Standard DXF to DXF AAMA/ASTM convert

[Maricus85]

Hi there. I'm not a programmer or even close but I work with dxf files. I need to convert a standard dxf file from Fusion 360 to dxf aama/astm.. Is this possible? I've been through the entire internet and it doesn't seem possible but thought I'd ask you. Thanks

[mozman]

I am not a Fusion 360 nor a AAMA/AST expert, but there exist an add-on to export ASTM-D6673-10 compatible DXF files for usage with Gerber Technology applications: https://ezdxf.mozman.at/docs/addons/gerber_D6673.html

See also this thread: #789

But be aware ezdxf does not support the creation of ASTM-D6673-10 compatible DXF structures!

[Maricus85]

Thanks I'm going to give it try from what I've read I think it might work. Just one thing I'm no programmer so this is all over my head. I just installed Python but do you perhaps have like a step by step guide or something to help out with this?

[mozman]

This is a simple version of a converter script, most code of the converter is error handling:

import sys
import ezdxf
from ezdxf import recover
from ezdxf.addons import gerber_D6673


def convert(dxf_fname, astm_fname):
    try:
        doc, auditor = recover.readfile(dxf_fname)
    except IOError:
        print(f"Not a DXF file or a generic I/O error.")
        exit(1)
    except ezdxf.DXFStructureError:
        print(f"Invalid or corrupted DXF file.")
        exit(2)

    if doc.dxfversion > ezdxf.DXF12:
        print(f"Only DXF R12 input files are supported, input file has version {doc.acad_release}.")
        exit(3)

    try:
        gerber_D6673.export_file(doc, astm_fname)
    except IOError as e:
        print(f"Cannot write file '{astm_fname}'\n{str(e)}")
        exit(4)
    print(f"File '{astm_fname}' successfully written.")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    script_name = sys.argv[0]
    try:
        dxf_fname = sys.argv[1]
        astm_fname = sys.argv[2]
    except IndexError:
        print(f"Invalid arguments.\nUsage: {script_name} <dxf_fname> <astm_fname>")
    else:
        convert(dxf_fname, astm_fname)

I assume you are working on Windows, so the py command should be available if you installed Python from Python.org.
Save this script as dxf2astm.py and launch it from the command line:

C:\> py path\to\dxf2astm.py <dxf_fname> <ast_fname>

The ASTM exporter supports only DXF R12 because I don't have any other example files but in practice it should be possible to export input documents with a newer version as a DXF R12 file by stripping all newer features and entities.