[DXF or DWG file import in Affinity Designer]

On 3/10/2020 at 8:18 AM, JET_Affinity said:

Meanwhile, there are multiple online and open-source DXF converters. Claiming that Affinity is 'un-usable' is just as silly in this context as it is in any of the threads demanding far more broadly-desired features.
 

This is true, there are a few online & offline DXF converters. HOWEVER, most of them don't actually work that well, some screw with the scale, and many of them don't even output a proper DXF file, which is required when importing into CAD/CAM software such as Siemen's NX suite, and especially critical when loading directly onto a CNC machine. Adobe Illustrator excels at this: it's a single step process to import/export DXF files, there are no additional conversion/import processes that can mess up scales, layers, and add in-explainable flaws... what you see in the editor is what you're going to get 98% of the time. When a conversion is not handled natively, such as when you export a file, re-import into an external converter, then export to a DXF file... well, in addition to the additional time required, you explained the issues with that well in your second post, which follows:

On 3/10/2020 at 8:50 AM, JET_Affinity said:

It's a good thing those occasions are rare. I would not do that with any drawing program other than Illustrator, regardless of whether the other program can Save As… .ai format. Moreover, if I were the customer, I would utterly disallow it.

For example: CorelDraw can Save As… .ai. But that doesn't make it appropriate for use as a round-trip editor in a workflow that requires starting and ending with a native Illustrator file.

The very same goes for the inverse situation: Illustrator can 'open' a CorelDraw file. (It cannot export a .cdr file). But were I a customer creating original .cdr files and then sending them to a service provider for round-trip editing, I certainly would not allow that provider to use Illustrator for that workflow.

Each application has its own proprietary native constructs which differ from corresponding constructs in competing programs. Merely having Save As… or Export filters for competing native file formats doesn't change that.

What if the CorelDraw file contains a native Contour object? Or a native Cone grad? Illustrator doesn't know what to do with those. What if the Illustrator file contains live Pattern Brush elements? CorelDraw doesn't know what to do with those.

Native file formats are not the same thing as mere import and export filters. Cross-program filters have to try to re-interpret foreign constructs into their own nearest-corresponding native constructs or (quite commonly) de-construct them into more basic constructs. Depending on workflows like you describe is begging for problems.

Not being able to export to .ai format is a non-issue. After all, even Adobe likes to claim that PDF is 'Illustrator's native format.'

Save your Affinity file as PDF or SVG. Illustrator can open those. And good luck with that, too, in a round-trip editing workflow.

And you're right; exporting to a non-native file format and expecting the results to be accurate when opened in a different program is foolish, especially for the purposes of proof-reading. However, there are plenty circumstances where it would be nice to be able to do that, even knowing the results may not be perfect, at least for a while. And no, don't know if you've tried exporting as PDF and importing in the AI, but the results are so bad on any moderately complex vector design, it's not even worth considering that as a valid option.

I could go on, but anyhoo we all get the gist, .AI export would be a great nice to have. Exporting to DXF... well, there really is no reliable solution that I'm aware of at the moment that can provide a guaranteed accurate result... aside from native support by Designer. There is a HUGE market out there for DXF support, as shown by this thread. 

I come from the manufacturing side of things, both small scale and large scale... there are plenty companies out there that begrudgingly own a subscription to Adobe Illustrator, solely for the purpose of importing a graphics file provided by a customer, sketching out the outlines, and exporting it as a DXF to be imported into CAD/CAM software or directly into a CNC machine. Designer is poised to be a perfect solution for thousands of small businesses that don't care about all the bells and whistles of AI, and just need something that can reliably generate outlines, manually correct them as needed & convert them to DXF, without breaking the bank.

[DXF or DWG file import in Affinity Designer]

My company is looking at purchasing a new photo/vector suite for all our locations, and Affinity is a major contender, largely due to their pricing structure (buy to own, not "subscribe") and their modern, easy to learn UI. However, there's two points holding us back:

1.  DXF import/export is absolutely mandatory. We often convert sketches or images to lineart, and convert it to DXF for running CNC machines. An absolute must have feature in this industry.
2. No AI exporting ability. On rare occasions, we need to modify and AI file provided by a customer, and send it back to them for verification. Not having this ability would be a nuisance, but workable. I understand that Adobe owns the rights to that file format, and thusly, Serif would be intruding on patent rights to include such capability in their software. However, I feel that if Designer supported export plugins, the community is big enough that there would be 3rd party solutions to this problem, that Serif would not be responsible to.