ezdxf

Abstract

A Python package to create and modify DXF drawings, independent of the DXF version. You can open/save every DXF file without losing any content (except comments), Unknown tags in the DXF file will be ignored but preserved for saving. With this behavior it is possible to open also DXF drawings that contains data from 3rd party applications.

Quick-Info

ezdxf is a Python package to create new DXF files and read/modify/write existing DXF files
the intended audience are developers
requires at least Python 3.6
OS independent
tested with CPython and pypy3
C-extensions for CPython as binary wheels available on PyPI for Windows, Linux and macOS
additional required packages: pyparsing
optional Cython implementation of some low level math classes
MIT-License
read/write/new support for DXF versions: R12, R2000, R2004, R2007, R2010, R2013 and R2018
additional read support for DXF versions R13/R14 (upgraded to R2000)
additional read support for older DXF versions than R12 (upgraded to R12)
read/write support for ASCII DXF and Binary DXF
preserves third-party DXF content

Included Extensions

The drawing add-on is a translation layer to send DXF data to a render backend, interfaces to matplotlib, which can export images as png, pdf or svg, and PyQt5 are implemented.
geo add-on to support the __geo_interface__
r12writer add-on to write basic DXF entities direct and fast into a DXF R12 file or stream
iterdxf add-on to iterate over DXF entities of the modelspace of really big (> 5GB) DXF files which do not fit into memory
Importer add-on to import entities, blocks and table entries from another DXF document
dxf2code add-on to generate Python code for DXF structures loaded from DXF documents as starting point for parametric DXF entity creation
Plot Style Files (CTB/STB) read/write add-on

A simple example:

import ezdxf

# Create a new DXF document.
doc = ezdxf.new(dxfversion='R2010')

# Create new table entries (layers, linetypes, text styles, ...).
doc.layers.new('TEXTLAYER', dxfattribs={'color': 2})

# DXF entities (LINE, TEXT, ...) reside in a layout (modelspace, 
# paperspace layout or block definition).  
msp = doc.modelspace()

# Add entities to a layout by factory methods: layout.add_...() 
msp.add_line((0, 0), (10, 0), dxfattribs={'color': 7})
msp.add_text(
    'Test', 
    dxfattribs={
        'layer': 'TEXTLAYER'
    }).set_pos((0, 0.2), align='CENTER')

# Save DXF document.
doc.saveas('test.dxf')

Example for the r12writer, which writes a simple DXF R12 file without in-memory structures:

from random import random
from ezdxf.addons import r12writer

MAX_X_COORD = 1000
MAX_Y_COORD = 1000

with r12writer("many_circles.dxf") as doc:
    for _ in range(100000):
        doc.add_circle((MAX_X_COORD*random(), MAX_Y_COORD*random()), radius=2)

The r12writer supports only the ENTITIES section of a DXF R12 drawing, no HEADER, TABLES or BLOCKS section is present, except FIXED-TABLES are written, than some additional predefined text styles and line types are available.

Installation

Install with pip including the optional C-extensions from PyPI as binary wheels:

pip install ezdxf

Install from source code. To build the optional C-extensions the Cython package, and a working C++ compiler setup is required:

python setup.py install

Install the latest development version with pip from GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/mozman/ezdxf.git@master

Dependencies in Detail

The pyparsing package is the only hard dependency and will be installed automatically by pip!

INSTALL from PyPI including C-extensions: pyparsing (most common case)
INSTALL from PyPI for usage of the drawing add-on: pyparsing, matplotlib, pyqt5
INSTALL from source code without C-extensions: setuptools, pyparsing
INSTALL from source code including C-extensions: setuptools, pyparsing, Cython, and a working C++ compiler setup
TESTING requires the additional packages: pytest, geomdl
BUILD packages from source code without C-extensions: setuptools, wheel
BUILD packages from source code including C-extensions: setuptools, wheel, Cython, and a working C++ compiler setup

Install all optional packages:

pip install setuptools wheel cython pytest geomdl matplotlib pyqt5

Windows users who want to compile the C-extensions from source code need the build tools from Microsoft: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/de/downloads/

Download and install the required Visual Studio Installer of the community edition and choose the option: Visual Studio Build Tools 20..