Shapefile to DXF Converter
Writes the geometries of the Shapefiles in a ZIP to a DXF drawing with GDAL's ogr2ogr.
Upload a ZIP with Shapefiles. GDAL writes the geometries into one DXF file for CAD programs. DXF cannot store attribute tables, so the attributes are not written; the report lists the fields GDAL could not create.
Drag a file here to convert, or select file
Accepted: .zip · max. 50 MB
What the converter does
- The ZIP may hold several Shapefiles, also in subfolders; each becomes a layer. macOS files are ignored, the text encoding is detected (.cpg, DBF header, otherwise UTF-8 or Windows-1252) and a missing .shx is rebuilt. The report lists what was found.
- Only geometries are written. For every attribute GDAL reports "DXF layer does not support arbitrary field creation"; these messages appear in the report.
- Polygons are written as HATCH entities; all entities are on the DXF layer 0.
- DXF has no coordinate system: the coordinates are written unchanged (e.g. UTM metres).
- The report below the upload shows layers and features read and written, skipped layers with the reason, GDAL's warnings and the exact commands.
GDAL command the worker runs
Tested with
| Test file | Result |
|---|---|
| ZIP with 1 polygon in EPSG:25832, fields id and art | DXF with 1 HATCH entity; id and art not written (2 GDAL messages in the report) |
| ZIP with 4 points, fields id, name, datum | 4 of 4 points on layer 0; the 3 fields not written |
Tested on 24 Sep 2026 with the worker code of this site and GDAL 3.10.3 (conda-forge build on Windows). The worker image runs the Debian build of the same GDAL version; the live worker was not part of these tests.
Limits
- Upload limit: 50 MB per file.
- Attributes are lost; DXF stores only geometry.
- No coordinate system in the DXF.
- Each GDAL step may run for up to 240 seconds; a longer run is stopped with an error message.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where are my attributes?
DXF has no attribute table. GDAL writes the geometries and reports each field it could not create; the report shows these messages.
What happens to my file?
Your browser uploads it directly to the GDAL worker on Fly.io (region Frankfurt). The worker converts it in a temporary folder and deletes the folder after sending the result, or immediately if the conversion fails. Files are not stored permanently.