DXF Export
DXF Export turns a part, assembly or drawing into cut-ready DXF files in one pass. It is part of the Basic tier.
Open it from the Tools tab → CadShift panel → DXF Export. Press F1 on the button for these docs.
Quick Start
- Open a part, assembly or drawing in Inventor.
- Click Tools → CadShift → DXF Export.
- Click the components, bodies, faces, drawing views or parts lists you want. Every click adds a row to the list. Leave the list empty to export everything in the document.
- Set the file name and output folder in the settings drawer.
- Pick an Output Profile — this controls how the DXF looks.
- Click Export. The report opens in your browser when the run finishes.
What it exports
| You open | What you get |
|---|---|
| Part | The flat pattern, or one DXF per flat solid body in a multi-body part |
| Assembly | One row per distinct part and model state, with the occurrence count as the quantity |
| Drawing | Read from the parts lists first, falling back to the views on the sheets |
Content Center parts, components flagged Excluded, and BOM-structure exclusions are filtered out automatically. That is what keeps a thousand fasteners out of a laser queue.
Your part does not need an existing flat pattern. If it has none, CADshift asks Inventor to create one.
Multi-body sheet metal
A multi-body part exports one DXF per body. Inventor cannot unfold a multi-body part as a whole, so for each bent body CADshift derives that one body into an invisible temporary sheet metal part — carrying the source’s thickness, unfold rule and units — unfolds it, exports it, then discards the temporary document. Nothing is saved and no window appears.
The only requirement is that the source part has been saved at least once.
The window: two phases, one list
Pick. Click things in the Inventor window as you normally would. The Inventor window stays live — you can rotate, zoom and expand the browser tree while the CADshift window is open. Every click appends a row; the list never removes anything on its own. Use a row’s ✕ or Clear list to remove a pick.
Each row carries a coloured pill saying what the pick is and, judged against your current settings, why it would not export. The pill carries a one-click link that changes the setting responsible, so you fix the cause rather than hunting for it.
Preview. The same list gains the collector’s read-only facts under each pick:
- the file it will write, and whether that replaces an existing file
- the first issue found
- a status word
A pick that yields several blanks expands under its own row, each with a picture of its body. Counters across the top read Blanks / Issues / Warnings / Written / Failed.
After the run the export button turns green and becomes View Report.
Assemblies gain three buttons in the pick phase: Add every sheet-metal part, Add flat plates (Professional) and Clear list.
Naming files with tokens
The file name, the sub-folder, the part-notes block and the profile’s etch text all share one token vocabulary. Click a token to insert it as a pill; type freely around the pills.
| Token | Resolves to |
|---|---|
<MODEL_TITLE> | The model’s title iProperty |
<BODY_NAME> | The solid body’s name (multi-body parts) |
<THICKNESS> | Sheet thickness, in the part’s own units |
<QUANTITY> | Occurrence count in the assembly |
<MASS> | Body mass |
<UNIT> | The part’s unit name |
<MODEL_STATE> | The active model state |
<DATE> | Export date |
<MATERIAL> and any other iProperty | Chosen from the iProperty… menu, which lists Inventor’s Design Tracking and Summary properties by Inventor’s own names, ending in Custom property… |
Flat width, flat height and the bounding-box dimensions are also available, but only in the part-notes block.
The default file name is <MODEL_TITLE>.
Two things worth knowing. Any iProperty resolves by name even if it is not in the menu. And a
token that resolves to nothing stays visible as <NAME> in the result, so a typo is obvious
rather than silent. Every length token renders in the part’s own units.
If two parts produce the same file name, CADshift appends " (2)", " (3)" rather than overwriting.
Output folder
Set the output folder in the settings drawer under Name & folder. A FULL PATH preview shows exactly where files will land.
SUB-FOLDER (Professional) builds a folder tree from the same tokens. Type \ between
token pills to add a level — <MATERIAL>\<THICKNESS>mm files every part under its material
and gauge. Leave it empty and everything goes straight into the output folder.
A schema that would escape the output folder is refused: the row still exports, into the base folder, and the reason is shown. The report and the run’s ZIP always go in the base folder, never into a sub-folder.
Settings drawer
Seven sections, collapsible:
- Name & folder — file name pattern, output folder, sub-folder schema (Professional)
- Flat-pattern content — bend lines, forming features and what else Inventor writes
- Bodies — which bodies qualify
- Flat plates that aren’t sheet metal (Professional)
- Part notes — a token-built text block written onto the DXF
- Material bounding box (Professional)
- Open the HTML report when the run finishes
Defaults worth knowing: overwrite existing is on, bend lines on, forming features on, visible bodies only on, maximum plate thickness 6 mm, open report on, part notes off, bounding box off.
Flat plates that aren’t sheet metal — Professional
Some flat parts were never modelled as sheet metal: an extruded plate, an imported STEP solid, a machined bracket. Switch this on and CADshift exports them by writing the outline of the body’s widest planar face. No unfold happens.
The face’s edge loops say directly which loop is the outer boundary and which are interior cuts, so the outline and the cuts land on the right layers with no geometric guesswork. Straight edges and circular arcs are written as exact DXF entities, so holes and slots stay recognisable to your CAM software; anything else is tessellated.
Thickness is the smallest dimension of the body’s bounding box, and the default ceiling is 6 mm. Raise it in the same section.
Units
The export report
At the end of a run CADshift writes DxfExportReport.html into the output folder, plus a
timestamped ZIP containing the report and every DXF written. It opens in your browser
automatically unless you untick that section.
Each card carries an SVG preview rendered from the DXF that was actually written — not from the model — plus the model title, body name, model state, material, thickness in the part’s own units, mass, quantity, the layer names used, whether bend lines were trimmed and by how much, whether the laser filter ran, and every token the part resolved. That last one is what explains a file name you did not expect.
Open Containing Folder buttons open Windows Explorer at the file. They work through a per-user URL handler that CADshift registers on start; if it is unavailable the report falls back to plain file links.
A report failure never turns a successful export into a failed one.
What can go wrong
Only “cannot read the file” fails an export. Every individual post-processing step degrades into a warning on that row, and one unexportable part never takes the batch down.
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| “Open a part, assembly or drawing first.” | Nothing is open |
| A row is greyed with a pill | Read the pill — it names the setting responsible and links to it |
| A warning about a Professional feature | The profile asks for something your tier does not include; the file is still written, without that step |
| A multi-body part exports nothing | The source part has never been saved |
| Flat plate skipped | Its thickness exceeds the ceiling in Flat plates that aren’t sheet metal |
Where settings live
Two stores, deliberately separate.
How the DXF looks — layers, colours, linetypes, bend labels, etch text — lives in the
Output Profile, in %AppData%\CadShift\DxfProfiles. That folder is shared with CADshift
for SOLIDWORKS, so one shop profile drives both products.
Your folders and naming habits live in %AppData%\CadShiftForInventor\settings.json, per
user, per product.
See DXF Output Profiles for everything about layers, bend annotations and etching.