: Illustrator not able to open dxf file in original size? I want to open a dxf file in Illustrator. The dxf file can be found here. It is important for me to keep the scale, so no changes

@Bethany839

In his other question of his DXF problems the questioner provided his original DelftShip (=DS) model from where his DXF was exported. The model was in a comment after my answer. Opening the model in a demo version of DS revealed that his boat is nearly 900 meters long. That's not a realistic length. The questioner obviously thought that it's a missing setting or wrong mode selection in reading the DXF in Adobe Illustrator.

DXF exports from DS are unitless. So the exported boat normally is interpreted to be 900 millimeters (actually 899,991 mm) long in CAD programs which handle millimeters. It's the same in Illustrator. The problematic DXF had been exported in millimeters. That option multiplies all coordinates by 1000, so Illustrator thought it 900 meters long. It fitted to Illustrator when scaled down by selecting 1 unit = 0,001 millimeters.

What is the idea to draw a 900 m long boat, which in reality might be only 10...12 meters long? It's not a result of accepting the defaults. I quess the design is only a concept. Its zero thickness materials suggest it. In addition it's easy to talk about it when all position coordinates are handy integers and still accurate enough.

In DS the boat can be scaled (=Tools > Transform > Scale) to any practical size. Only remember to select all (=Ctrl+ A) before it, deselect with Esc.

The section curve placements can be set freely in the Tools > Intersections dialog.

How to make measurements in DS? One can easily point with cursor any detail in the model. The coordinates are visible all the time. The accuracy is only the screen accuracy and the result is acceptable only as 2D data. A perpendicular viewing projection is a must if one wants to be sure what he actually has pointed.

By selecting Home > Hull Display > Control Net one can make exact measurements. Those control points which are marked as corner points, are actual surface points with exact coordinates. Other control points are only theoretical quides for the curved surface.

There are red lines which are marked as edge lines. When one or several edge lines are selected, their added lenght is visible at the bottom of the screen. If the edge is between 2 corner points, its lenght is a real measure of the surface edge.



Here is one corner point and an edge (=yellow) selected. The coordinates of the point are in the dialog as well as "it's a corner point". The length of an edge (145,01 meters) is at he bottom of the screen.

In DS the section curves are only for visualization. They cannot be measured exactly in DS. But they are exact and measurable in the exported DXF.

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@Turnbaugh909

Your DXF has no units. It's coordinates are interpreted to be millimeters if you have selected millimeters to be used in Ai. Probably the original cad program which has outputted your DXF knows a hidden place where to read the units from, but Ai knows nothing about it. This way the cad program manufacturer tries to keep some advantage against the rivals. I am sure that most cad programs do not find the right scaling of your DXF. I tried a couple and both failed altough opened the file. I do not have Autocad nor anything else from Autodesk.

If you still want to use Ai


open the DXF with sufficient scaling; try one unit to equal 0,001 millimeters or 0,0001 millimeters.
select all
Object > Transform > Scale xxxx % uniformly.


The scaling factor xxx is 100 * (a known length / how Ai shows the known length)

To check the Ai size of a known object select it. You can see its width and height in the Info panel and in the Control panel.

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@Kimberly620

It is not possible to make documents that are bigger than ~578 cm (227 inches) wide in illustrator. If this boat is in real scale then that would be the reason; You can not do it. This limit can not be circumvented, you just have to work in scale.

Looking at your previous question one has to wonder why you would bother to use Illustrator at all? Its not the tool for this job.

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