DXF Files

[schack]

They have been "looking into this" since the first requests from users began back in 2015, maybe even earlier. Its been an export option in Illustrator and CorelDraw for ages, even Inkscape does it. I would just like Affinity to come clean about it. Is it even on the roadmap? Do they acknowledge that any modern vector application should be able to export to the most broadly adopted file format across digital production machines? Why has something that seems simple, an export option, taken so long to implement? Is it a royalty issue? 

I just want some answers since I've been awaiting this since I first bought Designer back in 2015. 

[robinp]

13 minutes ago, schack said:

They have been "looking into this" since the first requests from users began back in 2015, maybe even earlier. Its been an export option in Illustrator and CorelDraw for ages, even Inkscape does it. I would just like Affinity to come clean about it. Is it even on the roadmap? Do they acknowledge that any modern vector application should be able to export to the most broadly adopted file format across digital production machines? Why has something that seems simple, an export option, taken so long to implement? Is it a royalty issue? 

I just want some answers since I've been awaiting this since I first bought Designer back in 2015. 

Serif make good, perhaps even great software, but it is painfully obvious to those of us who frequent these forums that many of their customers feel fed up much like you. 

There are a handful of features that are absolute ‘no brainers’. Functionality that anyone looking for fully practical alternatives to adobe need and expect. Yet these have been asked for for years. The common thread is that Serif say and do nothing about these feature requests. It is incredibly disrespectful and disheartening for those of us that have taken a risk by embracing the Affinity suite and contributed a lot of time to beta testing etc. 
 

I came to the conclusion that participation in these forums was of little more value than shouting into a void and have backed away from it. Maybe one day they will actually look at the forums and realise there are some essential and basic features many customers are asking for and have been for a very long time now. And even more hopefully, they might see these requests and actually implement them. Even basically at first would be incredibly much better than nothing.

Not every feature needs to be a wholesale reinvention of the wheel. 

[kokosmolch]

I'm designing electric guitars in Fusion360 and while love the technical approach over there it is not very well suited for aesthetical design. I therefore gave AD a try and love it for several reasons, but I NEED to be able to transfer my design from AD to Fusion360 without loss of precision and DXF is the way to go. I'm using an online converter now and I always get tiny deviations which are a pain in the ass to compensate manually, we all know how many small changes are made in a design process ang going through converting and adjusting every single time is not what I expect from a professional design software.

[rogerbythesea]

The thing I don't understand is that DXF is open source. I'd understand if they were trying to crack DWG which is owned by Autodesk but this is the universal default in the same way that no 3d package would be without an OBJ import/export. It really is the lowest common file type that you would expect from a vector program. 

I struggle to understand by Affinity are being so resistant to provide this basic functionality.

 

[Mithferion]

1 hour ago, rogerbythesea said:

I struggle to understand by Affinity are being so resistant to provide this basic functionality.

Basic is a word that has a lot of aspects for many users, even as to the fact that I've never used that File Format in my life, any the same goes for many more. That doesn't mean that I don't want this to be included, it's just that to me, right now, is irrelevant.

Best regards!

[rogerbythesea]

 

38 minutes ago, Mithferion said:

Basic is a word that has a lot of aspects for many users, even as to the fact that I've never used that File Format in my life, any the same goes for many more. That doesn't mean that I don't want this to be included, it's just that to me, right now, is irrelevant.

Best regards!

You're totally right that some workflows will never need this functionality. I think that's the background that Affinity is coming from. They are coming from a paper/web-based angle and don't see the value. However, many designers that use their software: architects, product designers and other makers use graphic design software all the time to communicate their ideas. However, because we need operate in real-world units because we make stuff, that leaves us crying out for something that can maintain the accuracy of information for import/export. As this functionality is available in so many other packages and the file format is open source, it's just frustrating that Affinity will not devote any resources to do something that seems so common.

[robinp]

It's pretty obvious to me that when someone refers to 'basic' functionality that it is a subjective assessment.

To me DXF import / export is a basic feature.

So is select by colour etc. See here

There are a few others that have been floating around as requests for years now. And they all end up with the same resentment from paying customers about the lack of communication and progress towards even simple implementations of the features.

[Mithferion]

7 hours ago, rogerbythesea said:

As this functionality is available in so many other packages and the file format is open source, it's just frustrating that Affinity will not devote any resources to do something that seems so common.

Well, as in any Project, they have their own idea on how to balance Features / Bugs Corrections / Performance Improvements / Current Features Improvements, and It’s not that they don’t listen, they truly do; put yourself in their position and tell me which Features that we have you would have delayed in order to support this Format.

Best regards!

[JP Roberts]

I consider DXF to be such a basic feature that I purchased Affinity assuming this was part of the package.

...that's what i get for assuming.

[robinp]

On 11/5/2019 at 7:14 PM, JP Roberts said:

I consider DXF to be such a basic feature that I purchased Affinity assuming this was part of the package.

...that's what i get for assuming.

Me too. Also assumed there would be selection by attribute features as well. 
 

At this point, I’m now hoping that these are all included in version 2.0 and I’ll gladly pay for the update. 

[Tinkerman]

DXF export still not supported after 5 years of users requesting this basic functionality.

When I bought AD I assumed  that DXF export would (of course) be supported, since it is one of the most widely used line-drawing (vector) formats and every vector program has it build-in. 

I wanted to use AD for creating non-cad drawings for my laser cutting machine... As with most CNC machines, it reads the DXF format preferably.

I was rather disappointed to see that AD did not have DXF export, resulting in having to use other software for the translation from SVG to DXF.. with all kinds of scaling mishaps as a result.

PLEASE make an update (I would gladly pay) for AD that supports DXF!

 

[murrayc]

Please do this finally. DXF is a pretty basic requirement for many folks using vector graphics programs and the lack of support is surprising, especially since you've had requests on the books for 5 years. EPS, but no DXF? Weird.

[Tupaia]

No question, implementing the age old DXF format in a vector graphics program that takes itself serious is a must. It's openly documented by Autodesk.

The DWG format would be super nice to have, too, of course. Adobe Illustrator can open/place DWG up to version 2010. It's closed source, but can be licensed from Autodesk, or companies like the OpenDesignAlliance, which reverse engineer it regularly. They seem to charge $25000 for the full commercial version.

But no wonder Adobe has a few goodies more to offer. Looked up Serif's and Adobe's saled for fun... $17mio vs. $9030mio... =.

 

[johnedlin]

I purchased this program very recently and was really disappointed to see it cannot handle DXF files.

I use a laser at work and this is the main file extension used by laser operators.

Lasers are the highest upcoming technology being used today in industry, so this file is an absolute must have.

Come on Serif, get into the 21st century please.

[Patrick Connor]

@johnedlin

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums  

I have moved your post into this popular feature request thread.

[williamsterl!ng]

Hi,

I can only stress the above mentioned points about adding the dxf file format to affinity designer. I'm studying product design and much to the confusion of my professors I'm blown away by the affinity suite, making the adobe cc pretty much redundant to me. But every few days I'll struggle to just cut out some designs on my laser cutter because I either need to use Solidworks/Fusion 360 to create the paths instead of AD, or I need to go through svg export and weird online file converters that will always mess up my dimensions. 

Thank you for a generally wonderful product line-up but please finally add the DXF file format both for import and export. According to this thread this seems to be an issue for loads of people since 2014. 

Cheers

[Gmit]

Hi there,
yeah DXF-Support would be very handy.

Sometimes i also need to export files for laser cuter

It´s not a big issue if i can go the route of Inkscape to get it done. 
But nontheless a nice feature to be a step further. Fill up these export-options