Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ames!amdahl!shs
From: shs@uts.amdahl.com (Steve Schoettler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Autocad translator
Message-ID: <24wV02ZY2cHp01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 24 May 89 21:44:10 GMT
Reply-To: shs@uts.amdahl.com (Steve Schoettler)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 34

This DXF converter program sounds useful, but remember that with
public domain programs, there are several ways to use autocad drawings
on the Amiga already:

	From Autocad, save the program in postscript, instead of DXF format.
	I have used autocad-produced-postscript pictures in AmigaTeX
	  documents.  They work beautifully together!
	Also, you can look at autocad-produced-postscript pictures with
	  Tom's port of ghostscript, although you might want to go
	  into the file to scale it if you want to see any detail on the screen.

	Or, from AutoCAD, (or many other cad packages), you can save the file
	  in HPGL (Hewlett-Packard Plotter language) format and run the
	  hpgl2ps converter (available from comp.sources.unix).  The output
	  of this converter can either be viewed on the screen with ghostscript,
	  or printed or used in an AmigaTeX document.

	Another option is using Macintosh AutoCAD to save pictures in GIF or
	  TIFF and using the FBM library posted to comp.graphics
	  to convert it to IFF.

Of course, this presumes that you have AutoCAD running on a PC or MAC.
If someone wants to give you an AutoCAD drawing, just ask them to save it
in postscript or hpgl, instead of DXF.  If you're stuck with DXF,
or you are using a text formatter other than TeX, you probably still need
the DXF translator.

Steve
-- 

        Steve Schoettler
        shs@uts.amdahl.com
        {sun,decwrl,pyramid,ames,uunet}!amdahl!shs
        Amdahl Corp., M/S 213, 1250 E. Arques Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94088