Learn/Design/Import, raster & trace
Vector import
Updated v2.5.5At a glance
- Import DXF and SVG with progress feedback on heavy files
- Every DXF import confirms the Inch/MM toggle and shows the interpreted Width × Height
- Chains become Design shapes; layers inherit sensible names from the file
- Reachable from the browser's Import / Export row as well as the File menu
Bring vector artwork in through Import From File in the Design browser's
Import / Export row, through File → Import, or by dropping a
file on the viewport — Design
accepts .dxf and .svg (raster formats go to a
reference canvas instead). Heavy files convert in a
background worker with a progress indicator, so a 10,000-entity plasma art file doesn't freeze the
app while it loads.
How geometry comes in
The importer chains loose entities into contours: each connected open or closed chain becomes one Design shape. Arcs and curves are tessellated into polylines at a tight fixed tolerance, so imported geometry follows the same line-only contract as everything drawn in Design. Nesting is detected on import — a top-level contour is automatically grouped with its holes, its islands, and any open chains it contains, so a traced logo arrives as one selectable unit per letter or emblem rather than hundreds of loose contours.
Units on import
Before a DXF adds shapes, Design asks you to confirm the familiar Inch / MM toggle and shows the interpreted Width × Height in Preferred Units with the other unit system underneath. Inch and MM are JetCad3's two standards. A matching declaration in the DXF seeds the toggle; centimeter and meter declarations convert automatically through MM and seed MM. Missing, unitless, invalid, conflicting, or genuinely unsupported declarations fall back to Preferred Units and stay visibly flagged. The final selection controls the scale, so a misleading header can be corrected before anything changes.
Changing the source units updates both size readouts immediately. Spline-derived measurements are labeled Approx. rather than presented as exact. SVG keeps its existing import behavior. Shapes from the built-in Shape Generator are a known internal source and still arrive at their exact intended size without an external-file prompt.
Layer handling
DXF polylines keep their source layer names; other DXF entities and all SVG content import under
Default. Imported layer rows are prefixed with the (truncated) source filename so two files with
a "Cut" layer don't collide, and each new layer picks up the next
palette color in creation order.
Going the other way
Export… in the Import / Export row (or Export Design in the File menu) writes the whole document — or right-click a layer for Export Layer as DXF / SVG — scaled to your preferred units, with a units badge in the export dialog confirming what the file will contain. A design drawn in millimeters exports at millimeter coordinates, ready for any downstream CAM program. To hand a design straight to a cutting workspace instead of writing a file, use Send To… in the same row.
Artwork can also come from a Drafting sketch rather than a file — see Import from Drafting.