Very well,
I've found two versions of dxf2svg: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxf2svg and http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxf-svg-convert/
The 'non-inkscape' one produced results that... well, they could *perhaps* be usable if you are willing to spend a lot of time setting correctly the strokes and fills.
The '-inkscape' one, I had to download from the CVS and compile it. It can be installed as an Inkscape extension or used from the command line. The .DXF that Marcel sent me would give an error when I tried to import the DXF directly into Inkscape. However, if I previously invoke the dxf2svg from the commandd line:
denis@...2285...:~$ dxf2svg input.dxf > output.svg
It generates a valid SVG. Trying to load it into inkscape throws an error again, and the stderr of Inkscape reveals it is because of a dieresis (Ä) in the SVG file, which is not declared as utf-8. I removed the Ä from the file, and Inkscape was able to load the SVG flawlessly.
I fiddled with the resultant SVG (indeed, a bit short of 1000 shapes), and produced the PNG output that I am attaching. It's not *exactly* like the one Marcel sent to the list. Mainly, the screw-like lines on the leftmost gray piece weren't generated in my run of dxf2svg.
dxf2svg seems to generate every single line of the original drawing as an object. This is operative, but not much, because when I wanted to colour in grey the two pieces, I had to trace them manually with the bezier tool (not much work either).
At any rate, the program never crashed on me, or gave any errors (other than the dieresis one), although it was somewhat slow (but usable). I'm using Inkscape 45 on Debian (iBook G4, 512 MB RAM) mind you --- I wouldn't be surprised if the Windows version were less efficient and more crash-prone.
To sum up:
- dxf2svg-inkscape seems to be usable, if a bit rough. - Doesn't handle well non-ASCII characters: avoid them. - Generates many objects, hence careful if your Inkscape installation is crash-prone.
I hope that helps?
Denís.