Converting raster to vector (.TIF to .DWG)

[Kundera]

Hello...

I work for the IT department and I have a problem to solve for the CAD guys...

I need a program that converts .TIF format to .DWG format. I've been searching the WEB for a long time and I found a few good programs, but all of them convert to .DXF only.

Furthermore, I need a program that does a "batch" job. We have around 90 000 .TIF drawings that need to be converted to .DWG on our fileserver.

I have yet to find a program that loads all the files from the folder tree structure and converts them automatically. Of course, I don't want to choose the files manually. The goal is to set up the program on a dedicated machine that would do the job 24h/24.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Kundera,

Network Engineer, IT dept.

[Ako]

Hate to rain on the parade so to speak, but you will find that there are very few (and I mean few) conversion programs that will succesfully convert a tiff picture to a CAD drawing with reasonable results. Circles are perticularly difficult to convert and many times will come into the CAD program made from millions of straight lines. Also, you can open a dxf in AutoCad and save it as a DWG file.

However, if you find a reasonably succesful method please share it with others on here.

Dave

[f700es]

Pretty much the "Holy Grail" of the CAD world.

[Galingula]

http://www.designpresentation.com/

[f700es]

http://www.designpresentation.com/

never said it can't be done, just not what people are going to expect. I've used a program that cost over $1000 and it did no better than CorelTrace. Lot's of clean-up to do afterwards. Might be better and faster to redraw at times.

[Galingula]

http://www.designpresentation.com/

never said it can't be done, just not what people are going to expect. I've used a program that cost over $1000 and it did no better than CorelTrace. Lot's of clean-up to do afterwards. Might be better and faster to redraw at times.

We use these guys on occasion. They'll do an E size sheet, no matter how much is on it, for like $52. They adhere to our layer and color standards. They once did a 27 page set for us in 3 days. I've never used them for RtoV conversion, but they do A1 work on recreating accurate CAD drawings from ancient paper sets.

IIRC they did a few as a demo for free, so it might be worth getting in touch with them. If they do a good job on the conversion, just include them in your process

[f700es]

What's the end product look like? When I worked for a local university we sent out some as well as some in house and I was disappointed with both. The scanner was top notched and we still archived using raster images but just accepted them as they were.

[Galingula]

What's the end product look like? When I worked for a local university we sent out some as well as some in house and I was disappointed with both. The scanner was top notched and we still archived using raster images but just accepted them as they were.

They're not perfect, but drawings that might take days to recreate costs $50. A sheet with like 40 details for $50? They use our fonts and dim styles. We get back usable Lines/Arc/Circles drawings. Dims are correct and all that. We use ADT, and they say they do Walls/Doors/Windows as well, we just haven't gone there yet.

If we have a con doc set from, say, '72, and we're going to reno the whole building, we get the set done by them (referred in house as the "CAD Elves") and use the DWG files they send us as the base plans. We use the details, floor plans, elves, sections, etc.

Seriously, a big money saver

[f700es]

Wow, maybe then outsourcing is the answer.

[Galingula]

You act as their CAD manager during the process. You'll have to alter your ways of doing that as they're not right there. Do a sheet at a time until they get it right, and then go to town.

Careful; they've done all of our work in model space. So if you've a 1/4" floor plan on the same sheet as a slew of 3/4" details, well one of them will be scaled out wrong (instead of drawn at full scale). They've told me they can do all things properly if we want.

I stung myself using them once. They did a three story building for us. I took all three floor plans and combined them into what I thought was a good baseplan with all three floors. Problem was there were block with the same names, but different, for each floor. Door1 might be a right hinged door for the first floor plan, but door one for the second was left hinged, so when it got inserted into the 1st floor drawing, well, you get the idea.

You buy and spend "points" with them. The more points you buy in advance, the cheaper they are. A B D E (etc) sized sheets all cost a different ammount of points. So if you do incorporate them into your workflow, they're cheap. They get better at each job they do for us, closer to perfect each time.

I'm not trying to sound like a sales person, they've just been a cost effective solution for us

[f700es]

Kinda of the problem I had with it. Each set of plans were so different that it was like starting over. Blue lines, mylar, bond and such. Just didn't seem like a good solution at the time.

Hey, no problem with a sales pitch. I'd rather hear from a actual customer than a salesman any day ;)


You act as their CAD manager during the process. You'll have to alter your ways of doing that as they're not right there. Do a sheet at a time until they get it right, and then go to town.

Careful; they've done all of our work in model space. So if you've a 1/4" floor plan on the same sheet as a slew of 3/4" details, well one of them will be scaled out wrong (instead of drawn at full scale). They've told me they can do all things properly if we want.

I stung myself using them once. They did a three story building for us. I took all three floor plans and combined them into what I thought was a good baseplan with all three floors. Problem was there were block with the same names, but different, for each floor. Door1 might be a right hinged door for the first floor plan, but door one for the second was left hinged, so when it got inserted into the 1st floor drawing, well, you get the idea.

You buy and spend "points" with them. The more points you buy in advance, the cheaper they are. A B D E (etc) sized sheets all cost a different ammount of points. So if you do incorporate them into your workflow, they're cheap. They get better at each job they do for us, closer to perfect each time.

I'm not trying to sound like a sales person, they've just been a cost effective solution for us

[Galingula]

PM me an email addy and I'll send a sample sheet they've done for us.

They'll also do a couple for free as I said.

The last one we did the sales lady forgot to pass on our standards to the monkeys and it all came back wrong, but they re-did it all for free. They do our layer standards as well. We sent them samples of our sections, details, plans, etc, and they use those as templates

[f700es]

PM me an email addy and I'll send a sample sheet they've done for us.

They'll also do a couple for free as I said.

The last one we did the sales lady forgot to pass on our standards to the monkeys and it all came back wrong, but they re-did it all for free. They do our layer standards as well. We sent them samples of our sections, details, plans, etc, and they use those as templates

Sure, remember our e-mails are at the bottom of our posts ;)

[lucaso]

The results of direct raster to vector are disappointing. Ther are progs like RasterDesign, GTX and a lot of others, some will even vectorize the whole image in 1 go, but don't cry Hallejula.... it's more Argentina. A lot of work, but the best way:
New Drawing, "Image", place it 1:1. Save the drawing.
New Drawing, "Insert" the first drawing, you can scale this "BLOCK" in 3 directions (only need 2: x and y). In Lisp play with '(41 . ...) and '(42 . ...).
Once neat in size, explode the block. This you can vectorize with a prog.
OR: draw it over with AC-entities, atleast you are dimensioning with known measures, in europe a building stone is usually 220x110x50mm,
so you have a better grip on sizes.

[POaid]

what if i still need to go from .tif files to AutoCAD which program would be the best

[cadencesol]

pl. visit @ www.cadencesol.com (http://www.cadencesol.com)
They will help you with your project with minuimum price