AutoCAD For Dummies, 17th Edition

Chapter 24

AutoCAD Plays Well with Others

IN THIS CHAPTER

Exporting AutoCAD DWG files to other file formats

Importing other file formats into AutoCAD

Dealing with translation issues

So your drawing masterpiece is ready to go. Chapter 16 covers plotting to paper, and Chapter 20 discusses the gory details of transmitting drawing files via the Internet. So far, so good. But what if you want to include all or part of a drawing as an illustration in a written report? What if you need to send a drawing to someone who is using a CAD program other than AutoCAD? No problem. This chapter starts by discussing several different processes for extracting drawing information in a variety of file formats.

Next, we come to the flip side. What if you receive a drawing file that isn’t in DWG format? Okay, maybe not a problem. AutoCAD can import and edit several other file formats.

This chapter concludes with a section on some of the possible pitfalls of dealing with file format translations.

Get Out of Here!

AutoCAD has several processes for exporting drawings in formats other than DWG. In fact, it often has more than one process for the same format.

In Chapter 1 I discuss the difference between the two fundamental file formats for storing graphic images. Virtually all CAD programs use a vector format, in which the file contains definitions and properties for each object type such as a line, a circle, and an arc. Most other graphic programs use some variant of a raster (bitmap) format, wherein ...