×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

converting pdf files to autocad dwg. ??

converting pdf files to autocad dwg. ??

converting pdf files to autocad dwg. ??

(OP)
Hi, I was wondering if it was possible to convert a scanned image to an editable dwg. format. I have heard that Adobe Illustrator allows this to be done for pdf files.
 I need to convert a large number of printed images to autocad documents and have no idea how to.
 Thanks for any advice!

RE: converting pdf files to autocad dwg. ??

First, understand the difference between the two, raster and vector files that is. Raster files are what photos, scans, tif, etc are. A raster file is somewhat like having a whole gridwork of dots (ie pixels) on a page. You give a certain dot a color and when the dots are numerous enough and you are zoomed back far enough, you see a picture (drawing). To make a straight line in a raster image, you just make sure the dots are colored (black usually) and then are directly next to each other and inline. Well an AutoCAD drawing is a vector format file. Vectors are defined points (ie your line is drawn from point 0,0,0 to 100,0,0 and you now have a 100 unit long line). AutoCAD works by defining the vectors and then to represent a line on screen, it generates a colored straight line between those two points. To convert from raster to vector, you have to turn the lined up dots into a line defined by vectors. There are programs that will try to figure this out for you but it is not an exact science, and you will still need to "assist" the program to get a complete and final drawing. As an example, if you insert a raster image into AutoCAD and then try to "trace" lines over the raster lines, you will get what the raster-to-vector converters try to do. I know this is long winded but it might help to understand why converting from vector to raster is possible, but raster to vector is not quite so easily possible.

"Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." — Will Rogers

RE: converting pdf files to autocad dwg. ??

Masterchief
Many scanning programs can create a DXB (drawing interchange binary) file after scanning.  The file created is in binary code.  The DXBIN command converts this code into drawing data.  To import a DXB file into Autocad, pick Drawing Exchange binary from the Insert pull-down menu, or type DXBIN at the command prompt.  The Select DXB File dailog box appears.  Select the scanned file and pick the Open button.  You can then edit and save the drawing using typical Autocad commands.  Hope this helps - John  

RE: converting pdf files to autocad dwg. ??

You can convert raster files (.jpg, etc) to vector files (.dwg) using WinTopo (www.wintopo.com). If you're starting with a PDF then you'll need to first convert it to raster by means of Acrobat or Photoshop (likely Illustrator,too, but dunno for sure).

RE: converting pdf files to autocad dwg. ??

In Adobe 6 you can SaveAs to a JPEG file ( and many others ) so that gets you half way.

RE: converting pdf files to autocad dwg. ??

does saving as a postscript (ps or eps) help? I think that is vector

RE: converting pdf files to autocad dwg. ??

(OP)
Heya,
 Thanks for the tips. In the end, it proved to be easiest to scan the files in .tif format, then convert them using the wintopo freeware on wintopo.com.
 The text needs to be retyped after scanning, but the rest of the drawing is usually fine. It saves a lot of time.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources