Format answer · for brands sending patterns to a Los Angeles factory
Is a DXF enough for an LA factory?
It depends on what your factory's system imports. Ask before you export.
A plain DXF can arrive wrong and still look right.
DXF does not force a unit. If the file is in millimetres and the factory reads inches, every piece is 25.4 times off while the shapes look correct. Scale is set explicitly and checked on one known measurement right after import.
Minerva Patterns, June 2026, practitioner article.
AAMA or ASTM DXF carries pieces and grading, sometimes with a separate RUL file.
Grading can travel inside the file or as a separate RUL rule file. If the factory's system expects the rule file and it is missing, the factory sees only the base size. This has been reported for CLO exports opened in Gerber.
CLO user forum, user-reported, version-dependent.
Markers are not pattern files.
The pattern exchange practice covers pattern pieces and grading, not marker, plotter or cutter instructions. So "graded and marked" is two jobs. A marker also needs the factory's cutting-table length, the fabric width and the size ratio.
ASTM D6673-10 public scope; Fashion-Incubator, 2009 (older).
"ASTM-compliant" is not something to ask for.
ASTM D6673 is marked withdrawn with no replacement. Ask what the factory imports instead.
ASTM store listing, updated January 9, 2019.
What each kind of file carries
Plain DXF
Shapes only. Opens almost anywhere, carries little.
- Scale
- No unit forced
- All sizes
- Base size only
- Notches
- Can import as plain lines
- Markers
- No
AAMA or ASTM DXF, with a RUL file if expected
The usual exchange between pattern systems.
- Scale
- Carries it if units are set on export and import
- All sizes
- Grading inside the file or in the separate RUL file
- Notches
- Carries them if mapped on export
- Markers
- No: pieces and grading only
Native files from the same system
Only opens in that system, often only in a matching version.
- Scale
- Carries it
- All sizes
- Carries it
- Notches
- Carries them
- Markers
- Only as a separate marker file
carries can carry, if set does not
A general guide: what your factory's system and version import decides.
Three questions to send your factory today
- Which system and version do you cut on?
- AAMA DXF or ASTM DXF, and do you expect a separate RUL rule file?
- Inches or millimetres, and seam allowance included or net?
Factory Your factory answers these. If you would rather not chase them, we can ask with your go-ahead.
Your scope opens with these three marked open for the factory, so you only describe what you have.
Sources
- Fixing common DXF import errors in pattern CAD, Minerva Patterns (practitioner article), June 24, 2026. Unit mismatch (25.4 times off), open contours, duplicate entities, lost notches, missing grade, labels exploded into geometry; fix scale first.
- No RUL file when exporting DXF-AAMA (grading lost), CLO user forum (user-reported), about 2019. An AAMA export without a RUL file opened in Gerber as the base size only. Version-dependent; checked, not assumed.
- ASTM D6673-10, Sewn Products Pattern Data Interchange: Data Format, ASTM International (public summary), marked withdrawn, no replacement; updated January 9, 2019. Pattern pieces and grading travel; marker, plotter and cutter instructions do not. Withdrawn, so not a certification to ask for.
- Where and how to get markers printed, Fashion-Incubator, Kathleen Fasanella, January 20, 2009 (older; practice may have changed). Marker length depends on the contractor’s cutting-table length; Gerber files need a wide plotter.