QCAD.org Forum

I am extremely new to Qcad although have a basic understanding of CAD. I've made my first basic drawing and saved it as a DXF. When I try and dimension the drawing the dimensions ( 3" x 3.5") come out correct. However, when I do a print preview the drawing appears on the page to be about a 1/4 " square. Also, when I import the drawing into my g-code generator it also is extremely small and unusable. I've checked my drawing settings as well as my application setting and they seem correct.

I know I'm doing something wrong but don't know what or where to check.
I'm running Windows 11 and QCad version 3.32-2

Thanks in Advance

Hi,

The SVG format is not a native CAD format.
Would it be possible to attach the DXF file itself?

A DXF would hold more information like:
- The drawing unit
- Dimension scale
- Paper size and last used print area, scale, ...
- ...
- ..


When I open (re-import) the SVG I get a drawing in mm.
Pretty logical, my Application Preferences for default settings of new (DXF) drawings is set to mm.

In the drawing we discover a polyline with 1 straight segment going from (0.0, 0.0) to (63.5, 0.0)

The rest is drawn centered around (2800.35, 25.40)
For QCAD/CAM the work origin is the drawing origin ... I don't have a CNC bed that is 2.9 meters long.
Other CAM may allow to relocate the work origin.

The outer contour is 88.90 by 76.20 units or 3.5 by 3 inch.
At the left edge of this design there is a vertical duplicate polyline with 1 straight segment 76.20 long.
>> Not detectable with MD.
And there are 2 null-length polylines, one at (2768.60, 50.80) and another at (2844.80, -12.70).
>> Detectable with MZ.

I can also open the SVG with for example Inkscape.
Due to the loose segment near the origin, the custom page is reported as 2844.80 wide and 76.20 high (112 by 3 inch).
Printing that auto-scaled on a 11 inch (US Letter) or 297 mm (ISO A4) wide paper may account for a paper scale of ≈1:10.
Your design would be less than about 0.35 inch high on paper, accounting for page margins.


Another strange thing are the 4 holes as logically open polylines with 3 vertices. (Bulge factors: 1, 1, 0)
I would not explode circles unless utterly required (See Application Preferences .. Modify .. Explode).

Then QCAD would explode circles to a logically closed polyline with 2 vertices. (Bulge factors: 1, 1)
Even if that is exploded further into arcs it would recombine (OC) them to a logically closed polyline with 2 vertices.

Regards,
CVH

Thanks for the replies. Both were helpful in helping me find the problem. CVH hit it! I did have a rogue line and deleting it made everything work just fine. Thanks for all your help. But don't think I'm gone. I've got a lot to learn. RE

Paero wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 08, 2025 8:27 pm

Thanks for the replies. Both were helpful

I only see one public reply ...

When considered as solved, please add [SOLVED] to the title of your initial post by editing it.

Regards,
CVH