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DXF or DWG file import in Affinity Designer


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What bothers me the most at this point is that Affinity does not listen to customers....  that is so desapointing.

I mentioned this many time... but DWG/DFX support was available in Serif Publisher already.... so porting it should not be that hard.

 

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I would also like to request this feature. I am working between Rhino and Affinity, and though PDF import/export works for some things. I can not get a surface from Rhino back into Affinity as an object with a fill. Just a few thousand exploded vectors with no fill. I would be on the Rhino forums complaining about the PDF export functionality, but McNeel definitely won't listen. Will Serif? 

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@DKNsi, @Barefoots, @2MAY, @Samx5 @bg-affinity, @Pellegrino, @Jannis1504, @Outlandish, @SFDeeJay, @Mr Fabulous, @JMEDIT, @MarkK and all the others who have created a forum account in order to post in this thread.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums :) 

Serif are aware how popular this would be and are seriously considering it.

I was head of development for DrawPlus X8 (from the Serif legacy range) which had DXF and DWG import functionality. Rather than writing the code from scratch, Serif licensed the technology from a group who have written a comprehensive interchange library. I am now head of QA and not making development decisions, but for Affinity range I think the most effective way to achieve DXF/DWG import/export would be to implement this as a chargeable extra or plugin of some sort, paying the licensor their dues for each user who needs the functionality, rather than raising the price of every Designer (and potentially Publisher) license for creatives/users who do not use these formats. Just my 2 cents

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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1 hour ago, DKNsi said:

If Serif will switch to subscription license model before dxf implementation, we can forget on Affinity ever  becoming makers/DIY tool.

It is not widely known, but Serif already optionally offer a low-cost subscription model to our corporate/educational users, some prefer it and some do not. If this is ever offered to non-corp/edu users it would be on exactly the same basis... only as an optional alternative to buying outright, which would still be available.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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1 minute ago, PurpleFish said:

please explain how the completely free Inkscape manages to have this functionality?

I cannot explain their business model no, perhaps ask them. 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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17 minutes ago, PurpleFish said:

Thanks for the insight Patrick but could you please explain how the completely free Inkscape manages to have this functionality? They clearly are not paying any license fees per user.

Probably because it is dead-easy to implement DXF import and export, since DXF is a plain text file containing nothing but number coordinates for lines, circles and such. You could open a DXF file with Notepad, read those plain text measurements and start drawing your DXF with a ruler on plain paper basically right away.

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5 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

@DKNsi, @Barefoots, @2MAY, @Samx5 @bg-affinity, @Pellegrino, @Jannis1504, @Outlandish, @SFDeeJay, @Mr Fabulous, @JMEDIT, @MarkK and all the others who have created a forum account in order to post in this thread.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums :) 

Serif are aware how popular this would be and are seriously considering it.

I was head of development for DrawPlus X8 (from the Serif legacy range) which had DXF and DWG import functionality. Rather than writing the code from scratch, Serif licensed the technology from a group who have written a comprehensive interchange library. I am now head of QA and not making development decisions, but for Affinity range I think the most effective way to achieve DXF/DWG import/export would be to implement this as a chargeable extra or plugin of some sort, paying the licensor their dues for each user who needs the functionality, rather than raising the price of every Designer (and potentially Publisher) license for creatives/users who do not use these formats. Just my 2 cents

Charging for this is silly especially with the added comment about inkscape and open source stuff this isnt rocket science compared to even the rest of the tools in affinity designer. Thats the part that is silly to me. This is the perfect example of affinity having blinders on in terms of priorities.

Also, way more people want dxf than people who make accounts specifically to post here. You cannot think this is the total user base, this is just the user base who gave enough of a hoot to make accounts they otherwise never would have just to pile on to this ONE needed feature. Chew on that  im one of them too.

 

all that said , AFFINITY IF YOU ARE READING THIS PLEASE DO IT ILL TOTALLY PAY JUST DO IT SO I CAN DELETE ADOBE FOR GOOD. THIS IS THE ONLY THING HOLDING MOST OF US BACK.

Edited by Hatchman
Missed an ‘x’
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@Hatchman

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums :) 

58 minutes ago, Hatchman said:

...way more people want dxf than people who make accounts specifically to post here. You cannot think this is the total user base,

Serif do not choose what features to write based on forum thread posting count, nor do we make any assumptions on audience size based on signups, I was simply saying we know this would be popular, nothing more than that, sorry if my post was unclear.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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54 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

Serif do not choose what features to write based on forum thread posting count

While a business should always have their own strategic view as to the features they wish to add, would it really be so bad to add features that the user base is clamouring for via the only avenue of request open to us?

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As a user (and Maker) I will pay for what fit's my needs and my budget. I would need serif ONLY for processing dxf files from fusion360 for laser cutting. I have a MAC and there is NO cheap Corel and NO free Inkscape as far as I know .. If I find any other program with is worth to buy, I will go with that and will never never ever come back to affinity. Why? Because I have bought it years ago with the assumption that it will the dxf support will be added soon. Yea .. we all know how things have turned out. But now I'm a disappointed and upset customer. 

And to be serious .. If they want, they could have added the support easily as it is (as said before) straight forward and state of the art. So from my point of view they don't want to add the support. For what ever reason ever, in the meanwhile I don't care any more. 

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Reals? .. I will check this .. Right now I have seen this on the Inkscape homepage:

 

Quote
  • 0.92.5 is not availabe for macOS. Please use the latest beta version of Inkscape 1.0, if you want a newer Inkscape that integrates better with macOS and works with high resolution screens. Catalina users must use the beta version, because Inkscape 0.92.2 will not run on macOS Catalina (Inkscape 0.92.2 is 32bit only).

 

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Got a further update of the Designer on my Mac. Now I'm on 1.9.2. Of course without DXF support as usual. You are doing really an outstanding job in not choosing what features to implement based on forum thread posting counts. The are not many others ignoring community needs as patiently like you do .. well done!

 

@PurpleFish .. I will try Inkscape next time I have to deal with dxf, thanks for the tip ;-)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Adding my voice to this with strong support for DWG / DXF inclusion. Such feature is a base level must-have for any practitioner working with a physical production interface (from architectural signage to packaging and everything in between and beyond), so it is high time this be implemented. Keeping Adobe and keeping it because it is the inevitable, most competent suite out there are two things I'd wish to not think of when thinking of Serif.

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I have to say I was very surprised that importing a DXF into Designer wasn't just a given. Plenty before me have posited very solid arguments about why this should be part of the software, I suppose the question now is whether it will get done?

Edited by Ajax
phrasing
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  • 3 weeks later...

Seems this topic really hasn't gained any traction on actually getting the requested feature developed, but I'll add my voice to the long list. I actually already purchased a few Photo and Designer licenses with the specific intent on leaving Creative Cloud behind, but didn't realize the limitation. My fault I did use the trial, but I this requirement wasn't part of my direct workflow. I've got an entire department needing to take SVGs into SketchUp Pro for logo manipulation and the only way I can do that is via a DWG/DXF file. Illustrator will do that as a simple file export and until Affinity works this file format into their software, there are few alternatives. I'll have to halt any additional purchases and keep paying Adobe. Was so stoked to have a great alternative but this is a deal-breaker. 

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