diff --git a/src/Mod/Draft/Resources/ui/preferences-dxf.ui b/src/Mod/Draft/Resources/ui/preferences-dxf.ui
index 576b323df5..d19fdb4bbc 100644
--- a/src/Mod/Draft/Resources/ui/preferences-dxf.ui
+++ b/src/Mod/Draft/Resources/ui/preferences-dxf.ui
@@ -514,9 +514,6 @@ instead of Draft or Part objects. This overrides the 'Import As' setting</string
           <property name="text">
            <string>Treat ellipses and splines as polylines</string>
           </property>
-          <property name="checked">
-           <bool>true</bool>
-          </property>
           <property name="prefEntry" stdset="0">
            <cstring>DiscretizeEllipses</cstring>
           </property>
diff --git a/src/Mod/Draft/importDXF.py b/src/Mod/Draft/importDXF.py
index 9f69be7442..9144197ac0 100644
--- a/src/Mod/Draft/importDXF.py
+++ b/src/Mod/Draft/importDXF.py
@@ -4360,7 +4360,7 @@ def readPreferences():
             dxfCreateDraft = False
 
     # The legacy importer still uses these global variables, so we read them all.
-    dxfDiscretizeCurves = hGrp.GetBool("DiscretizeEllipses", True)
+    dxfDiscretizeCurves = hGrp.GetBool("DiscretizeEllipses", False)
     dxfStarBlocks = hGrp.GetBool("dxfstarblocks", False)
     dxfJoin = hGrp.GetBool("joingeometry", False)
     dxfRenderPolylineWidth = hGrp.GetBool("renderPolylineWidth", False)