export dxf

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Saving, Exporting & Files

Exporting DXF

Export your design as DXF for CAD, CAM, and machine interchange.

DXF is the common exchange format for CAD and CAM tools and many machine controllers. Locus can export your selection as DXF in two flavors, so you can match whatever software or machine is on the other end.

How to export

Select what you want, then choose File > Export > DXF and pick a flavor. Like SVG, only the selected objects are exported, and the file is written straight to disk - a native Save panel in the desktop app (Finder on macOS, File Explorer on Windows), or a direct download in the browser. The export is in millimeters.

The two flavors

• R12: the older, most widely compatible flavor. Choose this for maximum compatibility with older CAD/CAM software and machine controllers. Curved paths (ellipses and Bézier curves) come across as fine multi-point outlines rather than true curves.
• R2000: a newer flavor that keeps curves exact: ellipses stay ellipses and Bézier curves stay true splines. Choose this when your downstream tool understands modern DXF and you want the smoothest possible geometry.

Tip

If you're not sure what the receiving machine accepts, start with R12 - it's the safe, universal choice. Move up to R2000 when you need curves to stay mathematically exact and you know the other side supports it.

Layers come across

Each object's top-level group name becomes its layer in the DXF file. Organizing your work into named groups before exporting gives you a tidy, layered file on the CAD/CAM side - no extra step needed.

Groups, color, and coverage

Groups export as DXF blocks inside their layer, so the file keeps the hierarchy you built. Each entity carries its own color, and angular values use a proper degree glyph. As with SVG, points and dimensions come across too - not just closed shapes.

DXF stores color as an index into a fixed palette of 255 slots rather than as a free value, so two colors in your drawing can land on the same slot. Where that happens the layers are merged into one rather than shipping two layers that draw identically, and the first one keeps its name. Only layers Locus named itself are ever merged, so a layer you named by hand keeps its own identity, and the annotation layers never fold in with the drawing colors.

A color written with an alpha channel keeps its color. The transparency itself is dropped, because DXF has nowhere to carry it, so the shape comes across fully opaque in the right color rather than losing the color and falling back to its layer's default.

Dimensions export as baked geometry - extension lines, dimension line, value text, and filled arrowheads - all placed on a dedicated Annotations layer, so whatever reads the file next can ignore that layer. Arrowheads are real filled shapes (not markers), matching the SVG export; a dashed dimension line collapses to solid in DXF (the form Illustrator and most DXF readers expect), so keep dashes for SVG if you need them.

When to choose DXF over SVG

• Your CAD or CAM software expects DXF (many do).
• Your machine or CAD tool reads DXF but not SVG.
• You want the geometry organized onto named layers for a downstream toolchain.

For most uses and for handing art to illustration tools, SVG is usually simpler. Both come out exact and in millimeters - the choice is about what the other program prefers.

Note

You can also export a single node's geometry directly: right-click a node and choose Export as... > DXF (polyline) or DXF (spline), without realizing it onto the drawing first.

Hairline-black export

The Hairline-black export Settings option applies to DXF as well as SVG: with it on, every exported entity comes out as a single thin black line with no fill or weight - the form a downstream vector toolchain expects. See Hairline-black export.

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Export grouping

DXF layers follow the Export grouping setting, the same as SVG. See Export grouping.

Related

• Exporting SVG
• Importing artwork