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Newbie Help With Vectorizing Scanned Schematics

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Message 1 of 6
asegal0000
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Newbie Help With Vectorizing Scanned Schematics

I have a lot of 1960 era schematics that I have scanned, and would like to clean up.

I can view the images in electrical, but I cannot figure out how to use the raster tools

to vectorize the schematic components and text.

 

If there is a tutorial on how to do this, I couldn't find it.

If you have any instructions, please be as detailed as possible, as I am a newbie

to Autocad, and don't know the ribbon menus that well yet.

 

Thanks In Advance,

 

Alan

 

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Message 2 of 6
testsubject
in reply to: asegal0000

I cannot really help you with the raster to vector conversion, but I would recommend that if you have a lot of these old drawings, it may be faster overall to redraw them using ACE than try to warp the old raster images to fit within ACE. I have worked with both and find that as much as I try to use the old drawings, I always end up redrawing them to have access to the reports and cross-referencing that is available from ACE. It always seems that you end up having to redraw vast amounts of the original file to get the wires to "line up" to a grid so that it is easier to use.



Bob Hanrahan
Ace User since 1998
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Message 3 of 6
asegal0000
in reply to: asegal0000

That is another option I thought of.

 

Is it possible to have a raster in the background, and then draw on top of that,

and then remove the raster?

 

Thanks

Message 4 of 6
testsubject
in reply to: asegal0000

Sure thing.

 

Insert the raster image as an xref and it will stay just like that: an image. Then you can trace over it and remove the xref later.

 

There are programs that will do the raster to vector conversion for you. I have used Scan2Cad in the past and I thought it worked pretty well. Only $249 for the full version (full version is available for 2 weeks for trial).

 

http://www.scan2cad.com/

 

It still ends up, what do you plan on doing with the software. If you just want "dumb" drawings, then doing the raster to vector conversion is probably the cheaapest way to go but if you want the intelligence that ACE has to offer, then IMO you should just redraw them using ACE.

 

Just my 2c...



Bob Hanrahan
Ace User since 1998
If this answered your question, please click on "Accept Solution"
Message 5 of 6
asegal0000
in reply to: testsubject

Thanks, you gave me a great deal of help!

 

You guys are great!

 

Now, if I can just soak in all your knowledge!

Message 6 of 6

I too have found that with all the drag and drop capabilities of Electrical it is often faster to just redraw the schematics.  But remember that on the Conversion Tools menu tab you have a utility for converting existing dumb lines to actual wires and a block replacement utility to swap out your existing blocks for an AutoCAD Electrical intelligent equivalent symbol.  There is also a ladder conversion utility that can convert existing text-based line reference numbers to intelligent line references.

 

Bonus There is also an option within the Block Replacement utility to use a spreadsheet to map attribute values in your existing blocks to their equivalent attribute in the new blocks, so you save time re-assigning part numbers, component descriptions, etc.



Doug McAlexander


Design Engineer/Consultant/Instructor/Mentor specializing in AutoCAD Electrical training and implementation support

Phone and Web-based Support Plans Available

Phone: (770) 841-8009

www.linkedin.com/in/doug-mcalexander-1a77623




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