What is a DXF File

DXF or Data Exchange Format/Data Interchange Format was developed by Autodesk and originally used for CAD (Computer Aided Design).  The DXF format was developed as a universal format so that AutoCAD documents could be opened more easily with other programs.  A DXF file is very similar to the original DWG file format but is more compatible with other programs since it is ASCII(text)based.  DXF was introduced in 1982 as part of AutoCAD 1.0.  Versions of AutoCAD from release 10 (October 1988) and up support both ASCII and Binary forms of DXF.  Earlier versions of AutoCAD could only support ASCII.  DXF is probably one of the most widely supported vector formats in the world today.  DXF Files are relatively easy to parse since they are tagged and text based and therefore human readable.   Exporting your splined DXF files from AutoCAD in a R14 or 2000 DXF format will help to produce polyline DXF files that will work as suitable cut paths in most CNC software programs.