -> Translates dimension into dimension element.
Block attributes in DXF are translated to text in MI and positioned in
the parent part. Setting this switch to ON will cause a creation of
additional subpart for each block containing attributes. This way the
attributes are kept with the part to which they belong.
Default value is OFF.
This switch is used for MI->DXF/DWG translation. It determines dxf/dwg
output format version.
If this switch is set to AC1015, the output format will be AutoCAD 2000. If
not, it will be AutoCAD Release 14.
Default value is AC1014 (AutoCAD Release 14).
This switch is used in MI->DXF translation. It determines the number of decimal places for writing coordinate and angle values in DXF file. User can define precision with this switch. Default value is 14.
This switch is used in both directions of the translation. It is set to OFF
by default. If set to ON in DXF->MI translation, it will add special
ACAD_COLOR_BY_LAYER InfoText properties to every entity that has color set
to ByLayer. Similarly it will add ACAD_LINETYPE_BY_LAYER for ByLayer line
types. It will add also special ACAD_LAYER info text for each layer, to keep
layer's color and linetype at DXF->MI->DXF translation.
In the MI->DXF translation the geometry that has above mentioned
InfoTexts attached will be assigned ByLayer color and/or line type.
All this properties must belong to 'SYS:LAYER_SCOPE' standard name space
(using INFO_NAMESPACE specification in Designer Drafting).
This switch is used in MI->DXF/DWG/SVG translation. It is set to ON by default.
It determines into which type of DXF spline presentation are the MI splines converted.
ON - Create splines with control points, knot values and fit points.
OFF - Create splines with control points and knot values.
Creation of splines presented with control points and knot values produces accurate
splines, but AutoCAD R14 and AutoCAD 2000 may have problems loading translated files
with very small splines. In AutoCAD 2002 these problems seem to be resolved.
Splines which have fit points in their presentation are not so accurate as splines without
fit points. User has a possibility to achieve more accuracy with switch
HighSplinePrecision, but these splines will never be as accurate as splines presented
with control points and knot values.
Spline presentation with control points, knot values and fit points is supported mainly because
some AutoCAD versions have problems loading very small splines without fit points, while
splines with fit points are filtered by translator and can be loaded to all AutoCAD versions
without problems.
This switch is used in MI->DXF/DWG/SVG translation. It is set to OFF by default. If set to ON, more accurate splines will be created at forward translation. Such translation will also take longer and will create larger destination files. If this switch is set to OFF, translation will be quicker, but generated splines will not be so accurate. Use of this switch has a meaning only if CreateSplineFitPoints is set to ON.
This switch is used in DXF/DWG->MI translation. It is set to OFF by default.
It determines how splines, presented with control points, knot values and fit points
are converted from DXF to MI file format:
ON -> Convert spline using it's control points and knots.
OFF -> Convert spline using it's fit points.
This parameter defines the threshold value at which hatches are translated to predefined solid hatch rather than to user defined pattern hatch. It is especially useful with very small hatch line distances. Typical values should be greater than 0.001 mm or 0.0001 inches. Default value is zero.
This switch is used only for DXF->MI translation and value must be written in
hexadecimal format. It sets the $HANDSEED global variable in the header of
DXF/DWG file. $HANDSEED value represents next available handle in DXF/DWG
file and it must be grater than any other handle in this file.
Value of this switch may contain maximum of 16 hexadecimal digits. If user sets
more digits, translator will ignore this switch.
$HANDSEED global variable is not set by default.
Use this switch with extreme caution. If the value is not correct (to low), wrong
translation without warning logs can occur.
Example:
InternalHandseed 5000000000000000
This switch is used at DXF->MI translation. Controls whether invisible entities
are translated into visible or invisible entities.
It is set to OFF by default.
ON -> Translate invisible entities into MI visible entities
OFF -> Translate invisible entities into MI invisible entities
This switch is used at MI->DXF/DWG/SVG translation. Controls whether invisible entities
are translated into visible or invisible entities.
It is set to OFF by default.
ON -> Translate invisible entities into DXF visible entities
OFF -> Translate invisible entities into DXF invisible entities
This switch is used only at MI->SVG and at Paper space translation. It specifies the path
where TrueType or AutoCAD font files can be found. Several paths can be separated by
a semicolon.
Example:
FontFilesPath C:\temp;C:\Program Files\AutoCad2000\Fonts
Font files are needed at SVG translation, while in SVG file format texts are presented with lines.
Each character's outline is read from font file and written to SVG file format. Similar is done
at translating Paper space.