dxf converter

Hi,
For a while now I've been designing and drawing parts in QCAD and saving them as dxf files. I'd also like to be able to they test them using salome-meca, but have had to resort to converting them to STP files in Autodesk Inventor, before I can import them to Salome.

Does anyone know a program to convert them more easily, as Autodesk won't be available to me for much longer (won't be a student forever!)?

I'm aware that Salome is based on OpenCascade, which does have a DXF converter (www.opencascade.org/support/products/dataex/dxf/), but this is not open source. However, provided that its not extortionate I will consider it.

Cheers.

OpenCascade is OSS, not like many others softwares (that's why Fedora doesn't include it in their repos). But hey, you can get the solution with OCascade, use FreeCAD, which opens DXF and SVG and allows saving in BREP, STEP and IGES.
There's also a free program (I don't know if it's open, I think not) for Win** but which runs flawlessly under Wine, that can convert DXF to XYZ coordinates (I have used it for airfoil analysis). Check here:
www.guthcad.com/freestuff.htm
Of course, it's not a converter but having the coordinates will allow you to rebuild the geometry quickly in the mesher of choice, like Gmsh (you can even write your own Python or Octave code to do the rebuild automatically ).
Hope this helped.

César

FreeCAD works for this, and also GiD. The problem I've experienced is QCAD tends to generate points in places that are not helpful for mesh generation, so the file will probably need some editing before you can mesh it.
Tim D.

The OpenCascade version came in at $A.LOT, so thats not really an option. It would be okay for a company where several people are using it but, for now I think I can do without.

Cheers for the suggestions, will have a go with FreeCAD, although it likes to invert curves and shapes at random, with dxf files imported from QCAD, Autodesk and SolidWorks. Not optimal and will require me to learn another CAD program just to fix errors.

I haven't heard of GiD before, looks interesting. Will just have to play around and see.

Cheers again