General Settings

Here you will find settings for save location and file naming, export file format, and some other general settings. Any changes you make here are automatically saved when you exit the program.

DXF/DWG save location

This section allows you to specify the location for the saved DXF or DWG files. There are 2 options available:

Same as IPT document

In this case, the exported files will be saved in the same folder as the parent IPT file.

In folder

All exported files will be saved in a selected folder. Select the folder by clicking  button or click  to select the folder of the current assembly.

The Create subfolders by thickness option allows you to save DXF files in subfolders based on sheet metal thickness. In this case, you get DXF files grouped by their thickness.

The option Create subfolders by material allows you to save DXF files in subfolders based on the material. In this case, you will get DXFs grouped by their material.

If both options are checked the first subfolder level will be the thickness and the second will be the material, as shown below:

Overwrite existing files: If this option is checked, existing DXF files with same name as new one will be overwritten. If the option is not checked, new DXF files with the same name as the existing ones will get a sequential number at the end of the file name.

DXF/DWG file naming

In this section you can define the naming scheme for DXF/DWG files.

You can select which properties to include in the file names by selecting them in the file naming table (image above).

All properties that are checked will be included in the DXF/DWG file name.

You can also change the prefix (green column) – this is fixed text that is written in front of a specific property.

The properties that can be included are listed in the property column. These are: IPT File Name, Thickness, Material, Quantity, Part Number, Stock Number, Item, FPlength, FPwidth, Project, Description and Revision Number.

The table also contains optionally added custom iProperties.

The properties are divided by the selected divider in the Divider drop-down menu:

You can change the order of properties by dragging and dropping. In the example below, the part number is placed before the thickness:

Some examples of file naming:

It is recommended that you include the "IPT Filename" property in the filename to ensure that the exported files have unique names. If you build the file name expression in such a way that there is a possibility that some files have the same name, then uncheck the "Overwrite existing files" option.

Units

You can select the length units for displaying sheet metal thickness, flat pattern length, and flat pattern width. Please try to make sure that all your sheet metal parts use the same part modelling unit and select the appropriate unit here. This will ensure that you get correct units for flat pattern dimensions and thicknesses and that the heights of exported texts (DXF description texts and angle values) are correct.

If the units in the sheet metal parts and the unit selected here do not match, you will receive this warning:

A restart of AutoDXF is required if you change the units.

Number of decimal places for flat pattern dimensions and decimal places for thickness are used to define required decimal places.

Select Remove trailing zeros to remove zeros at the ends of the decimal places.

User interface language

You can select English or Slovenian language of user interface. After changing the language please restart the AutoDXF to fully apply the change.

File Format

Select the file format for exported files: DXF (AutoCAD 2000 version) or DWG (AutoCAD 2000 version).

Please note that adding text descriptions, detecting threads and small holes, adding bend angles and notch lines is not supported when exporting to DWG format.

Please use the DXF format if you need any of this.

Messages

These options allow you to control which warning are displayed during the sheet metal part searching.

Merged items– warning when there are multiple different parts combined under one item number in BOM. This happens if there are different parts with the same part numbers present. In these cases, AutoDXF deals with the first item only. Quick solution for this is unchecking option for merging parts based on their Part Number in Inventor BOM Editor.

Library parts – warning when sheet metal parts saved in project library paths are found. Those parts have read only access and therefore working with them is limited. Regardless of this setting, such parts are always marked with red color in the list of sheet metal parts. For these parts it is not possible to create or manipulate flat patterns, detect threads and add bending angle information to exported DXF files.