How to open a DXF file online
- Click Open a DXF, or drop the file on the drawing. The file is read in this browser tab and never uploaded.
- Check Drawing units. The viewer reads them from the file, and you can change them when a part looks 25.4 times too large or too small.
- Drag to pan, and zoom with the scroll wheel, a pinch or the plus and minus buttons. Click any line to see the length of its contour.
- Untick Show to hide a layer, or untick Cut to leave it out of the measurements, such as a layer of bend lines.
- Enter the material, the thickness, your feed rate, your pierce time and your hourly machine rate. The weight, cutting time and cost update as you type.
- Click Download CSV for the measurements, or Download SVG for the drawing.
The page opens with a sample, the back panel of an electrical enclosure, so you can try every control before you open your own file. To make a DXF from a 3D model, use the STEP to DXF converter.
What is a DXF file?
A DXF file is a drawing saved in Autodesk's drawing interchange format, so that programs other than AutoCAD can read it. Autodesk's AutoCAD help describes a DXF as a binary or ASCII representation of a drawing file. Some Autodesk documents call it the Drawing Exchange Format. The Library of Congress format description dates the ASCII version to AutoCAD 1.0, released in December 1982.
An ASCII DXF is plain text. Every value sits on its own line after a number called a group code, which says what the value means. Code 8 holds a layer name, and code 10 holds an X coordinate. The DXF reference lists every code. DWG is AutoCAD's native drawing format, and it is a different, binary file, so save a DWG as DXF before you open it here.
Shops ask for a DXF of a flat part because cutting software reads it. Hypertherm's guide to nesting software says part geometry is typically imported as a DWG or DXF file. OMAX lists AutoCAD DXF among the recommended formats for its waterjet layout software.
Quote every cut part from its drawing
Tell Derik how requests for quote reach your estimators and which drawings they price from. He will tell you what a four-week build would cover.
Start a conversationWhat the viewer measures for a cutting quote
A laser, plasma or waterjet quote starts from two numbers in the drawing. One is the distance the head travels while it cuts. The other is the number of times it pierces the material.The Fabricator's guide to estimating gives cutting time as the cut length over the cutting speed, plus the pierces times the pierce time. The viewer measures both and works out the time and cost from your own feed rate, pierce time and rate.
- Cut length. The length of every line, arc, circle, ellipse, polyline and spline on the layers you leave in. Arcs and circles are measured exactly, not as chains of short lines.
- Pierces. One for each closed contour, such as the outline or a hole, and one for each open chain of lines.
- Part area, net of holes. The area inside each outer contour, less the holes inside it.
- Bounding box. The width and height of the cut geometry along the X and Y axes, which set the blank or the space on the sheet.
- Weight. The net area times the thickness and the density of the material you choose. Carbon steel uses 7,850 kg/m³, the metric value of the 0.2836 lb/in³ theoretical density that Russel Metals quotes for plate.
Two things change the count in your CAM software. Nesting software can cut several parts from one pierce with chain and bridge cutting, so a nest can need fewer pierces than its parts. The viewer also measures the drawn line, not the tool path. The kerf is the width of material the cut removes, as OMAX defines it. The kerf and the lead-ins your CAM adds both move the true path a little.
A worked example: an enclosure back panel
The sample drawing is a 500 by 400 mm panel with 10 mm corner radii. It has four 10 mm mounting holes, two 22.5 mm knockouts for cable glands and a 120 by 60 mm cable entry. Six ventilation slots measure 8 by 48 mm. The slots are one block, inserted as an array of six. With 3 mm carbon steel and the example inputs, the viewer returns these figures.
| Measurement | Result |
|---|---|
| Cut length | 3,032.1 mm |
| Pierces | 14: the outline, 13 holes and cut-outs, no open contours |
| Part area, net of holes | 189,405 mm² |
| Bounding box | 500.0 × 400.0 mm |
| Weight in 3 mm carbon steel | 4.46 kg |
| Cutting time per part | 1 min 8 s (1 min 1 s cutting, 7.0 s piercing) |
| Cutting cost per part | $2.82 |
| Time and cost for 10 parts | 11 min 16 s and $28.18 |
The inputs are examples: a feed rate of 3,000 mm/min, a pierce time of 0.5 s and a machine rate of $150 an hour. Use the cutting charts for your machine and your own shop rate. The cost covers machine time only; the steel plate weight calculator prices the material from your own price per pound or kilogram.
Units, layers and what the viewer reads
The viewer takes the units from the $INSUNITS setting in the file header. Autodesk defines that setting as the units for inserted blocks, so treat it as a strong hint. When it is missing, the viewer reads $MEASUREMENT, where 0 means imperial and 1 means metric, and it assumes millimetres when the file says neither. Cutting software guesses too: OMAX's layout software assumes every DXF is in inches. If a part you know is 20 inches wide shows as 20 mm, choose Inches under Drawing units.
Layers named for dimensions, text, notes, bend lines, etch marks or centre lines start with Cut off. Layers the file marks as off or frozen start hidden. Check the layer list before you rely on the cut length.
The viewer reads lines, arcs, circles, ellipses, splines and points, and both kinds of polyline with their bulges, the arcs stored between vertices. Blocks are drawn with any scale, rotation, mirror or array, nested up to 24 levels deep. Text and dimensions are drawn but never measured. A line drawn twice is counted once. Open contours show in copper, because an outline with a gap does not close around a part.
DXF vs DWG, SVG and PDF
DWG holds the same kind of drawing in AutoCAD's own binary form, and DXF is the version made for exchange. SVG is the vector graphics format of the web, a W3C Recommendation, so browsers display it without a plug-in. A DXF keeps the drawing units and the layers, which cutting software needs.
To send a drawing as a PDF, click Download SVG, open the file in your browser and print it to PDF. The SVG holds the layers you left visible. For a scaled drawing with a title block, plot the DXF to PDF from your CAD program.
How AI quotes cut parts on every request
An estimator who prices cut parts repeats the steps on this page for every drawing in every request for quote. An AI quoting system does them when the request arrives. It reads the email and its drawings, takes the dimensions off each drawing and finds comparable parts you quoted before. Then it prices them from your rates and recent material invoices. A person approves every quote before it goes out.
ThriveAI builds that system on your own records, as the AI quoting software offer describes. The guide to CNC quoting covers the price formula behind it, and manufacturing quoting software explains where a quoted price should come from.