Is thera an Autocad export file so it is programmatically readable?

Question

I would like to extract the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and some properties like name and colour of Autocad files. I may do this from a Java program.

From Autocad, which is the right format to export to so I can programmatically parse the file, look for objects and get their properties? (coordinates, name, colour...)

I know Autocad DWG format is a propietary binary file that changes its format every 3 years, so I need to find a file format to export to that allow me to read it easily.

Thanks!

Maxence · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-10T18:09:30.013

6

DXF is what you're looking for. It's a documented format for drawing exchange in plain text.

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/acad_dxf0.pdf

edited Jul 10 '14 at 18:09

answered Oct 28 '11 at 07:20

Maxence

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What about a library in php or java that parses a DXF file? Any experience on that? – Hectoret Nov 08 '11 at 08:24
Not sure what that link used to point to, but does not go to any DXF related information. – crashmstr Jul 10 '14 at 14:49

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 23 '14 at 15:23

DXF is definitely the best format if you're not using a vertical product like Civil or Map. Some vertical products can also export SHP/SHX (shape) files.

Here's references for DXF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoCAD_DXF, http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/acad_dxf0.pdf

Here's a SHP reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapefile

Is thera an Autocad export file so it is programmatically readable?

2 Answers2