PDFIMPORT Not Working As Planned

[Bill Tillman]

I have a PDF file which I want to import into AutoCAD. Trouble is some lines in portions of the page come in okay but others don't. When I set the Use Raster Image the lines which didn't come in are now there but there on a white background. And the lines which did come in when not using the Raster image option are now not present. When I import another page in the same PDF file everything comes in fine. ???

 

I've had some experience with this in the past and it appears that it all goes back to who originally published the drawings and how they were published. Is there some method to do an end run around this? One would think that if you can see the lines in the PDF they should be able to come in with PDFIMPORT command.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Bill Tillman

[tombu]

A drawing output to PDF by AutoCAD usually works fine as long as text width hasn't been modified and you have the correct fonts selected. I've also had trouble with linetypes. Scanned drawings don't come out very well.

[rkmcswain]

PDF files are just wrappers for other content. That content can include vectors, fonts, images, etc. Vectors and fonts will generally import OK, but images will either import as images, or not at all. You can't make vectors out of pixels (well, at least not without a raster to vector application).

[steven-g]

Post the pdf and let us see what it contains.

[Bill Tillman]

Thanks all. Unfortunately I have to sign NDA's for these projects and publishing anything except a screen shot is not possible. I was surprised also today to find that when I edited the file to redact things and even used the FLATTEN feature with Bluebeam Revu to make it even more invisible, when I imported this file into AutoCAD, yes the missing lines were still missing but that section of the page I redacted showed up with a solid shading, clearly visible of what it was and would put me in total violation of those NDA's. Seems to be intermittent and depends on who used what software to prepare the PDF file. I have great success with other PDF files using the same procedures.

[ammobake]

Dang man.

I've worked on some classified stuff in the past so I feel your pain....

 

I've seen some quirky stuff before in PDF's - lines that wouldn't print, text that wouldn't print, etc.

In some cases it's a color issue, in some cases it's a lineweight issue, in others it's a transparency or bizarre watermark issue.

 

One way I was able to solve this years ago was to print the PDF to PDF (again) at same sheet size and DPI... but using only black ink only in the settings - if that makes sense.

In some cases this will work.

 

The PDF import feature works alot better than it once did. 

Gone are the days of having to download a shady third party app to perform the PDF to DWG conversion.

 

It used to require a PDF printed directly from Autocad for the software to translate everything back to autocad objects. 

Nowadays, as long as the vector graphics and linework are there, Autocad can still perform the conversion.  So it should work, in theory.

 

-ChrIS

[SLW210]

You might have luck using Raster Design on the Images.

 

If very complicated, I still have better luck tracing or redrawing the parts that don't come in as vectors.

 

First thing I try is to ask for the .dwg.