Even if dxf is commonly used in architecture, it is not usually well supported by engineering tools as a consequence of being a propietary format frequently changed by autodesk.
Being able to import and export in iges format would be great for compatibility with other open source engineering packages like Salome as well as with major comercial mechanical CAD packages. On the other hand, it was designed for exchanging 2D technical drawings, so it does not require 3d support.
The latest specification can be found here:
http://paulbourke.net/dataformats/iges/IGES.pdf