Online DXF Sketcher & Editor: Draw 2D Parts

Draw a flat part, type exact sizes, round the corners and download a clean DXF for your laser, plasma, waterjet or router. Closed outlines are joined into closed polylines. Everything runs in your browser.

You have a sketch from last time.
Select
X 0   Y 0
Pick a tool. Type numbers any time while drawing for exact sizes.
Shift lock horizontal / vertical · middle or right drag to pan · wheel to zoom

Part size

0 × 0 mm (width × height)
0 objects

Properties

Nothing selected. Click an object with Select, or drag a box around several.

Layers

Dot = current layer for new objects. Eye = show or hide. Box = include in DXF and SVG. CONSTRUCTION is off for export by default.

Units, grid and snaps

Object snaps

Export and import

Imports read LINE, ARC, CIRCLE and polylines (with arcs). Untick the last box to put everything on the current layer.

Keyboard shortcuts

L Line
R Rectangle
C Circle
A Arc
U Slot
P Polygon
F Fillet
O Offset
M Move
K Copy
T Rotate
I Mirror
D Measure
S Select
Z Zoom to fit
Del Delete
Esc Cancel / finish
Enter Apply / finish
Ctrl+Z Undo
Ctrl+Y Redo
Ctrl+A Select all
Shift Ortho lock
Space + drag to pan
Typed input: x,y absolute, @dx,dy relative, @length<angle polar. Sums such as 25.4*2 work. Tab moves between boxes.

How the DXF Sketcher Works

The sketcher is a small 2D CAD program for flat parts. You draw with lines, arcs, circles, slots and polygons, round the corners with fillets, and download a DXF that a laser, plasma, waterjet or router CAM program can read.

All geometry is stored in real units (mm or inches), not screen pixels. Corners, tangent points and intersections are worked out exactly with geometry formulas, so a 100 mm line is 100 mm in the file. Nothing is uploaded: the drawing lives in your browser and is saved there automatically.

The Method

1. Click or type every point
Click to place points, or type them in the box at the bottom of the drawing. Each step shows the boxes it needs, such as Length and Angle for a line or Width and Height for a rectangle. Leave a box empty to take that value from the mouse, so you can point in a direction and type only the length. The first box also takes a whole point:
  • 30,15 is the absolute point X 30, Y 15.
  • @40,0 is 40 to the right of the last point.
  • @50<30 is 50 long at 30° (counter-clockwise from +X).
2. Snaps
Near existing geometry the cursor jumps to ends (square), middles (triangle), centres (circle), quadrants (diamond) and intersections (cross). Intersections of line with line, line with circle and circle with circle are solved exactly. Perpendicular is off by default. Away from geometry the cursor snaps to the grid. Hold Shift to keep a line horizontal or vertical.
3. Fillet (corner radius)
setback d = r ÷ tan(θ ÷ 2)
corner to centre = r ÷ sin(θ ÷ 2)
θ is the angle between the two lines. Both lines are trimmed back by d to the tangent points and a true arc of radius r joins them, so the arc meets each line exactly tangent. For a 90° corner d equals r. A radius of 0 trims or extends the lines to a sharp corner.
4. Arcs
bulge = tan(sweep ÷ 4)
Arcs are kept the DXF way: a centre, a radius and a start and end angle, always counter-clockwise. A 3-point arc picked clockwise is stored the other way round, so it is the same curve. Inside a closed polyline each arc becomes a bulge on the vertex before it; a 90° fillet has a bulge of tan 22.5° = 0.414214.
5. Export
The DXF is R12 (AC1009), the version almost every CAM program reads. Lines and arcs on the same layer whose ends meet in a simple loop are joined into one closed POLYLINE. Everything else is written as LINE, ARC and CIRCLE. Y is up, the drawing keeps its own origin (or you can move the lower-left corner to 0,0), and $INSUNITS is set to mm or inches. The SVG is drawn at real size.
6. Import and edit
Import DXF reads LINE, ARC, CIRCLE, LWPOLYLINE and POLYLINE from any layer. Polylines are split into lines and arcs so you can edit each piece, then joined again on export. Use it to tidy a file from the DXF Part Maker, the Image to DXF Converter or another CAD program. Text, splines, ellipses, hatches and blocks are skipped and the page tells you how many.

Worked Example

A 100 × 60 mm plate with R10 corners and four Ø8 holes 10 mm in from the edges
  1. Units mm. Press R, type 0,0 and Enter for the first corner. Type 100, Tab, 60, Enter. You now have four lines.
  2. Press F, type 10 in the Radius box and Enter. Click the two lines at each corner in turn. Each straight edge shrinks by 10 at both ends: the long edges become 80 and the short ones 40.
  3. Make HOLES the current layer. Press C, type 10,10 and Enter for the centre, then Tab to Diameter, type 8 and Enter. Repeat at 90,10, 90,50 and 10,50 (or select the hole and use Copy with @80,0).
  4. The size box shows 100 × 60 mm, 1 closed outline and no open ends. Click DXF.
  5. The file holds one closed POLYLINE on layer OUTLINE with 8 vertices, four of them with a bulge of 0.414214 (90° arcs), and four CIRCLEs of radius 4 on layer HOLES at (10, 10), (90, 10), (90, 50) and (10, 50).

The outline length is 2 × 80 + 2 × 40 + 2π × 10 = 240 + 62.832 = 302.832 mm of cut. Each hole sits on the centre of its corner radius, leaving 6 mm of material all round. We drew this exact part with the sketcher's own code and checked the DXF with the ezdxf library: no audit errors, and every line, arc and circle reads back within 0.000001 mm.

Tips for Laser, Plasma, Waterjet and Router Files

  • Closed outlines. CAM programs cut inside and outside correctly only when each shape is a closed loop. The size box counts closed outlines and shows open ends as red circles. Snap to ends when you draw so lines really meet.
  • No duplicate lines. A line drawn twice is cut twice, which burns the edge and wastes time. If the size box reports duplicates, click Delete duplicates.
  • Kerf. Draw the finished part size. The cutting program offsets the path by half the kerf, outside the outline and inside the holes. Only offset the drawing yourself if your machine has no kerf compensation, and then by half the kerf (for example 0.75 mm for a 1.5 mm plasma kerf). Kerf widths vary with the machine, nozzle and material, so measure a test cut.
  • Small holes and inside corners. As a rough guide, plasma holes smaller than the plate thickness come out poorly; drill them instead. On a router, an inside corner cannot be smaller than the cutter radius.
  • Construction lines. Put centre lines and layout lines on CONSTRUCTION. They help you snap but stay out of the DXF unless you tick the box.
  • Related tools. Work out hole positions with the Bolt Circle Calculator, nest parts with the Sheet Cut Optimizer, and check the finished program in the G-Code Simulator.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nothing is uploaded. The sketch is saved automatically in your own browser, and next time you can click Restore last sketch. Clearing your browser data removes it, so use Save to keep a .json copy you can open again later.

Start typing while a tool is active and the numbers go into the input box at the bottom of the drawing. Use Tab to move between boxes and Enter to apply. Type x,y for an absolute point, @dx,dy for a point relative to the last one, or @length<angle. Empty boxes take their value from the mouse.

Somewhere two ends do not meet, or three pieces meet at one point. The sketcher marks open ends with red circles and counts them in the size box. Zoom in on each one and redraw or edit the end so it snaps exactly onto its neighbour. Outlines split across two layers are not joined either.

Yes, for simple 2D files. Import DXF reads lines, arcs, circles and polylines with arcs, on any layer, and converts between mm and inches when the file says which it uses. Text, splines, ellipses, hatches and blocks are skipped, and the page tells you how many were left out.

The file is R12 DXF with lines, arcs, circles and closed polylines, the most widely supported form. It opens in AutoCAD, Fusion, SolidWorks, LibreCAD, QCAD, Inkscape, SheetCAM, LightBurn and most laser, plasma and router software.

Usually not. Draw the finished part and let the cutting software apply kerf compensation, outside the outline and inside the holes. If your machine has no compensation, use Offset to move the outline out and the holes in by half the kerf before you export.

Check the DXF in your CAM program and measure a test cut before cutting good material. Kerf and small-hole figures above are rough guides, not machine data.