Glossary/Drawing basics
DXF
A text- or binary-based drawing exchange format that mirrors DWG's structure.
DXF (Drawing Exchange Format) is Autodesk's openly documented alternative to DWG, meant for exchanging drawing data with software that isn't AutoCAD itself. It stores the same kinds of objects — entities, blocks, layers, text — in a format third-party tools can read without an AutoCAD license.
Most CAD interoperability tools that don't require AutoCAD to be installed work against DXF rather than DWG for this reason. CADXChange's tools work directly with DWG through AutoCAD, so they don't need a DXF round-trip.