The DXF Layer-Naming Convention: Tag Cuts, Pockets, and Holes Automatically

DXF files are flat — they carry shapes, but not what to do with them. Normally that means a quick interactive step after upload where you click each profile and tag it as a through-cut, pocket, dado, or drill. But if you're producing DXFs regularly, there's a power-user shortcut: name your layers using our convention, and every feature tags itself the moment the file lands. Zero clicks, straight to price.

The convention

Put each feature type on its own layer, and encode the operation — plus its dimensions in inches — in the layer name. Layer names are case-insensitive (THRU, thru, and Thru all work). Here's the full vocabulary:

• THRU — everything on this layer is a through-cut, cut fully through the sheet. Use it for interior cutouts and windows.
• POCKET-0.375 — closed profiles on this layer are pockets machined 0.375" deep. Change the number for other depths: POCKET-0.5 is a half-inch-deep pocket.
• DADO-0.75-0.25 — dados (channels) 0.75" wide and 0.25" deep. Format is DADO-{width}-{depth}. Draw the dado's centerline or its outline; the width in the name governs.
• DRILL-0.25-THRU — circles on this layer become 0.25" diameter holes drilled through. Format is DRILL-{diameter}-THRU.
• DRILL-0.25-0.5 — 0.25" diameter holes drilled 0.5" deep (blind). Format is DRILL-{diameter}-{depth}.

Your outer part profile can live on any other layer — typically 0 or OUTLINE — and is detected automatically as the outermost closed boundary. Everything the convention doesn't recognize simply falls back to the interactive tagger, so a partially named file still works; you'll just click the leftovers.

A worked example

Say you're cutting a 3/4" Baltic birch cabinet side: the panel outline, a shelf dado, a row of shelf-pin holes, and a rectangular wire-pass cutout. Your layer list would look like this:

• OUTLINE — the panel's outer profile
• THRU — the wire-pass rectangle
• DADO-0.75-0.25 — the shelf dado, 0.75" wide, 0.25" deep
• DRILL-0.25-0.5 — the shelf-pin holes, 1/4" diameter, 1/2" deep

Upload that file and the feature report appears already populated: one outer profile, one through-cut, one dado at 0.75" × 0.25", and a counted set of quarter-inch blind holes. You review it, confirm, and you're at a live price — the tagging step never appears.

Rules and edge cases

• Dimensions are in decimal inches. Write 0.375, not 3/8 — fraction parsing is not supported in layer names.
• Case doesn't matter: pocket-0.375, Pocket-0.375, and POCKET-0.375 are identical.
• One depth per layer. Pockets at two different depths need two layers: POCKET-0.25 and POCKET-0.5.
• Drill layers expect circles. A circle on a DRILL layer is treated as a hole of the named diameter — if the drawn circle's diameter disagrees with the layer name, the report flags the mismatch for you to resolve.
• Profiles must be closed for pockets and through-cuts; the auto-cleaner will close hairline gaps, but genuinely open geometry gets flagged.
• Unrecognized layer names are harmless. Anything on them just routes to the interactive tagger.

Why bother?

Speed and repeatability. If you're an exhibit house pushing out revision DXFs all week, the convention turns every upload into a confirm-and-price operation — and it makes your intent unambiguous, which is exactly what you want on the file your shop drawing is built from. Set up a layer template in AutoCAD, Fusion 360, Vectorworks, or Illustrator once, and every file you export after that is pre-tagged forever.

And remember the even shorter shortcut: if the part exists as a 3D solid, export a STEP instead. Depths come along for free and no naming is needed. The layer convention is for teams whose pipeline is natively 2D — for them, it's the difference between clicking through fifty features and clicking Confirm once.