Export formats
Exporting a floor plan as DXF
DXF is how a floor plan moves from marketing into design. It carries wall geometry as vector lines at true size, so architects, fit-out contractors and kitchen planners can build on it directly instead of redrawing.
Anyone who has watched a planner measure a PDF on screen with a ruler knows what this export is worth. A DXF saves hours in those situations, and it avoids the errors that redrawing inevitably introduces.
What is inside the DXF
The export writes geometry in millimetres and marks the drawing as metric. Elements sit on separate layers — external walls, internal walls, doors, windows, room labels and dimensions — so individual layers can be switched on and off in CAD.
Drawing extents are set as well, so a CAD package zooms straight to the plan on opening. That sounds trivial, but it prevents the common case of a file appearing empty because the geometry sits outside the visible area.
- Units: millimetres, metric measurement system
- Layers for external walls, internal walls, doors, windows, labels
- Drawing extents set so CAD zooms to the plan immediately
- R12 structure for maximum compatibility with older software
Why R12 on purpose
The export uses the R12 structure. It is the oldest widely supported DXF revision and precisely for that reason the most reliable: practically every CAD package reads it, from current full versions to free viewers and elderly software on site machines.
The price is deliberately low complexity: no block libraries, no dynamic dimension objects, no gradients. For a base drawing that is not a drawback, because a planner replaces exactly those elements with their own standards anyway.
What does not survive the export
A DXF is a drawing, not a building model. Room areas arrive as text rather than as computed properties; furniture, the 3D view and the living-area weighting factors stay behind.
If you need areas as data, add the OpenImmo XML or the JSON export. And for talking to clients, PDF remains the format — a prospect usually cannot open a DXF at all.
Frequently asked questions
Which units does the DXF use?
Millimetres, with a metric measurement system, as is standard in construction drawings. If your CAD shows the drawing a thousand times too large or too small, check the unit setting in the receiving program first.
Which layers does the file contain?
Separate layers for external walls, internal walls, doors, windows, room labels and dimensions. That lets you hide the labelling before overlaying your own design work.
Can I load a DXF back into the editor?
The editor uses its own plan format; the DXF export is a one-way street towards CAD. For lossless round-tripping use the JSON export, and for adopting third-party drawings use the photo import.