converting software info need - pdf to dwg

[warren architecture]

I've been told by a friend that you can convert a pdf back into dwg format

 

is this true and what software do you guys use i.e freeware or purchased software?

 

also are the results any good?

[f700es]

There are several ways to do this. One way that I use is to use Adobe Illustrator. It can open any PDF and can saved vector PDFs back to dwg.

You can also use GSview with PStoEdit - http://www.pstoedit.net/pstoedit/

 

it is a opensource (free) program that can do this as well.

There are several PDFtoDWG programs out there and I am sure they have 30 day demos to try it out in case you only need to do a hand full of PDFs.

Good luck

[Tankman]

You can convert *.pdf files to *.dxf files.

 

Open the *.dxf file in AutoCAD and save as a *.dwg, whatever version you have.

 

I have found the conversions somewhat awful but, work's in a pinch.

Check scale and rescale the conversion as necessary.

 

I usually redraw using the conversion as a template only.

 

I've been using www.pdf2cad.com 's program only as a last resort.

A trial program is free on their website.

[warren architecture]

thanks for the replys guys I'll give them ago over the weekend and let you know which one works best for me

[dude]

I can vouch for illustrator working great. They have to be vector exported PDFs in my experience. An image PDF probably won't work well.

[JD Mather]

Probably the best method is to contact the owner of the intellectual property and request a dwg file. Expect to pay a fee.

[irneb]

Probably the best method is to contact the owner of the intellectual property and request a dwg file. Expect to pay a fee.

That would be your best bet. Getting hold of DWG data from any other format is prone to problems. Especially PDF & DWF as they are meant to only have enough data for the printer. Sometimes you'll even find things like text being converted into numerous lines. Dashed lines would become separate continuous lines, etc. Not to mention accuracy is something you'll have to do without.

 

And as dude's alluded to, a PDF can contain not just lines and text, it can either contain images as well ... or even worse: it can have only an image. I.e. when creating the PDF the settings were to turn it into a raster (or most usually the PDF is created from a scan - this will always be an image). In such case, none of these programs would help. You'll need a raster-to-vector conversion program (do some googling), and if you thought PDF to DWG is bad, you're in for some more extreme problems.

 

Bottom line, your PDF, DWF, PLT, or whatever files are NOT backups. The term "less than perfect" doesn't even begin to describe how inferior they are. This type of thing should be used only as the very last resort, when you have absolutely no other option (bar redrawing from scratch).

[SuperCAD]

I've had a lot of good luck converting PDF's in Illustrator to DWG files. It has saved me a lot of hours being able to do that rather than re-draw the image by tracing it or sitting there with calipers and reverse-engineering a part.