A simple DXF viewer. The DXF Viewer is a Java software which shows you the content of DXF files.

DXF is a widely used file format for exchanging 3D CAD data. It's not an open format but owned by AutoDesk Inc. who used it for their software AutoCAD . With every new version of AutoCAD the definition of DXF is changed but nevertheless there are zillions of programs which are capable of reading and writing some form of DXF.

The latest version of the viewer is for Java version 1.1.x and newer. It is designed to run as a stand-alone software and as an Applet.
I've spent a lot time in the Xmas holidays 2001 trying to create workarounds for browser's bugs, so the browser should run better as an Applet nowadays (i.e. for Viewer versions starting with 1.20).

Features
1. The viewer is written totally in Java 1.1 and therefore runs on every computer in the universe where a Java Virtual Machine capable of running Java 1.1 bytecode is available.
2. It understands DXF until the version released with AutoCAD R12 which is a widely adopted standard. If you try to display newer DXF versions you'll probably have problems like missing entities. If you discover something like that you can click on the viewer's status line to see the message log where it tells which version of DXF it found.
3. AutoDesk introduced incompatible and deliberatly obscured features in DXF with R13 so don't expect support for newer versions too soon -- if ever.

4. It can read binary and ASCII DXF files, even if they are packed in zip or gzip format. This is nice for network connections (esp. Applets) because DXF packs very well.
5. It displays the data in the DXF file as a 3D wireframe model in a perspective view. You can rotate, move and zoom the model with the mouse.
6. The viewer is capable of language switching. Currently only English (or better: my version of it) and German are supported.
7. The stand-alone version allows printing of the view but printing is not supported very well in Java 1.1 so the results are not really satisfying. If you run the viewer on Unix or another computer with a PostScript printer you can use the "Save as PostScript..." feature to print PostScript directly with much better results.
8. The applet may be printed in-page with the print command of your browser. Note that it prints in-page even when running in a window of its own.
9. Since version 1.20.00 rudimentary LiveConnect support is added, which allows you to control the viewer from JavaScript. Most useful feature is that you can load another model this way. See the test pages for an example.

Requirements:
* Java

The license of this software is Freeware, you can free download and free use this cad software.