Criticism of the DXF file format

duncanduncan
in General

I've added a section to the wikipedia article with criticm of the DXF format. Feel free to improve or correct my work.

Criticism
Because DXF is only partially and poorly documented[7], missing documentation of key functionality like blocks & layouts, consideration is often given to alternative open formats like SVG (an open format defined by the W3C), DWF (an open format defined by Autodesk[8]) or even EPS (ISO/IEC standard 29112:2018). DXF (as well as DWG) is however still a prefered format for CAD files for use by the ISO[9].

Tagged:
knotsruen

Comments

  • infeeeeeinfeeeee

    Maybe Dwf is an open format, even Autodesk doesn't support it anymore. The official viewer (Design Review) hasn't been updated since 2017, last version was called 2018 (classic Autodesk versioning scheme)

    It has a newer version: dwfx. And dwf was aimed to the replacement of pdf with rich data: e.g. it thinks about pages, in Revit you cannot edit dwfx just use it as an underlay with markups, etc, as you would use a pdf in an AEC workflow.
    Even wiki says this:

    DWF files are not a replacement for native CAD formats such as AutoCAD drawings (DWG). The sole purpose of DWF is to allow designers, engineers, project managers, and their colleagues to communicate design information and design content to anyone needing to view, review, or print design information – without these team members needing to know AutoCAD or other design software.

    Also:

    Although an Autodesk representative stated on the Official Autodesk user Forums in September 2013 that the application would be discontinued,[4] an update to Autodesk Design Review was released in 2017.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Web_Format

    So I think dwf/dwfx is not an alternative to dwg/dxf, but to pdf or maybe svg. It's a failed attempt to replace pdf, not updated since nearly 10 years, pdf got 3D support, and you can open it on any computer with a webbrowser, while you still have to install some app to open a dwf. Noone ever supported it except Autodesk. Please let it die finally.

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