File compatability

This area contains the messages from the old Yahoo cadintoshmac group after the port.
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Jack McCornack
Posts: 0
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:26 pm

File compatability

Post by Jack McCornack »

I'm new to CADintosh, got it specifically so I could email .dxf filesto my local lasercutter without having to learn (yuck, fooey!) Windowsfirst. ANyway, he can't open my files, they show up as "incomplete" athis end. He suggested I try saving as .dwg files and he could convertthem. Does CADintosh have that feature? Jack
RowlandCarson
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 10:56 am

Re: File compatability

Post by RowlandCarson »

At 2006-07-06 19:13 +0000 Jack McCornack wrote: >I'm new to CADintosh, got it specifically so I could email .dxf files>to my local lasercutter without having to learn (yuck, fooey!) Windows>first. ANyway, he can't open my files, they show up as "incomplete" at>his end. He suggested I try saving as .dwg files and he could convert>them. Does CADintosh have that feature? Jack - no, CADintosh doesn't do .DWG - Autodesk, the AutoCAD people, don't release the spec, and Thorsten is not prepared to reverse-engineer it as some others appear to have done for some for the el-cheapo windoze CAD packages. There is a movement, I understand, to get the AutoCAD folks to make the file format open, but I don't know the latest score on that. (Have a look at the Architosh site - http://www.architosh.com/ for a lot of info on Mac CAD developments.)Like you, I hoped that .DXF would be a universal interchange format (like .RTF almost is for word-processor documents). I'm sorry to say that I've been quite disappointed. I've received many .DXF files that CADintosh could not open; and, like you, I've had my .DXF exports from CADintosh rejected by others as unusable. This is at least partly because of the many different flavours of .DXF to be found in the wild.In some cases, I have found that TurboCAD for Mac works better with certain specific import or export problems; in other cases, it's CADintosh that seems more compatible. I can't remember if the demo version of TurboCAD for Mac will do exports, but it might be worth a try.CADintosh does offer a choice of .DXF version for its exports - have you tried both of them on your recipient?Other Mac drawing applications, in a more expensive bracket, which claim to work with .DWG files, are MacSpot MacDraft and ACD Canvas X - but I have no experience of the current versions of either. Hope this helps.regardsRowland-- : Wilma & Rowland Carson http://home.clara.net/rowil/: <rowil@clara.net> ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
Jjackmcc@aol.com
Posts: 0
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 11:17 pm

Re: File compatability

Post by Jjackmcc@aol.com »

Thanks for the quick response, Rowland with a W,Yeah, it hardly seems worth naming it Drawing Exchange Format if it ain't gonna. I'm resisting going to AutoCAD Lite 'cause I hate it when people (even when collected together into companies) make things difficult on purpose. But we'll see; maybe sending it as an AutoCAD 10 (instead of 12) will work, though my vendor says he needs v.12. Worth a try.     Jack
Lawrence W Jordan
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Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2006 12:51 am

Re: File compatability

Post by Lawrence W Jordan »

Will graphic converter do the job?On 06/07/2006, at 3:54 PM, Jjackmcc@aol.com wrote: Thanks for the quick response, Rowland with a W, Yeah, it hardly seems worth naming it Drawing Exchange Format if it ain't gonna. I'm resisting going to AutoCAD Lite 'cause I hate it when people (even when collected together into companies) make things difficult on purpose. But we'll see; maybe sending it as an AutoCAD 10 (instead of 12) will work, though my vendor says he needs v.12. Worth a try.      Jack
RowlandCarson
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 10:56 am

Re: File compatability

Post by RowlandCarson »

At 2006-07-07 13:46 -0700 Lawrence W Jordan wrote: >Will graphic converter do the job? Lawrence - it converts lots of graphics formats, but based on bitmaps, rather than vectors like CADintosh, so it doesn't do anything with .DXF files.regardsRowland-- : Wilma & Rowland Carson http://home.clara.net/rowil/: <rowil@clara.net> ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
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