FIFTHTEXAS Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Hi can anyone tell me if there is a good software that can convert pdf drawings to autocad, so many times i can only get pdf copies of drawings, is there a way of doing it, that wont cost a fortune? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzframpton Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Trust me it's not worth it. Text becomes broken pline segments, circles become octagons, lines aren't snapped at endpoints or midpoints, etcetera, everything imports on 0 layer.... the list goes on. Best way to do it is to import, scale, and trace. Just my opinion is all but they do exist, however I haven't used a raster to cad program in years so I've long forgotten the ones out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
designerstuart Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 agree - pdfs are exactly to make the file non-editable - you have to start at the beginning i'm afraid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob S Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I would suggest to try Ghostgum. It is open source software. So it is free. I tried many and for me this one works best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 The PDF file format was developed explicitly for sharing documents between different word processing programs and not with CAD in mind. Conversions from PDF to DWG are not going to be seamless or without their fair share of problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLW210 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Hican anyone tell me if there is a good software that can convert pdf drawings to autocad, so many times i can only get pdf copies of drawings, is there a way of doing it, that wont cost a fortune? thanks This is question is asked about once a week. Search on CADTutor and Search on google and you will find plenty of programs, I like Ghostscript+GSView (Ghostgum) is good, they are both free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack_O'neill Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Gigantic PITA...you'll spend more time cleaning it up and fixing it than it would take to redraw it from scratch. Stykface is right, the text will be in some cases unreadable because of the way it breaks up, same with dimensions. Neither will be editable because it comes in as a bunch of line segments just as he said. Instead of one circle, you'll have 1000 little line segments. File size will be enormous because of this. A drawing that would normally have 200 objects will have 25,000. Sometimes the ends of the segments will overlap onto the segments they are next to, turns trying to pedit them into a nightmare of frustration. You can try it if you want, but I don't think you'll enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLW210 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 The PDF file format was developed explicitly for sharing documents between different word processing programs and not with CAD in mind. Conversions from PDF to DWG are not going to be seamless or without their fair share of problems. You have that saved for a Copy&Paste I bet. I forgot to add, You should first try to get DWGs from the originator of the files. If this is something your company has contracted out, DWG files should have been specified in the contract. If this is from a manufacturer or supplier and for parts you have purchased, most will supply the DWGs if requested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankman Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Never a "great" result. I do use on occasion www.pdf2cad.com when I need it. Always scale, and work over the resulting *.dxf file. Save in a *.dwg format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLW210 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Trust me it's not worth it. Text becomes broken pline segments, circles become octagons, lines aren't snapped at endpoints or midpoints, etcetera, everything imports on 0 layer.... the list goes on. Best way to do it is to import, scale, and trace. Just my opinion is all but they do exist, however I haven't used a raster to cad program in years so I've long forgotten the ones out there. Gigantic PITA...you'll spend more time cleaning it up and fixing it than it would take to redraw it from scratch. Stykface is right' date=' the text will be in some cases unreadable because of the way it breaks up, same with dimensions. Neither will be editable because it comes in as a bunch of line segments just as he said. Instead of one circle, you'll have 1000 little line segments. File size will be enormous because of this. A drawing that would normally have 200 objects will have 25,000. Sometimes the ends of the segments will overlap onto the segments they are next to, turns trying to pedit them into a nightmare of frustration. You can try it if you want, but I don't think you'll enjoy it.[/quote'] Depending on the PDF being converted. Some conversions I have had great success others have been a nightmare, yet even the worst was slightly better than starting from scratch on a drawing if there was a lot to be redrawn and few dimensions. If it is simple and/or has all necessary diminsions I still just redraw it most of the time. Of course this is after I have exhausted all avenues of obtaining a DWG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankman Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Most *.pdf's can be save as an image. Often, I save as a *.jpg image, insert into drawing, scale, draw over the image, delete the image. Saves me a lot of time on occasion when I need to work quickly. Requests for *.dwg files can take time I can't spare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack_O'neill Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Depending on the PDF being converted. Some conversions I have had great success others have been a nightmare, yet even the worst was slightly better than starting from scratch on a drawing if there was a lot to be redrawn and few dimensions. If it is simple and/or has all necessary diminsions I still just redraw it most of the time. Of course this is after I have exhausted all avenues of obtaining a DWG. I'm glad it's worked for you, I've never had results good enough to think it's worth the trouble. Well, other than taking the conversion, making it a block and tracing it. That's not too bad to do and will save some time if you're missing key dimensions, assuming that the drawing is drawn to the scale it says it is, and was drawn accurately. No software will make up for fudged dimensions! Of course, its been 3 or 4 years since I've tried it, the process may have improved by now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob S Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Depending on the PDF being converted. Some conversions I have had great success others have been a nightmare, yet even the worst was slightly better than starting from scratch on a drawing if there was a lot to be redrawn and few dimensions. If it is simple and/or has all necessary diminsions I still just redraw it most of the time. Of course this is after I have exhausted all avenues of obtaining a DWG. It depends where you are using it for. It it just to add extra info to the drawing or is it the main part of your drawing. I am just using Ghostgum to add additional info to the drawing. The main part I always draw myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organic Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 It depends where you are using it for. It it just to add extra info to the drawing or is it the main part of your drawing. I am just using Ghostgum to add additional info to the drawing. The main part I always draw myself. If its a complex set of drawings and only needs some additional info on it and we don't have dwgs for whatever reason, I will occasionally work on top of the PDF to make the (minor) mark ups as necessary. This is far from ideal though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob S Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Ok, but for converting complex drawings I didn´t find a good convertor yet. I guess there aren´t. Good luck though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoss Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I usually use Adobe Illustrator and export to DXF. Depending on how the PDF file was created in first place, result can vary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankman Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I usually use Adobe Illustrator and export to DXF. Depending on how the PDF file was created in first place, result can vary. Results always vary. No simple (accurate) way to convert *.pdf's to accurate, workable, *.dxf or *.dwg formats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack_O'neill Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Results always vary. No simple (accurate) way to convert *.pdf's to accurate, workable, *.dxf or *.dwg formats. Sure there is Tank...redraw it! That's as simple and accurate as it gets. Not necessarily easy, or quick, but simple and accurate! In fact, you'll be amazed at how many mistakes and forced dimensions you'll find in other people's drawings by doing it that way. I will say that I've had better results with PDFs than with TIFF's and other formats, but again, in my line of work, none of them have been worth the effort. You guys may be working on much larger projects than I get, and in that case, to each his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 How many serious projects are built using PDFs? Do you think they used PDFs to construct the "Chunnel"? Maybe we should just do our drawings on an Etch-a-Sketch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankman Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Sure there is Tank...redraw it! I always redraw every drawing for which I used a *.pdf when starting. The image (or *.pdf) is then deleted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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