Best Mac DWG/DXF application?

honoluludesktop

Tim, Except for the fact that you do not like Windows :-), I don't understand the specifics of your problem?-( You have version x.x dxf files that, SU is having problems importing? Is this problem with SU import, or VectorWorks export? You eventually got it to work by importing the dxf files into DoubleCad then exporting them as a DXF version y.y that is below version x.x? This implies that SU's dxf import is not current with the VectorWorks dxf export. Is that the situation?

broomstick

Also, give a try to ArchiCAD. The 12+1 version is ok

jeff hammond

@broomstick said:

Also, give a try to ArchiCAD. The 12+1 version is ok

and it only costs four thousand dollars !

broomstick

@unknownuser said:

@broomstick said:

Also, give a try to ArchiCAD. The 12+1 version is ok

and it only costs four thousand dollars !

But it is one of the best packages for CAD on Mac. Also, you can get a free license if you're a student, or activate the Educational license and not have to pay for it...

I am in no way linked to graphisoft, just saying that there are many possibilities for a nice software.

Anssi

I just wonder what Vectorworks DXFs might have that SU doesn't like. I understand VW is the market leader CAD app with a Mac version. It should also be able to output DWG files.

This makes me quite confused. SU has import capability of version 2007 files, and I would guess that none of the apps mentioned here can understand the 2010 format that is the newest one after 2007.

I wonder if the plans are using the VW's architectural tools that might be creating objects difficult to translate into workable DXF - just like AutoCad Architecture, that has its own "plain vanilla AutoCad" export function.

OT: Archicad is otherwise a good app, but I hate to be sometimes at the receiving end of its DWG export feature. Mostly it is a question of the default export settings being extremely weird, and of users unable to make their own more sensible ones. Not to speak of its 3D DWG exports, that are weird indeed, as far as I have tried.

Tim, if you can post one of the DXF culprits, I (or others that have access to Autodesk bloatware) could take a look.

Anssi

tfdesign

ViaCAD and Shark FX handle DWG/DXF pretty darn well too, you know (and cost half the price of VW).

Solidworks Viewer is also a great freeware solution.

Anssi

Tim,

If you still consider the Parallels approach a viable option, I would recommend you to try the DWG TrueView, it's directly from the main culprit (Autodesk), it supports even the latest file formats, and it is free. It can convert files down to very old DWG and DXF formats.

Anssi

honoluludesktop

Ansii, A quick review of Acad's "DWG TrueView's" pages did not reveal that the "free" software would read, or write DXF files. Did you verify this, or did I misunderstand your post?

Anssi

I don't have the newest TrueView installed, because I have access to AutoCad 2010 at work. The 2008 version I have at home lists DXF in the files that can be viewed, but I can find only DWG in the formats to convert. So I was unwittingly exaggerating

Anssi

TIG

AutoDesk's DWGTrueView let's you open any DWG and convert to another version as a DWG
It also lets you open DWG, DXF, DWF and PDF, and then export them as DWF, DWFx and PDF
It also let's you print these to any installed printer, and also to PDF, JPG etc just as ACAD can...
The missing step is converting DXF to DWG, but there is free-ware available, like DoubleCAD, that can do that ?
There is also paid-ware that converts DWF to DWG[limited] etc...

honoluludesktop

Thanks fellows, I was just woundering, since I couldn't ever remember a time that Acad provided a free software with dxf export. For a brief moment, I thought that they were getting soft in the heart:-)

TIG, I was studying some of your code and noticed that you use:

if(!selection.empty?)# if selection
  menu.add_separator
  sub_menu=menu.add_item('Somenting') { someitem }
end

on occassion. I took (!selection.empty?) to mean that if there was no model.selection, then add stuff to the menu. Is that exactly right?

TIG

This is a bit off topic
I rarely use that so must be someone else's ?
However, a ! is like NOT so if !selection.empty? is just like if not selection.empty? - i.e. do something if the selection is not empty - i.e. the selection has something in it - I usually use if selection[0] which returns true if there is something in the selection...