Free DXF editor online — and a full mask-layout tool
Glyph opens DXF files (ASCII and binary), lets you edit the geometry with a full 2D editor — draw, move, boolean, transform, run a design-rule check — and writes the result back to DXF, entirely in your browser, free, with nothing to install. It's built as a mask/lithography-layout editor first, so it fits DXF files used for CAD-to-mask interchange better than it fits general mechanical drafting — see "What it's not" below before assuming it replaces a full CAD suite.
What editing DXF in Glyph actually covers
- Reads both DXF flavours. ASCII and binary DXF are both parsed, detected from the file's own bytes — no re-save step needed for a binary file.
- A real editor, not a viewer. Once a DXF is open, every Glyph tool applies: move, rotate, scale, mirror, boolean operations (union/intersect/xor/difference), layer operations, alignment and distribution, vertex/edge editing, and a geometric design-rule check () for min width, spacing, area and grid.
- Blocks and inserts become cells and instances. A DXF
BLOCKimports as a Glyph cell; anINSERTbecomes an SREF (or an AREF, if arrayed) — so hierarchy is preserved and editable through Glyph's normal cell/instance tooling, not flattened on import. - Writes back to DXF. produces an AutoCAD R2000 (
$ACADVER = AC1015) file — the oldest widely supported flavour that still carries blocks, arrayed inserts, and constant-width polylines — structurally checked against the independentezdxflibrary on every Glyph release. - Also reads and writes GDSII, OASIS, CIF and SVG, so a DXF drawing can move into a proper mask format without leaving the same tab. See the DXF converter for one-shot conversion, or open the file directly in the editor if you want to work on it first.
- Zero install, zero upload. The same promise as the rest of Glyph: open the app, drop in a file, and nothing leaves your browser.
What survives a DXF edit-and-save round trip
| Aspect | What happens |
|---|---|
| Curves | Read faithfully (arcs, circles, ellipses, splines); written back as flattened LWPOLYLINEs, since Glyph's internal geometry model (like GDSII's) has no arc primitive. |
| Layers | Named DXF layers keep their names on export; a (layer, datatype) pair is encoded as L{layer}D{datatype} in the layer name so re-exporting after editing doesn't merge distinct pairs. |
| Layer colour | Read exactly; written back twice — as the nearest of 16 AutoCAD Color Index swatches (a genuine loss for a tool that reads only that) and as the exact RGB in a true-colour value (group 420), which Glyph reads back exactly. |
| Path end caps | Not preserved — every exported path reads back flush-capped regardless of the original cap style. |
| Text | Position, rotation and size survive; font, letter spacing and justification collapse to a plain TEXT entity. |
| Hierarchy | Blocks/inserts survive as cells/instances through edit and re-export, including arrayed inserts (as AREF, or expanded past 20,000 instances). |
What it's not
Being direct about scope, per the same honesty rule as every comparison on this site:
- No paper space. Glyph has one model-space canvas; DXF's layout/paper-space concept doesn't exist here.
- No block-definition editing UI. A DXF block becomes a Glyph cell — editable as a cell, with the same tools as any other cell — but there's no dedicated "block editor" mode mirroring AutoCAD's.
- No 3D. Glyph is a 2D layout editor;
3DFACEentities import as flattened geometry, and there's no 3D viewport. - Not a general mechanical-CAD replacement. Dimensioning styles, annotation scaling, external references (XREFs), and most of AutoCAD's drafting-specific tooling have no equivalent here. Glyph is a mask/lithography-layout editor that happens to read and write DXF for interchange — see DXF vs GDSII for why the two formats model geometry differently in the first place.
When a dedicated CAD tool is the right choice
If you need paper space, block-definition editing, dimensioning styles, or 3D — a general CAD application is the right tool, not Glyph. Glyph fits when the DXF file is standing in for, or heading toward, a 2D mask or lithography layout: polygons and paths on numbered layers, with cells and arrays, and a design-rule check before fabrication.
Try it
Open Glyph and drag in a .dxf file — nothing to install. For a one-shot format change instead of an edit session, use the DXF converter. For the full editor feature list, see the Quickstart and Editing.
Glyph is made by NANYTE. For where a finished layout goes next, read NANYTE's maskless lithography overview.
Frequently asked questions
Can I edit a DXF file in Glyph without installing anything?
Yes. Open nanyte.com/glyph/app/ in a browser, drag in a .dxf file (ASCII or binary), and you're editing — nothing to download, no signup. Every edit runs client-side.
Can I save my edits back to DXF?
Yes. Glyph writes AutoCAD R2000 DXF, structurally validated against the independent ezdxf library on every release. See the honest per-field limits below before relying on round-tripping a complex drawing.
Is Glyph a general mechanical-CAD DXF editor?
No, and it doesn't claim to be. Glyph has no paper space, no block-definition editing UI (a DXF block imports as a Glyph cell, editable as a cell, not through a dedicated block editor), and no 3D. It's built for mask/lithography-style 2D layout — polygons, paths, cells and arrays on numbered layers — which is a narrower and different job than a mechanical drafting tool.
Does editing a DXF file upload it anywhere?
No. Parsing, editing and export all happen in your browser tab. There's no server in that path.