QCAD.org Forum

I have a number of dwg and dxf files produced by AutoCAD which do not seem to load properly into my QCAD 3.21.3 PRO system.

For example the file Second_Flr_Plan.dwg gives the result to the linux "file" command to be

Second_Flr_Plan.dwg: DWG AutoDesk AutoCAD 2010/2011/2012

That this is a real drawing is confirmed by having a friend produce a PDF from it in the usual way.

This is a consistent problem with a whole group of DWG and DXF files I have that come from AutoCAD.

When I load them, I get a blank sheet, and doing something like ZA to zoom all produces nothing visible. I have switched view to draft and back, and still nothing visible.

I must be missing something, but I cannot see what it is at this point.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

- charles

I tried in AutoCAD 2016 and received errors stating invalid external references... you got files that might rely on other add-ons or are corrupt.

Charles Dyer wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 01, 2019 12:01 am

That this is a real drawing is confirmed by having a friend produce a PDF from it in the usual way.

It looks to me that your "real drawing" is linked to the content (reference) of a real drawing but nothing more and the reference file isn't available.

If your friend is able to produce a pdf from this dxf/dwg then your friend has the reference file ...

Thanks for the helpful responses. They pointed at the real problem, that being the reference to an image which I did have in PDF format, but not in the loadable format. It seems that my friend did not realise that the PDF file was not enough, and that there was another loadable file, called data04.PDF, that was required. Based on your suggestions as to the problem, I converted the original PDF background image to PNG format using pdftoppm -png on the PDF file. Then I started qcad and loaded that PNG file, and it worked.

Thanks, and cheers,

- charles

Husky: How do you get qcad to provide error messages such as the one you gave about the PDF file not being available? I am having trouble finding how to generate such useful messages.

Thanks, - charles

Charles Dyer wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 01, 2019 11:13 pm

Husky: How do you get qcad to provide error messages such as the one you gave about the PDF file not being available? I am having trouble finding how to generate such useful messages.

Thanks, - charles

Same way I did.

Charles Dyer wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 01, 2019 11:13 pm

Husky: How do you get qcad to provide error messages such as the one you gave about the PDF file not being available? I am having trouble finding how to generate such useful messages.

Thanks, - charles

That isn't a QCAD message. That message is produced by Autodesk:
https://viewer.autodesk.com/