DXF files and AutoCAD

[yannicknielsen]

Hey there!

My company is running with the inventor design suite, and therefore we have AutoCAD Mechanical.

For our laser programming we're fond of the file format .DXF.

Now, the thing is... Whenever I double click a .DXF file, it naturally opens a program that can read. However, it changes from hour to hour between vanilla AutoCAD, AutoCAD Mechanical, and DWG TrueView, which is rather annoying.

I was wondering if anyone knows how to set it up to open them in vanilla AutoCAD always? Because so far, i've only found the AutoCAD.exe which opens AutoCAD Mechanical, and the shortcut to vanilla seems to run some other stuff that makes sure it opens as vanilla AutoCAD.

Best regards

Yannick

[Anonymous]

 Hi Yannick

Try this.

Open Windows Explorer, right click on a dxf file & you should see the option "open with" & at the bottom of that list hopefully you will see "Choose Default Program".

Choose what you want to open the files with & it should always use that. I would suggest that you open Autocad "vanilla" & close again just before doing this as I think it will use whatever version "autocad" was last opened.

I hope this helps but there are others with far more knowledge than me that I'm sure will point you in the right direction if not.

[dbroad]

Another approach to double clicking is to drag the file to a desktop icon, ensuring which program and which profile will launch.

[yannicknielsen]

I have tried right clicking and then just choosing autocad application. That opens either mechanical or vanilla. Shouldn't that open the one I used last? And it's almost always vanilla.

I haven't tried making sure it was set as default program yet. I have done so now, and will know soon enough if it works.

[yannicknielsen]

A possible solution, yes, although, I believe it would be annoying to minimize all my windows every time I needed to open AutoCAD.

[dbroad]

Put your icon on the taskbar.

[pendean]

Windows determines which program to use based on the last "dxf" program you ran/used. That's how it works if all you want to do is let Windows chose the program for you (by opening the file in Windows).

If you want control, you must actively do so: there are many freeware "send to" you can add to Windows that let you point the file to a program, or you could get in the habit of opening the program you want first then open the DXF file. Your controls, not WIndows, your choice.