Hardcopy -to- File (dwg) ...

What options are out there that can do this?

I have some CDs that I need to bring to life in AutoCAD with the option to edit.

 

 

You Pros ROCK!

Thanks in Advance

 

 

Lisette

What options are out there that can do this?

I have some CDs that I need to bring to life in AutoCAD with the option to edit.

 

 

You Pros ROCK!

Thanks in Advance

 

 

Lisette

CD's? Is that Compact Disk? What form are these hardcopies in? Paper, scanned images, pdf files, or some other file format? Depending on the format you are in, there are various converter programs out there that can generate a DXF file which in turn can be saved as a dwg file. If they are indeed hard paper copies, you will of course, have to have them scanned to a digital file, preferably a vectorized pdf file first, and I hear that ain't cheap.

 

Having said that, the general consensus around here is that the results are almost always less than satisfactory, meaning that the resulting dwg will need an extensive amount of editing to achieve accuracy. A lot of people have said that one is better off simply redrawing them from scratch.

 

The best case scenario is if the drawings are already in a vector based pdf format. This file format is the most easily converted to an AutoCad file by a pdf to dwg converter program since it was most probably created in AutoCad and plotted out to a pdf file in the first place.

 

If the drawings are in a raster pdf file, they can be inserted to an AutoCad drawing so you can trace over them. This is a process I have tried, and won't do again. The only reason I did it was that the pdf was a hotel lobby floor plan with incomplete dimensions. If the files are in an image format, jpg, png, etc. You can use the imageattach command, but you will still have to trace it.

 

The files will be attached or inserted to AutoCad at their actual size. A 24" x 36" pdf will insert at exactly that big, so scaling will have to be done to get it to full size in modelspace. I would advise you to trace the original and then scale your line work up to full size afterward. Scaling a raster image, whether pdf or jpg, up until it is full scale will also scale up the pixels in the file. They will end up the size of dinner plates, so all the pdf or image lines will appear to be made from giant Lego block's and will be nearly impossible to trace.

 

I have not used any converter programs myself. My experience with this sort of thing is so infrequent that I am ahead of the game by just re-drawing them from scratch.

 

If you want to find out more about a pdf to dwg converter, take a look at the "Similar Threads" links at the bottom of this webpage, and search on pdf to dwq in the forum FAQ link. Not having used one, I don't feel qualified to recommend or explain them.

 

I am sure there will be others along soon that will offer more detailed and extensive advice, so hang around. I am sure you will end up doing the best you can with what you have.

Edited December 12, 2013 by Dana W