Export to DXF : "AutoCAD Message: Copy to clipboard failed"

[jbp35]

Expected behavior and actual behavior.

After exporting any file to DXF with GDAL, it is not possible to copy geometry in AutoCAD and causes the following error message: "AutoCAD Message: Copy to clipboard failed"

Steps to reproduce the problem.

1. Use ogr2ogr to convert any file to DXF format
2. Open the output in AutoCAD
3. Select and try to copy an entity in the drawing causes the error

Operating system

All operation systems

GDAL version and provenance

GDAL 3.5.0

Troubleshooting

This issue seems to be caused by an Hard-owner ID/handle (F) pointing to a missing dictionary in the generated file.

Defining this missing dictionary manually at the end of the file fixes the issue:

0 ACDBPLACEHOLDER 5 F 102 {ACAD_REACTORS 330 E 102 } 330 E

Original DXF file created using ogr2ogr (renamed as TXT):
[export_from_gdal_with error.txt]
(https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/files/9044889/export_from_gdal_with.error.txt)

Modified DXF file with added dictionary at the end (renamed as TXT):
export_from_gdal_with dictionnary added.txt

Here is the output of Audit command in Autocad which helped me track the origin of the issue:

Command: AUDIT
Fix any errors detected? [Yes/No] <N>:

Auditing Header

Auditing Tables
AcDbDictionaryWithDefault(E)
                     Default Name Is Missing            Add it
					 
					 
Auditing Entities Pass 1
AcDbLayerTableRecord: "0"
                 PlotstyleName Id Invalid               Null
AcDbLayerTableRecord: "0"         was not repaired.
Pass 1 100     objects audited


Auditing Entities Pass 2
AcDbDictionaryWithDefault(E)
                           Normal ePermanentlyErased
AcDbDictionaryWithDefault(E)      was not repaired.
AcDbLayerTableRecord: "0"
                 PlotstyleName Id Invalid               Null
AcDbLayerTableRecord: "0"         was not repaired.
Pass 2 100     objects audited


Auditing Blocks
 0       Blocks audited
 
 
Auditing AcDsRecords

Total errors found 4 fixed 0
Erased 0 objects

[rouault]

CC @atlight

[agiudiceandrea]

See #1213 (comment).
It seems to me issue probably more related to AutoCAD itself: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=copy+to+clipboard+failed&ia=web
The issue usually doesn't occur with other CAD software, e.g. DraftSight or nanoCAD.

[atlight]

@jbp35 thanks so much for debugging this!

It seems to me issue probably more related to AutoCAD itself

Yes, ironically enough, AutoCAD's DXF reader is pretty lousy.

We should fix this in GDAL. If you make a pull request against https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/blob/master/data/trailer.dxf I'll merge it.

[jbp35]

@jbp35 thanks so much for debugging this!

It seems to me issue probably more related to AutoCAD itself

Yes, ironically enough, AutoCAD's DXF reader is pretty lousy.

We should fix this in GDAL. If you make a pull request against https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/blob/master/data/trailer.dxf I'll merge it.

@atlight You welcome, this has been quite a pain for me for a long time and couldn't take it any more!

I created a PR with the proposed fix:
#6014

Just to mention, I just code occasionally for fun and don't have much understanding of what's actually going on here. So a good review is definitely needed before merging this. Thanks!