Problem Importing DXF

Layout
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I’m just learning, so don’t flame too hard please :slight_smile: I want to design a new board that must match a front panel design. I import the DXF file for my panel, but I only get the outline of the panel drawing, none of the holes in the panel are imported. Is this a bug or something I’m doing wrong?

Thanks for any help,

Buddy

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Welcome. Can you let us know what version you are using? Would it be possible for you to post a screenshot of the outline in the native software?

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Knowing your version is often the first step in giving help to you. KiCAD is under very active development and there are significant differences between the “official” version (currently 4.0.7) and the "nightly " development builds.

I’ve used the “Import DXF” feature a few times but I’m far from familiar with it. I’ll make two suggestions:

  • Make sure your *.DXF file was saved in a dialect of DXF that KiCAD is fluent in. As I recall, that’s the (quite old) Version R12. Later versions have commands and constructs that KiCAD’s DXF-Importer doesn’t understand. You can get the Version R12 by opening your *.DXF in, say, LibreCAD then doing “Save As” and selecting “DXF R12” as the file format.

  • Use a mechanical CAD program to move all of the holes, cutouts, etc, to the same drawing layer as the outline. Then “Save As” a Version R12 file, and import into KiCAD.

Dale

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Thanks for the help. The KiCad version is 4.0.7 on windows 10 64-bit. I will try exporting in an older version of the DXF format.

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Dale,

Saving the DXF in an older format did the trick, thank you so much for your fast help!

Buddy

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That depends on how holes are represented. If they are circles (or PolyLines) then they should appear, but kicad will see them as part of the board outline and not as drill holes. Many DXF entities (including points) are not processed. The reason is that there is no single way to map DXF entities to PCB entities and no one has taken time to find out how people use DXF and to propose any useful improvement.

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Slightly OT, but it must be a harsh world out there, can’t remember anyone on this forum being handled like this - unless they came in with a misplaced attitude in the first place, then it’s just ‘Wie man in den Wald hineinruft, so schallt es heraus’ (what goes around, comes around). :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Hi Joan,

You’re right, the opening was a poor reflex on my part. Like most of us, I’m on numerous forums for a bunch of different stuff. On a couple of them it’s brutal how true subject matter gurus come down on simple noob questions. Folks with 10,000+ posts in some cases will ridicule first-timers to the point of being mean. I’ve not found that to be the case here at all!

:smile:

Buddy

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