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Stefan Holmbom of Oden Laundry Design reacted on my sceptic words about the usefulness of this type of conversion:
Have just downloaded your HPGL to DXF converter. You think that it's only real use is to recover lost Acad dwg files, etc., and that there is no real need for this kind of a program. We can be mistaken........
You just do not have any idea what a useful utility this is. I have used one for many years (since AutoCad v2.0) now, and it is the sole reason why I am still running one PC under MS-DOS. Now I have found a converter that works under Windows. Yours. I can finally pension off my "oldie".
When working with architects, we need to use their building drawings to overlay on. All we need are structural items that affect our tasks. Unfortunately, they all use Acad add-on programs that are unique, copyright and extremely expensive, and we have huge problems with their dwg files without having these add-ons.
Their drawings are created using proprietry shapes and blocks, and during creation, new entities create own layers with names that cannot be understod what they are used for. Many layers are only for reference, nothing visible on them. Each single entity may use 1 or more layers for itself, and there may then be tens of thousands of layers created.
When an entity is deleted, there is no clean up of the layers it originally created. Same applies to inserted blocks and shapes.
Blocks are scaled and will not "explode", some cannot be deleted. Several entities are elevated or drawn in 3D, others are in 2D. There are sometimes as many as 20 overlaid lines!
Now for the saviour.....
Open the architect's drawing, turn on all layers, delete what I obviously don't need, move the rest to layer 0, then block (WBLOCK) it to a file.
Open the drawing again, then plot to a file (say HP7875 A1 plotter, HPGL1) with plot settings to maximum clean up.
Convert the HPGL file to DXF.
Open a blank original ACAD.DWG, insert the DXF file. Save as a new DWG file.
I now have a clean file, no specials, no overlaid lines, everything on the same level. I do not mind having to re-draw the circles and changing it to my own system of drawing with my own layers. Takes 10 minutes instead of 10 hours.
This new file is now also normally less that 10% in size of the original, very useful when working on or sending.
Hope this helps to make you understand how much I appreciate your program. I am sure others must also know what it can do and how much time it saves.
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