DWG issues opening in Draftsight

[JonSchaeffer]

Hi I am creating DWG's from Fusion 360 and sending it to my programer and he uses DRAFTSIGHT and when he opens it? it has dimensions but no geometry of the part. Is this a known issue? 

-Jon

[bob_holland]

JonBoy5Axis,

We are sorry to see that you are experiencing this issue with Draftsight.

Based on what you are stating it sounds that same as:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/drawings-and-documentation/views-are-missing-in-drawing-dwg-export/td-...

The issue is that we use AutoCAD drawing views and it looks like Draftsight does not support this.

This would probably be a good IdeaStation post.

What you really need is the ability to export a DXF file that can go directly to a CNC with less effort.

If you post this on the IdeaStation, please post a link so that others can find it when checking this issue.

If your issue is different than this, please let me know and I will see what I can do.

Thank you.

[JonSchaeffer]

Is there a version for Mac?

I tried the link but it was for MS

[rochelle81]

Hi JonBoy5Axis,

there is AutoCAD WS free on the Mac app store but if you need your programmer to crank out a CNC path at the end of the day, you might want to look at progeCAD View DWG which is a pretty capable partner app and I believe will let him export DWG as DXF. There is write up on both options here:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-for-mac-general/dwg-viewer-for-mac/m-p/4300726#M7676

Let us know if that helps, if not we'll do some more digging and see if we can't get a better solution.

Cheers,

Grant

[inchul.lee]

Hi JonBoy5Axis,

As rochelle81 suggested, you can use AutoCAD 360 (fully web based, formaly AutoCAD WS).

You can also export a DWG drawing to different versions of DXF and DWG files (also PDF and DWF). Here's how it looks like:

DWG

DXF

PDF/DWF Output

If you just want to 'view' DWG drawings, you can also use Online Viewer.

[cekuhnen]

Different DWG versions don't cut it nobody can open anything there when it came from Fusion.

Autocad's internal save as PDF is major junk because the result is utterly chaotic and thus useless.

Why does the drawing module even have a PDF export when it fails to export anything useable? In today's time PDF is a replacement for AI because it is the same internal data. Specifically for manual creation those paths are pointless to work with. A DXF export would be welcome maybe for CNC but illustrators will throw up when they see that every curve is broken into line segments.

There should have been a DXF export function from the beginning gents - it is not an uncommon format.

[HughesTooling]

@inchul.lee Your suggestion to use AutoCad 360 doesn't work because AutoCAD 360 can't read the DWG files exported from Fusion, it can not read the drawing views so all you get from the export is the title block and dimensions but no drawing.

This is all you get exporting a file as 2004.

Mark

[Anonymous]

Has the issue of not being able to export a DWG or DXF from Fusion 360 that can be used with DraftSight been solved?  If it has, I can't find the solution (not a work around). I need to create DWG/DXF's from models that suppliers are able to interpret with their software.  Is the DWG/DXF that is created only viewable in Fusion?

[cmiller66]

Hi taithrupp,

We have not yet implemented export to DXF for drawings.  

I mentioned this in this post http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-validate-document/dwg-versions-using-drawing-outputs/m-p/649244..., but if there's a certain profile or shape you want to convert to dxf, definitely the cleanest/most straightforward way (currently) is to export the sketch to DXF directly from the Model environment:

This saves out a Release 14 DXF file, which the supplier should be able to use directly.  Hopefully this helps.

Thanks,
Chris

[Felipe.G]

Same here, not working by this i mean that a file from fusion 360 as a dwg (2D drawings) I have to open it on TrueView and export to a different version and then open it on Draftsight or GStarCAD and explode the file, I would like to be able to at least read the files just by opening the file in any other cad program, I understand is a Autodesk format but i use different softwares and all of them work at least on the basics of opening the file and read the geometries, don't care about dimensions and text, but i care about of being able to open the file without having to jump through hoops, it has to be a way to make it work and being able to "use" the geometries in the file a bit faster

[Anonymous]

hallo.

I did have the same problem and I did manage to resolve by using Autocad trueview and I convert it to dwg version 2000, and now is open in draftsight

if this software is not sported by Mac find and alternative software for conversion to an older version of dwg or dxf

Good luck

[Anonymous]

The conversion to an older version worked.  Thank you hiqoncept!

[Anonymous]

This is a deal breaker for me... I am tired of spending so much time trying to find work arounds for even the most basic!! functions like export to ANY interchangeable drawing format! Really? No useful drawing formats??? You own Autocad and you can't make a useable dwg or dxf file? WTF do you think we use an engineering program for? Making pretty screenshots?? See you later... For anyone else, maybe try Viacad. They are pretty much free and seem like they actually have a practical workflow for making stuff.

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @Anonymous,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I was just chatting with our drawings team and was hoping to get some more information from you. This is a known limitation of Draftsight, who doesn't support our latest data objects. It is a challenge we have been working on for a while now. I was just trying to get more information as to why you were using Draftsight after Fusion. For instance - is it a limitation of Fusion drawings or are you expecting a contract manufacturer to be able to open it for a different workflow? Any information you have would be most helpful!

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

James, i can give you a good reason why because i'm suffering the same problem right now and it's wasting my precious time... I regularly import DXF/DWG drawings into Altium (PCB design tool) and the DWG file output from Fusion 360 will not import!  In this case i'm trying to import the 2D drawing view of a connector, so that in my Altium i can add this into my component footprint and it will come out in my assembly drawing. So my default tool for checking a DWF/DWG is... DraftSight. If a file opens in DraftSight then i know it will import into Altium. Plus in DraftSight i can easily chop away the border, title block etc. that are not needed.

So the need for Fusion 360 DWGs to open up in the 'more basic' CAD programs gets a +1 from me...

[DS_P]

Has any progress been made on this?  Its really annoying that you cant export universally view able drawings from Fusion360. 

Also, the other reason is that I (and many other users) need a software with actually decent dimensioning  and annotating tools to produce a presentable drawing.

[cekuhnen]

@James.Youmatz

I can understand the problem with DWG being AD owned and advances in DWG are not as quickly adapted in 3rd party apps.

But to be honest the solution to this would be to also allow a DWG format export option that removes features eternal apps struggle with

and giving designers the ability to share DWGs with everybody no matter what app they use.

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @cekuhnen and @DS_P,

It looks like there are multiple threads circulating about this right now. Please see Timera's response to @DS_P in this thread here from a few hours ago.

Thanks,

[cekuhnen]

@James.Youmatz

Yes I saw the thread - it is not much help when what is asked in the thread is listed as backlog and other areas get more attention.

I can understand development recourse limits but I think AD also has to realize that they alienate people who cannot use Fusion to the most

because of limits it comes with.