DXF files not opening in Inkscape? Here's the solution.

[Pspider Support]

Inkscape is great software and best of all it is free, however it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to opening DXF files. Inkscape just doesn't like DXF's and most will not open.

SVG file format is definitely preferred by Inkscape but you need software to convert your DXF to an SVG. Convertio is a free online tool that will eliminate the need for additional software.

Just upload your DXF, convert it, download the SVG, and open it in Inkscape. give it a try here Convertio DXF Converter

[adbuch]

I saw this thread when it was first posted - sorry for my late response. I have found that Convertio often does not do a good job of converting from dxf to svg. Here is an example. I have converted the original dxf file with both LightBurn and CorelDraw and opened with Inkscape and they look fine. Lastly I have converted the same original dxf file to svg format using Convertio and it has problems - as shown in the last image below.

My best advise is to purchase LightBurn for $65 (perpetual license) and use it for these conversions. LightBurn also has many other useful tools and features such as auto-trace, node edit, convert to dxf, etc. I would recommend downloading the free trial version to try it out.

David

https://lightburnsoftware.com/pages/tri ... re-you-buy

[biggscoug]

That is my experience with convertio. Terrible. I will give lightburn a shot. Thank you for this.

[adbuch]

Inkscape will open dxf R13 format. Use QCad (free download) to convert from dxf R14 to dxf R13 format and then your file will open with Inkscape just fine. If you wish to convert to svg, then I recommend using LightBurn (cost $65 for perpetual license) to import/open dxf R14 and save/export as svg.
David

[adbuch]

https://qcad.org/en/download

[AREA]

I have had pretty good luck with Convertio but it hasn't converted everything well. It's almost like you have a numerous ways to convert dxfs and use whatever one works best for the dxf your working with.

[adbuch]

I have had pretty good luck with Convertio but it hasn't converted everything well. It's almost like you have a numerous ways to convert dxfs and use whatever one works best for the dxf your working with.

The latest version of Inkscape will open DXF R14 files directly - so no more need to convert to SVG first before importing to Inkscape.
David

[AREA]

I typically don't like to update when something is working but this seems like worthy improvement. Will give it a go, thanks David.

[adbuch]

I typically don't like to update when something is working but this seems like worthy improvement. Will give it a go, thanks David.

Same here. When I first installed it, I still had the older version of Inkscape installed as well. But once I started to use the newer version, I was liking it better. The newer version also has a much nicer Trace Bitmap screen with automatically updating preview as you adjust the Threshold.

So you can have multiple versions of Inkscape installed and running at the same time. This is a good way to try it out to see if you like it.

David

[AREA]

Great info, thanks again David.