PDF to linework

[Anonymous]

I've got some PDFs from another company that I need to pull surface contours off of. One idea was to sit there and trace all the contours off of a tiff that was brought in, scaled and rotated. I'd rather not do this as it is tedious and time consuming. I know there are some PDF to DWG converters out there and have also heard rumor of anAutoCAD command that will trace lines off of PDFs.

My question is what is the best way to go about doing this? What programs/commands are there out there that will make my life easier in this process. Ideally I would like to wind up with pollylines that have elevations so I can creat a surface from them and do a volume comparrison.

Thanks for your help.  

[antoniovinci]

Try the free Wintopo, sir.

[ToddRogers-WPM]

I have tested many of the PDF to DWG convertors and by far the best one out there is BackToCAD.

[Anonymous]

Is wintopo my best option? I just watched a tutorial and it seems to do what I want, but Ideally i'd like to have something that will convert PDFs. 

[Anonymous]

I just watched a tutorial on BACKtoCAD and it does look far supperior to anything I've seen. Is there any way to get a free version, or even a Trial of some sort? I've got to convice my IT guys to get onboard with allowing me to install this program. 

[ToddRogers-WPM]

There is a trial version, but it wipesout the middle of the drawing.  It's good enough for presentation purposes.

They changed the name of the actual program to PrintToCAD.  There is a trial button on the home page.

[Lisa_Pohlmeyer]

Todd

Do you have any experience with Print2CAD vs Raster Design?  I've got some architectural dwgs that I'd like to convert. I tried the Print2CAD, not real happy with the results overall, but it just may need a lot of tweaking of the settings.

[ToddRogers-WPM]

I have had excellent results from PrintToCAD.  Yes, there is some tweaking.  I actually watched a live webcast that they held last year and learned a lot about the tweaking.  There are a ton of settings.

[michael.robertson · Accepted solution]

If the pdf is in vector format (not scanned but created from a vector program) you can use the free InkScape program to open the pdf then export as dxf to bring it into C3D.

[Lisa_Pohlmeyer]

I wish! But that's a nice tip, I'll keep that info in my back pocket for future reference. Many of these were paper files of our agency's buildings, scanned to PDF, and I have to use them as PDF underlays, which slows my drawing to a crawl. We've got an intern starting next month and I'm hoping to get them to convert these paper drawings.

[ToddRogers-WPM]

Oh, big difference in scans and pdf's that were printed from CAD as a PDF.  Scanned pdf's do not convert well.  If they were printed from CAD as a pdf, then they are converted quite nicely.

[jmayo-EE]

I will typically avoid pdf at all cost because of this performance hit. If you have Acrobat convert to tif or png. If not print and scan the pdf to tif or png. If no scanner is available I will open the pdf, hit Print Screen, paste this into Paint and save to tif or png. I do not like working with pdf's in a dwg at all.

[antoniovinci]

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jmayo wrote:

I will open the pdf, hit Print Screen, paste this into Paint and save to tif or png

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Please, tell us you're joking, sir...

In the XXI century, an Expert Elite should not advise such 80's techniques.

If you have a PDF raster, you can convert to TIF by means e.g. of the wonderful "PDF-XChange Viewer", fast and costless.

[Anonymous]

I got the trial version but it is crashing after I start the conversion process, its giving me an error message saying I need to turn off high resolution. Do you know how to do this? I emailed the back2cad people this morning but have yet to hear back from them. 

[jmayo-EE · Accepted solution]

The advice is sound if you read it correctly. Take note of the, 'In a worse case scenerio" which means if no other options are available.

I don't care what era it comes from just get rid of the pdf. I could not possibly list everyone's favorite little conversion program...

[Lisa_Pohlmeyer]

Thanks so much for the thought to using PDF alternatives. I haven't had to use them before, lucky I guess.   I've replaced many in the exhibit I'm working on and I'm a happy camper! 

[jmayo-EE]

No problem Lisa. As long as I dont work with pdf I'm happy too. 😉