[GRASS5] Re: [bug #2451] DXF module for GRASS 5.7

[Michael Barton]

Radim,

Your points are well taken. I don't know off hand if it is better to  
get DXF into OGR via DIME or go another route (e.g., there are a few  
other translate projects that come up on SourceForge when you look for  
dxf).

On the other hand, I don't think it is false advertising if we say  
GRASS supports DXF ver. #-#, or something like that. QCAD uses some  
version of DXF natively and it would be nice to be able to import QCAD  
maps. Other CAD programs probably don't keep up with the most current  
AutoCAD standard for DXF. And can't AutoCAD folks export down-version  
if need be?

It's just that DXF is a (perhaps THE) widely used standard (even if it  
is not quite 'standard') for CAD data exchange--and for exchange among  
GIS programs. GRASS as it is has exceptionally good abilities to read  
other formats and DXF is one of the few holes in this.

Michael
______________________________
Michael Barton, Professor & Curator
School of Human Origins, Cultures, & Societies
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ  85287-2402
USA

voice: 480-965-6262; fax: 480-965-7671
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On Jun 3, 2004, at 1:31 AM, Radim Blazek via RT wrote:

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --
> On Thursday 03 June 2004 03:07, Hamish wrote:
>>> 2. More difficult, but I think important. I'd like to see DXF import
>>> and export modules produced for 5.7. Those in 5.3 have considerable
>>> limitations. 5.7 has overall very good I/O routines due to gdal and
>>> ogr. However, OGR doesn't include dxf. This is a major data
>>> interchange format that I think ought to be supported if possible.
>>
>> There is v.in.dwg for this, but it needs a non-free library & you must
>> not redistribute any resulting binaries.
>>
>> see  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gis.grass.devel/1205
>>
>> Have there been any improvements in the Free Software solutions for
>> DXF importing during the last year?
>>
>> e.g. libdime
>> Description: DXF Import, Manipulation, and Export library.
>>  Dime is a C++ class library for reading, constructing, manipulating,
>>  and writing DXF file data.
>>
>> http://www.coin3d.org/Coin3D/file_format_libs/Dime/
>>
>> [FreeGIS people: the link on your page is broken]
>>
>> Is the time better spent getting Dime <=> OGR working?
>
> There is no free DXF library supporting reliably latest DXF.
> I see that Dime status has not changed in last years, still:
> "... version 10 through 14, and we've had customers that have used the  
> library to handle
>  AutoCAD 2000 DXF files."
> OpenDWG supports DXF/DWG from 2.5 to 2004. My experience is that  
> AutoCAD
> users use often latest versions.
> Generally, I don't like the idea to pretend that some feature is  
> supported
> if we know that it is not true.
>
> v.out.dxf is something else, it is simple and it should be updated
> to 5.7, but it should read binary file, not ascii.
> It woud be better to have DXF write support in OGR, but I am not sure
> if Frank likes drivers which can write only.
>
> Radim
>
>