Re: File compatability

[Jack McCornack]

I'm new to CADintosh, got it specifically so I could email .dxf files
to my local lasercutter without having to learn (yuck, fooey!) Windows
first. ANyway, he can't open my files, they show up as "incomplete" at
his end. He suggested I try saving as .dwg files and he could convert
them. Does CADintosh have that feature?
Jack

[RowlandCarson]

At 2006-07-06 19:13 +0000 Jack McCornack wrote:

>I'm new to CADintosh, got it specifically so I could email .dxf files
>to my local lasercutter without having to learn (yuck, fooey!) Windows
>first. ANyway, he can't open my files, they show up as "incomplete" at
>his end. He suggested I try saving as .dwg files and he could convert
>them. Does CADintosh have that feature?

Jack - no, CADintosh doesn't do .DWG - Autodesk, the AutoCAD people,
don't release the spec, and Thorsten is not prepared to
reverse-engineer it as some others appear to have done for some for
the el-cheapo windoze CAD packages. There is a movement, I
understand, to get the AutoCAD folks to make the file format open,
but I don't know the latest score on that. (Have a look at the
Architosh site - http://www.architosh.com/ for a lot of info on Mac
CAD developments.)

Like you, I hoped that .DXF would be a universal interchange format
(like .RTF almost is for word-processor documents). I'm sorry to say
that I've been quite disappointed. I've received many .DXF files that
CADintosh could not open; and, like you, I've had my .DXF exports
from CADintosh rejected by others as unusable. This is at least
partly because of the many different flavours of .DXF to be found in
the wild.

In some cases, I have found that TurboCAD for Mac works better with
certain specific import or export problems; in other cases, it's
CADintosh that seems more compatible. I can't remember if the demo
version of TurboCAD for Mac will do exports, but it might be worth a
try.

CADintosh does offer a choice of .DXF version for its exports - have
you tried both of them on your recipient?

Other Mac drawing applications, in a more expensive bracket, which
claim to work with .DWG files, are MacSpot MacDraft and ACD Canvas X
- but I have no experience of the current versions of either. Hope
this helps.

regards

Rowland
--
| Wilma & Rowland Carson http://home.clara.net/rowil/
| ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...

[Jjackmcc@aol.com]

Thanks for the quick response, Rowland with a W,

Yeah, it hardly seems worth naming it Drawing Exchange Format if it ain't gonna. I'm resisting going to AutoCAD Lite 'cause I hate it when people (even when collected together into companies) make things difficult on purpose. But we'll see; maybe sending it as an AutoCAD 10 (instead of 12) will work, though my vendor says he needs v.12. Worth a try.
     Jack

[Lawrence W Jordan]

Will graphic converter do the job?
On 06/07/2006, at 3:54 PM, Jjackmcc@aol.com wrote:

Thanks for the quick response, Rowland with a W,

Yeah, it hardly seems worth naming it Drawing Exchange Format if it ain't gonna. I'm resisting going to AutoCAD Lite 'cause I hate it when people (even when collected together into companies) make things difficult on purpose. But we'll see; maybe sending it as an AutoCAD 10 (instead of 12) will work, though my vendor says he needs v.12. Worth a try.
     Jack

[RowlandCarson]

At 2006-07-07 13:46 -0700 Lawrence W Jordan wrote:

>Will graphic converter do the job?

Lawrence - it converts lots of graphics formats, but based on
bitmaps, rather than vectors like CADintosh, so it doesn't do
anything with .DXF files.

regards

Rowland
--
| Wilma & Rowland Carson http://home.clara.net/rowil/
| ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...