I'd like to share a plug-in that exports the current plan view of a Sweet Home 3D project to a DXF file (AutoCAD R12 format), so it can be opened in CAD applications like LibreCAD, QCAD, BricsCAD, AutoCAD, etc.
I'm not a programmer myself — this plug-in was written for me by Claude (an AI assistant by Anthropic) over a long back-and-forth conversation where I described what I needed and Claude wrote, debugged and refined the code. I'm posting it here in case it's useful to other people, and of course you're welcome to improve it.
== What it exports ==
The plug-in adds an "Export to DXF..." item to the Plan menu. When you run it, a dialog lets you choose which text labels to include (room names, room areas, furniture names, dimension numbers, labels). Then a normal save dialog asks where to write the DXF file.
The output uses these layers:
WALLS white wall outlines ROOMS green room polygons + name + area FURNITURE cyan top-view outline of each piece FURN_TEXT gray furniture names DIMENSIONS red dimension lines + numbers LABELS yellow text labels POLYLINES magenta free-drawn polylines
The Y axis is flipped on export so the result matches the usual CAD convention (Y up). The DXF header sets $INSUNITS = 5 (centimeters).
== Furniture outlines ==
This is the part I'm most happy with: instead of drawing each piece as a plain bounding rectangle, the plug-in walks the Java 3D scene graph of the loaded model, calls ModelManager.getAreaOnFloor(Node) on each Shape3D, and writes the resulting 2D projection. So a sofa shows its curve, a chair shows its legs, an L-shaped desk shows its actual footprint, and so on.
To keep file size reasonable, very small mesh parts are filtered out, and pieces with more than 12 sub-parts are merged into a single area. If the model can't be loaded for any reason, the plug-in falls back to the bounding rectangle so you always get something.
== Tested with ==
Sweet Home 3D 7.5 on Windows 11 LibreCAD 2.2.1.2 (opens correctly, including Chinese text after LibreCAD's font settings are reset to defaults)
Adobe Illustrator gave error 2067 when opening the DXF, which seems to be Illustrator's well-known strict DXF parser. A workaround is to open the file in LibreCAD first and re-save it; Illustrator then accepts it.
== Source code ==
[paste the source code here, or attach the .sh3p, or link to a repo]
== Build instructions ==
You need a JDK (8 or newer) and SweetHome3D.jar from your installation.
Double-click the resulting .sh3p, restart Sweet Home 3D, then look for "Export to DXF..." at the bottom of the Plan menu.
== Limitations ==
- DXF dimensions are written as plain LINE + TEXT entities, not real DIMENSION entities. They display correctly everywhere but cannot be edited as dimension objects in CAD software. - Curved walls are flattened into short line segments (0.5 cm flatness). - Chinese / non-ASCII text is encoded as \U+XXXX escapes. Modern CAD applications display this correctly as long as the chosen text font supports the relevant characters.
I hope this is useful to someone. Feedback and improvements are welcome.
(Plug-in code written by Claude, an AI assistant by Anthropic)
Netherlands
Joined: Apr 8, 2022
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Re: [Plug-in] DXF Export — Export current plan view to DXF (AutoCAD R12)
Nice work! Every now and then there are requests for import/export from/to DXF, I'm sure there are many users that will appreciate this.
(Please remove the double-post before you get replies on both posts.)
---------------------------------------- Dodecagon.nl 1300+ 3D models, manuals, and projects
台灣
Joined: May 8, 2026
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Re: [Plug-in] DXF Export — Export current plan view to DXF (AutoCAD R12)
Thank you! I’m glad to hear that. I also agree that DXF import/export support would be very useful for many users. By the way, I’ve already removed the duplicate post to avoid confusion. Thanks again for the feedback!
Croatia
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Re: [Plug-in] DXF Export — Export current plan view to DXF (AutoCAD R12)
I tried the plugin and I am delighted. It is invaluable to me. The only problem is that it does not work directly in Autocad LT 2024, but it works through CorelDrw as an export again in dxf or dwg. Several of my clients are looking for drawings in dxf or dwg format. The dimensions of the drawings are accurate and everything looks great.
