Ultiboard DXF to Gerber Polylines not converting to Polygons

[joel.love]

Hello,

I am attempting to import an antenna DXF file into ultiboard and export it as a gerber file.  The DXF has two two layers, board outline and copper, which I select merging to Board Outline and Copper Top.  I also check the "Convert polylines to polygons" option, but when it imports, there are no polygons/copper areas, everything just imports as copper traces as you can see in the screenshots.  Any idea why the polylines aren't converting?  The dxf was generated from solidworks, so I am confident the pads are closed areas.  At the bottom of the antenna, you can see there is even some text (the part number) which would clearly be closed, but isn't converting either.

[joel.love]

screenshots

[David22JRA]

Hello joel.love

Thanks for the information about the issue you have. The next link includes some steps that might be useful for you.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/4E17B7ADF49BCFB686257B1000501C31?OpenDocument (DXF Import is not creating Filled objects in Ultiboard)

Have a great day

[joel.love · Accepted solution]

That article basically says to check the "Convert closed polylines to polygons" option during import, which as I mentioned, wasn't working for me.  But for anyone else having this problem, I solved it by editing the dxf file so that the copper areas I wanted filled, were filled.  Then when I imported the modified dxf into ultiboard, they correctly imported as copper areas regardless of whether the "Convert closed polylines to polygons" option was checked or not.

[Skywalker41]

Hello, how did you edit the file so that it is filled if i may ask. I'm facing the same problem and tried nearly 6 different pcb softwares and couldn't solve it. Ultiboard is the one i closest to solve but still i couldn't. 

[joel.love]

We created the DXF file in solidworks, but any CAD program should work.  I don't think you can edit the dxf directly in a pcb program, so if you don't have solidworks or autocad, you could try freeCAD or one of the other open source CAD programs.  In solidworks, when you edit the DXF as a drawing, you can right click in the outlined area, select shading, and select solid fill to fill the area.  I'd expect other CAD programs to be similar.  Once you have all the areas you want properly shaded, you can just export this drawing as a new dxf, and it should import into any pcb program with the shaded areas as filled copper areas.  I couldn't find a way to fill the outlined areas using only a pcb program; I had to modify the dxf file in my CAD program to fix this issue.  Hope that helps.