Architectural Flashing Supply
Start a Quote
DXF validation and manufacturing readiness · Lesson 1 of 4

DXF validation and manufacturing readiness: principles and terminology

What a DXF is made of, what each part tells you about a flashing section, what AFS’s folder actually receives, and the four conditions a drawing meets before it is ready to make.

You will be able to: Name the parts of a DXF (sections, group codes, header variables, entities, layers, blocks, model and paper space), tell DXF from DWG, and state what ready to make means before a profile reaches AFS’s folder.

11 min · 10 slides · 8 questions

All lessons in this module
Slide 1 of 10

An exchange format

The Library of Congress describes DXF as an exchange format for the content of AutoCAD drawing (DWG) files.

Autodesk's DXF Reference says a DXF file is composed of pairs of codes and associated values; the group code says what type of value follows.

In the plain-text form, each group takes two lines: the code on one, its value on the next.

Sources

Videos for this lesson

What this video shows: AMS Controls creates a new part in its Pathfinder folder controls and shows what the operator sees. One control maker’s product, not AFS’s machine.

Video: AMS Controls, Pathfinder, and SmartPath by AMS Controls, on YouTube. AFS checked its description against this lesson.

What this video shows: AMS Controls’ Pathfinder folder controls work out a fold sequence for an architectural drip edge profile. One control maker’s product, not AFS’s machine.

Video: Automatic Sequencing - Arch Drip Edge by AMS Controls, on YouTube. AFS checked its description against this lesson.

Glossary

DXF
Drawing Interchange Format: an exchange format for the content of AutoCAD drawing (DWG) files, plain text in its ASCII form.
Group code
In a DXF, the number written before each value that says what type of value follows.
$INSUNITS
A DXF header variable, group 70, that Autodesk describes as the default drawing units for DesignCenter blocks: 0 unitless, 1 inches, 4 millimeters.
Bulge
A polyline vertex value (group 42): the tangent of one fourth of an arc segment’s included angle; 0 is straight, 1 a semicircle.
Definition point
In a DXF linear dimension, groups 13 and 14: the two points the dimension measures, in world coordinates.
Paper space
The layout space of a drawing; a DXF entity with group 67 set to 1 is in paper space, otherwise it is in model space.
Point of operation
In 29 CFR 1910.212(a)(3), the area on a machine where work is actually performed on the material; it must be guarded where it exposes an employee to injury.