About Standards

Standards are used to define the drawing representation to which DXF/DWG data are imported, as well as mapping DXF/DWG attributes.

Drafting

The imported data are put in a drawing representation. This drawing representation uses styles defined in a pre-defined or a customized standard such as ISO, JIS, ANSI, ASME. The Drafting list lets you select this standard.

• The content of this list depends on which standards have been created and/or customized by your administrator.
• The most suitable format (A0 ISO, A1 ISO, etc.) for each sheet (layout) is automatically determined, i.e. the smallest format in which the drawing can be totally included is selected.
  • If the standard is ISO, the format is chosen among A0 ISO, A1 ISO, A2 ISO, etc.
  • If the standard is ANSI, the format is chosen among A, B, C, etc.
  • If no standard format fits the sheet, the format is set to the largest one i.e. A0 ISO and made invisible with a message "No standard format can be applied to this sheet" in the report file.
  • In export/import loops, the automatic determination of the standard may lead to format changes.
  • If you are not satisfied with this automatic result, use the Page Setup command to modify the format.

Information on what has been determined automatically is written in the report file.

For more details about standards, see Administration in the Drafting User's Guide.

DXF

Some AutoCAD attributes do not exist in 3DEXPERIENCE as such and require a mapping:

• AutoCAD color can be mapped to 3DEXPERIENCE line thickness.
• AutoCAD line type is mapped to 3DEXPERIENCE line type.
• AutoCAD text font is mapped to 3DEXPERIENCE text font.
• AutoCAD layers can be mapped to specific 3DEXPERIENCE layers.

These mappings are defined in a DXF standard file, which you can select from the DXF list. The content of this list depends on which standards have been created and/or customized by your administrator.

The export section of the standard file defines the mapping of patterns between 3DEXPERIENCE and DXF.

Information about the export of patterns is given in the report file.

Standards are defined by your administrator in XML (Extensible Markup Language) files to set default values for element properties.

• The elements used in the mappings customized in the DXF standard are those defined in the Drafting standard. This ensures the consistency between the DXF/DWG interface and the drawings.
• Standard files apply to all the sessions using them, thus controlling the company standard at the import process.
• The DXF.xml file is a standard that sets the default mapping between DXF/DWG and Drafting elements, for the color to thickness, line types and text fonts.
• The DXF.xml file is stored under installation_folder\resources\standard\dxf.

  For multi-sites installations, we recommend that the administrator loads the DXF.xml file in Data Setup, thus making sure one single standard file is available for all users in on-line mode. For more information, see About Data Setup for Drafting.

  Important: When switching to off-line mode, only the standard file in the local installation folder is available.

• The USED MAPPINGS section of the report file lists the associations used during import.

You can use the default mapping found in the standard file provided in your installation, customize it, or create new standard files to meet your needs. When several standard files exist, you can select one.

The structure of the standard is defined by the administrator.

A standard file is structured as a tree, as it appears in the Standards Editor (available via Me > Preferences > Standards). It contains several main sections, each dealing with a specific aspect of the customization.

All the parameters are in DXF Import, under dxf Category.

Line Type Mapping

Associates a Drafting line type for any given DXF line type:

• Select the DXF line type by its name.
• Select the Drafting line type by its number.

If a name of line type found in the DXF file is not present in the list, the default Drafting line type will be applied to the imported entity.

Color To Thickness Mapping

Associates a Drafting line thickness for any given DXF color. This capability is useful for DXF files up to the version AutoCAD-R14 in which the line thickness was not defined, and for which the color may be used to define a line thickness.

• Select the DXF color by its number.
• Select the Drafting line thickness by its number.

Text Font Mapping

Associates a Drafting text font for any given DXF text font:

• Select the DXF text font by its name.
• Select the Drafting text font by its number.
• Associate a X scale factor to reframe a font with a different geometry (characters too wide or too narrow) to achieve the best possible alignment.
• Define a default font to be used when there is no mapping for a DXF font.
• Define a default KANJI font, other than SSS4, to be used when the BigFont DXF font is not mapped.

If a name of text font found in the DXF file is not present in the list, the given default Drafting text font will be applied to the imported text.

Thick Polyline Mapping

Controls the way polylines with adjustable width are imported. Those polylines do not use the standard lineweight attribute, but use either Constant width attribute, or Start segment width and End segment Width for each vertex of the polyline. They can be imported as lines and arcs or as area fills depending on the value of CreateAreaFill and MinThicknessForAreaFill in the ThickPolylineMapping standard.

When the width of the polyline is not null:

• CreateAreaFill=yes authorizes the area fill creation. In this case, if width is greater than the value of MinThicknessForAreaFill, an area fill that represents the exact geometry of the thick polyline is created.
• CreateAreaFill=No, or if width is lower than the value of MinThicknessForAreaFill, the lines and arcs are created with a line thickness mapped from the polyline width.

The value taken for the width is the greater one of startWidth or endWidth for each segment of the polyline.

The report file indicates:

• Whether a thick polyline mapping has been applied during the import of the DXF file.
• How the thick polylines are mapped.

Limitations:

• When an area fill is created, the line type of the polyline is not taken into account. This applies only when the width is greater than the value of MinThicknessForAreaFill given in the DXF standard.
• When no area fill is created, in the case of polyline with constant width, arcs or lines will be created for each segment, but no Drafting polyline.

Color Mapping

Controls the adaptation of Black and White colors to the background color:

• By default, the sheet background is dark blue in 2D Layout for 3D Design, since it is white in Drafting. The consequence is that black lines that are the most frequent in DXF files are not, or only hardly visible.
• To improve the visibility of the result of the import in 2D Layout for 3D Design, a new section Color mapping is added in the DXF standard file with three parameters:

  Adapt to Background

  • Yes (default value): the Black and White colors will be changed, either to black or to white depending on the background color and the second parameter.
  • No: the White and Black colors from DXF will not be changed: they may be not or almost not visible.

  Dark background luminosity (0..255)

  • If Adapt to Background=No: this parameter has no effect.
  • If Adapt to Background=Yes: this parameters defines at which luminosity value of the background the Black color is switched to white:
    • If the background luminosity is lower than the given value, that means the background is dark and the Black color from DXF will be changed to white.
    • If the background luminosity is greater than the given value, the Black color from DXF remains black.

  The proposed Dark background luminosity (0..255) is 100.

  Light background luminosity (0..255)

  • If Adapt to Background=No, this parameter has no effect.
  • If Adapt to Background=Yes, this parameters defines at which luminosity value of the background the White color is switched to black:
    • If Background luminosity is higher than the given value, that means the background is light and the White color from DXF will be changed to black.
    • If Background luminosity is lower than the given value, the White color from DXF remains white.

    The proposed Light background luminosity (0..255) is 200.

  • In other words, when the parameter Adapt to Background=Yes:
    • If the background luminosity is lower than the value given by Dark background luminosity, the Black color from DXF is changed to white (so, both Black and White are white).
    • If the background luminosity is between the values given by Low Luminosity threshold and High Luminosity threshold, no color is changed.
    • If the background luminosity is higher than the value given by Light background luminosity, the White color from DXF is changed to black (so, both Black and White are black).

Notes:

• Dark background luminosity and Light background luminosity should be between 0 and 255.
• Dark background luminosity must be lower than or equal to Light background luminosity. If it is not the case the Light background luminosity is set to Dark background luminosity.
• When a change of Black or White color is done during the conversion because of the Adapt to Background mapping, the information is given in the report file of the DXF conversion.
• When the DXF standard does not contain these parameters, the default values are taken. The report file indicates if the adaptation to background color has been applied during the import of the DXF file.

Pattern Mapping

Defines a mapping between a Drafting image representing a pattern and a DXF pattern, when exporting data from Drafting to DXF.

This mapping is required because the representation of a pattern is different in DXF and Drafting:

• An area fill is defined by one external contour and several internal contours in both DXF and Drafting. The graphic representation in these contours allows to schematize materials.
• For DXF, this graphic representation is defined by:
  • A pattern made of lines
  • Or a pattern coloring gradient.
• In Drafting, this graphic representation is defined either by:
  • A pattern hatching (several lines with type, color and maximum number)
  • A pattern dotting (point with pitch and color)
  • A pattern coloring (color)
  • Or a pattern image (image with scale and angle).

For example, in Drafting concrete is represented by an image, whereas it is represented by a pattern made of lines in DXF. In such cases, you can map the image with a DXF pattern in the standard file.

Once you have selected a Drafting pattern image, you can define its DXF properties on the right side of the dialog box.

Layer Mapping

Defines a mapping between imported layers and 3DEXPERIENCE layers.

• The name of the imported layer is mapped with a 3DEXPERIENCE number and a 3DEXPERIENCE layer name.
• If the name of an imported layer has no mapping, the layer is created as new.
• You can use the character * to replace any character in the imported layer name. This way, you can assign several imported layers with different names to one 3DEXPERIENCE layer.