PlantStudio Help: Exporting to DXF

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Exporting to DXF

DXF (Drawing Interchange Format) is a standard for exchanging files between most 3D graphics programs. PlantStudio exports a very basic form of the DXF format which includes only polygons (3DFACE entries) to describe the plant.

WARNING: DXF files can be very large, up to 20 or 30 megabytes if you save several plants (and depending on the complexity of the plants). The DXF options window makes an estimate of the final file size, but the estimate is a coarse one. You should always try to have at least twice the estimated file size free on your hard drive before you save plants to a DXF file.

To save plants to a DXF file with the default options,
Select the plants you want to save to DXF.

Choose Save DXF File from the File menu.

Click OK.

Type in a file name with the DXF extension and click OK.

Tasks:

Changing how DXF layers are assigned to plant parts

Changing the number of sides on a DXF stem

Changing how DXF colors are assigned to plant parts

Changing DXF colors

Tips on saving DXF files

PlantStudio outputs a very simple form of DXF files using only the 3DFACE entry to describe each polygon. This means that your plants won’t come out with correct orientations in your 3D program. They will probably be all on top of each other and possibly upside-down. But you can probably fix this easily once you get them into your 3D program.

The DXF format allows only short names (16 characters) to identify the layers that group polygons. You might want to keep your plant names short if you plan to export many plants to DXF format.

If you choose the Place each plant part in its own layer option in the DXF options window, your 3D program may take a very long time to read and display the plant parts because you could have thousands of layers. We recommend you use this setting only for smaller or less-complicated plants.

Because the DXF format is not very efficient, it sometimes takes 3D programs a long time to read it. And most 3D programs don’t expect DXF files to have as many points as PlantStudio plants have. If you open a large DXF file from PlantStudio in your 3D program and it seems to hang, go get a cup of coffee and see if the plants appear.

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Updated: March 10, 1999. Questions/comments on site to webmaster@kurtz-fernhout.com.
Copyright © 1998, 1999 Paul D. Fernhout & Cynthia F. Kurtz.