Places that print DXF drawing files

jlakes85 · May 1, 2017

Hi All,

I need to print a larger drawing full size to be used as a template for flame cutting. I don't have a printer that will print in a larger format. Are there any places available to the general public that can usually accept a DXF file?

-jlakes85

ronaldbeal · May 1, 2017

Convert to .pdf or .dwf and take it to Kinkos

Modelman · May 1, 2017

Do they still have blueprint services in New Jersey... which sometimes go by the name "reproduction services" these days? Any place that land surveyors deal with would be a good bet. I haven't had to have anything printed in five or six years, but DXF used to be a common enough format.

Dennis

SeymourDumore · May 1, 2017

Hmm... interesting question.

I don't think your problem will be as much with the print shop's ability to read the DXF, rather the accurately scaled printout if that is what you're after.

Don't know if this is still valid, but way back in another life I have saved PCB layouts as a Postscript print file and had them printed at a local printshop
that had a seriously black and truly opaque printer.

Nowadays though... they are so fucking married to Adobe ( Photoshop or whatever ) that a few years ago I gave the sign shop my street sign in virtually every vector format known to man,
and after a couple of days they've called me back asking for a PDF as that was the only thing they knew how to scale properly.

SeymourDumore · May 1, 2017

Modelman said:
Do they still have blueprint services in New Jersey... which sometimes go by the name "reproduction services" these days? Any place that land surveyors deal with would be a good bet. I haven't had to have anything printed in five or six years, but DXF used to be a common enough format.

Dennis

Dennis, that's actually a very good advice!
While all the reprographics places around this area went tits-up years ago, land surveyors OTOH absolutely will have a large format plotter.
I bet they're willing to spit out an accurately scaled print for pittance.

SeymourDumore · May 1, 2017

car2 said:
Adobe, Corel, etc can import DXF files, and lots of other vector file forms,

That's my point, they all can properly import them. Heck, even MS Word can insert a DXF image.
The problem is not the software, rather the monkey with the mouse in his/her hands. ( at least that's what I've experienced not only with the sign shop
but also the printshop that did my business cards )

Mud · May 1, 2017

How big do you need, and how often?
I sometimes break a drawing into several sections, print them, then tape them together. Strategically placed Xs or plus signs enable accurate alignment. Less work overall than dealing with the printing places.

Modelman · May 1, 2017

car2 said:
Adobe, Corel, etc can import DXF files, and lots of other vector file forms, and as long as one doesn't monkey around with the scaling, a PDF (the graphics portions are vector) retains the scaling. (On quite a few occasions, I've imported (to-scale) PDF 2-d drawings into Corel, stripped out all the chicken scratch (dimensions, text, etc), exported them as DXF's, and imported the DXF into NX CAD, and used the projected views to create accurate 3D models)

That has not been my experience, and we run both AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator here in different departments, and occasionally need to move drawings from one to the other. AI always seems to try to fit the drawing to the page, whatever that is, and it needs to be resized in AI.I usually provide a dimension line of an easy even length on a separate layer, and have them resize in until AI says the line is the length shown.

Dennis

DDoug · May 2, 2017

jlakes85 said:
Hi All,

I need to print a larger drawing full size to be used as a template for flame cutting.

Someone is still running an electric eye machine ?

Sold both of mine years ago (at a profit) and went with a simple stepper motor driven machine running Mach3.

Never looked back, amazed what the simple little machine can do over the big eye machines.

dpryor · May 2, 2017

We are a contract design service and still have a large format plotter, 36" wide by 120" long plus. Several of our CAD packages still read DXF and we can plot out your drawings if that size works.

David Wolfe Design, Inc.
Akron, OH
[email protected]

bryan_machine · May 2, 2017

Modern photo printing is done on inkjet printers that can be quite wide (mine is 44") and can print on plain bond paper (which usually only comes 42" wide) along with a number of other materials.

So weird as it may seem, any photo services shop (places that make prints for photographers) and some photography businesses, may have printers that can produce a useful result, will know about scaling, and will take your money (:-)

Also, around here there's a class of business called "archectural services" - which seems to mean scanning D and E sized drawings, and printing such drawings, and generating related stuff. Effectively the "reprographic services" idea noted above, but catering to the archectural and construction (and surveying) industries. They differ from Kinko's/etc in that they have capacity for and understand scale, D size and E size, etc.

jlakes85 · May 3, 2017

Diggerdoug,

I'm running this with a manual eye machine and a cutting torch, lol.

Ronaldbeal,

That's what I was thinking as well, but Im concerned that I will lose the 1:1 scaling on the printout with the conversion to PDF, unless this is not an issue?

-jlakes85

DDoug · May 3, 2017

jlakes85 said:
Diggerdoug,

I'm running this with a manual eye machine and a cutting torch, lol.

Yes, I read that in your first post.

I wanted to know the "back story" of what machine, and what you burn with it.

I found that parts are non existent anymore for the machines, and they really aren't that accurate,
even when running correctly.

SeaMoss · May 3, 2017

jlakes85 said:
Im concerned that I will lose the 1:1 scaling on the printout with the conversion to PDF, unless this is not an issue?

PDF and PostScript (PDF is a neutered version of PostScript) are vector formats. Generally your friendly helpful graphics program will scale the pdf to fit a standard size page. But you can rescale to the correct size without losing accuracy. Easiest way is to maybe put a feature on your dxf which then gets converted to pdf that has a known length - like a 6" scale or something. Then when you print it, adjust the scale factor of the printer so it prints the right size.

You can mess with dots per inch for every step in the process but it's easier to just do it the mouth-breather way.

(Illustrator always pisses me off, it insists on adding margins then rescaling the content to fit what's left of the paper. Thanks, Adobe. You're so helpful.)

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Mud

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