topic Re: Importing PDF in DWG in AutoCAD Forum

Importing PDF in DWG

d_randolph — Fri, 10 May 2024 13:11:37 GMT

Previously, when I would insert a PDF in AutoCAD, I would get a nice clean conversion, with everything editable:

All the lines were clean and sharp. Recently when I try to Import a PDF it converts like this:

And the lines are not sharp:

We did switch from Adobe to Nitro a while back, but have tried different files on different machines, and keep having the same problem. Doesn't seem to matter if I use Adobe, Nitro, or Microsoft print to PDF. Of the last 10 or so PDFs I have imported, one was actually usable.

Also, I know if a scanned PDF is imported, it won't convert correctly. I have this problem with PDFs that aren't scanned, so I don't believe that to be the problem. Anyone else having this issue, or something similar? Thanks in advance!!!

Re: Importing PDF in DWG

pendean — Fri, 10 May 2024 13:19:46 GMT

Have you tried a 3rd party PDF to DWG converter, aka not from Autodesk? One of many is here

https://www.dotsoft.com/pdf2dwg.htm

Can you share your PDFs here for others to try?

We've rarely seen anything like your screenshots here but when we do receive a PDF that AutoCAD just cannot handle well, we are forced to trace over it instead an charge the client for that time and effort.

Re: Importing PDF in DWG

TheCADnoob — Fri, 10 May 2024 13:21:25 GMT

can you share you PDF?

What are the setting you are using with PDF import?

When it comes to scanned PDFs, the PDF import will not work as scanned PDFs are a raster PDF and the import only works (as far as importing editable geometry) with Vector PDFs.

Re: Importing PDF in DWG

d_randolph — Fri, 10 May 2024 13:25:22 GMT

The settings I was using are:

I will attach the most recent PDF, but I have had this problem with multiple PDF's.

Re: Importing PDF in DWG

d_randolph — Fri, 10 May 2024 13:26:31 GMT

I have tried checking and unchecking the boxes in the settings. Doesn't seem to make much difference though.

Re: Importing PDF in DWG

d_randolph — Fri, 10 May 2024 13:26:52 GMT

I will give this one a try. Thanks!

Re: Importing PDF in DWG

pendean — Fri, 10 May 2024 13:41:32 GMT

@d_randolph wrote:
I will give this one a try. Thanks!

And test without using your NitroPDF: it is failing miserably over here too in AutoCAD2023-24-25.

Re: Importing PDF in DWG

d_randolph — Fri, 10 May 2024 13:46:39 GMT

So, it is the Nitro causing the issue?

Re: Importing PDF in DWG

pendean — Fri, 10 May 2024 14:09:13 GMT

@d_randolph wrote:
So, it is the Nitro causing the issue?

It's worth testing to find out for sure.

Re: Importing PDF in DWG

TheCADnoob — Fri, 10 May 2024 14:09:57 GMT

@d_randolph wrote:

So, it is the Nitro causing the issue?

Try another PDF printer and see how it works. There is one that comes with AutoCAD

From the looks of it, It did not 'encode' the geomtery properly.

If you decurve all the polylines it looks much closer to what you need, but most of the drawing is still missing.

Re: Importing PDF in DWG

paullimapa — Fri, 10 May 2024 18:12:40 GMT

Best test is to use one of AutoCAD’s built in pdf pc3 devices like Dwg To Pdf.pc3 to generate a pdf from one of your typical cad dwgs and then import that pdf into a new dwg. If all is well then PdfImport is not the culprit but whatever was used to generate the pdf is