How to apply Layer Mapping when exporting DWG/DXF from SOLIDWORKS
Article by Wayne Chen, CSWP updated September 30, 2010
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DWG/DXF files are still widely used by designers and engineers. Layers are very useful in 2D drawings to distinguish different types of entities. In SOLIDWORKS drawings, there is a layer tool in the Line Format toolbar where you can manually set up different layers, but the process is rather time consuming.
When exporting a drawing as a DWG/DXF from SOLIDWORKS you can setup layer mapping so your DWG/DXF files will have the correct layers and corresponding colours.
Here is a breakdown of the layer mapping process:
- Select File > Save As and choose DWG/DXF, then click on the “Options” button in the save as dialog.
- In the Export options dialog pick “Enable” to activate the Layer Mapping tool (if you already have the layer mapping map file, you can browse for it). Pick OK to finish.
- Then pick Save and then the layer mapping tool dialog will pop up.
- If you are starting from scratch, the mapping content is blank. Shown in the figure below is how I mapped out my layers.
- In the Define layers section you input the layer names you want to show up in DWG/DXF files. Assign colors and line styles for them as well.
- In the Map entities column you specify the “define layers” items to SOLIDWORKS layers. For the colors and line styles, I specified “BYLAYER”.
- In the Entity column, “geometry”, “dimensions”, “centerline” are the different entities in SOLIDWORKS.
- In the third column, you can map to different colors.
- Pick Save Map file if you want to use the settings again, then pick OK to finish
- Then save the DWG/DXF file.
- In the DWG file, all entities will be assigned to the correct layers as shown in the DraftSight window below:
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