Learn/Drafting/Import & Export
Sketch Import / Export
At a glance
- DXF import — all standard entity types (lines, arcs, circles, polylines, splines)
- DXF export — full sketch geometry as a standard DXF file
- SVG import — paths and shapes into the active sketch
- SVG export — clean vector output for laser setup and sign work
While editing a sketch, drop a .dxf or .svg file onto the viewport — or use + Import From
File in the sketch panel's Import / Output section — and its geometry merges into the current
sketch. Multiple files accumulate in one sketch. Parsing runs in a background worker with a
progress indicator, so even enormous files never freeze the app. Image files (PNG, JPG) import as
a canvas layer for tracing instead.
Import details
DXF import reads lines, arcs, circles, lwpolylines, and splines, preserving layer names and entity
colors. Units are handled from the file's $INSUNITS header: mm files convert automatically,
inch files pass through, and unitless files assume your Settings → Preferred Units. SVG import
collapses each subpath into a single polyline and simplifies near-colinear vertices — a Vectric
export with 156,000 tiny line commands becomes a few hundred clean polylines, not 156,000
entities. SVG arcs come in as true arcs, so they stay G2/G3 all the way to G-code (see
Entity Types).
Export
Right-click a sketch in the browser tree to export it as DXF or SVG, scaled to your preferred units so a metric part writes millimeter coordinates. Each entity keeps its layer name in the DXF, and any single layer can be exported by itself from the layer's context menu — handy for splitting cut and score geometry into separate files. The component-level export writes every sketch in a project as DXF in one pass, alongside STEP/STL/3MF for the solid bodies (see Solid Body Export).