topic Re: Tracing drawings in AutoCAD Forum

Tracing drawings

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 20:00:47 GMT

I'm trying to make plans, elevations, and sections of a building. I have all of those drawings in JPEG format with good resolution. Is there any way for AutoCAD to create vectors from those lines automatically? The only alternative I can think of is to trace every line which would take several days to do.

Thank you.

Re: Tracing drawings

paullimapa — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 20:22:11 GMT

If you have Adobe Illustrator, you can try the Image Trace feature:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAQ2S_4ElC8

http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1928526

And then from Illustrator Export that as a dwg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlRmahQNu54

Re: Tracing drawings

WarrenGeissler — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 20:39:22 GMT

Autodesk has a tool called Raster Design which does semi-automatic raster to vector conversion from within AutoCAD. If you have a suite or collection then you already have it. If you do not have it then you can get a 30-day trial here:

https://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad-raster-design/free-trial

Re: Tracing drawings

john.vellek — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 21:08:30 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

If you can share one or two of your files I am happy to see how will it can be processed in Raster Design.

In my experience a conversion only partially handles the data and that some manual tracing/intervention is needed but perhaps this will get you moving faster.

It has been quite a while since i tried this in Illustrator but back in the days it worked OK. I used to have problems with plines with widths using Illustrator to AutoCAD but perhaps it has gotten better.

At any rate, I am happy to give this a try for you.

If your file needs to be private, you can email to john.vellek@autoesk.com. If you can attach to a post though that is preferable because this Community forum is awesome and I am sure that someone smarter and faster will beat me to the finish 🙂

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: Tracing drawings

parkr4st — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 21:59:37 GMT

largely depends on the needed final product. the conversion will not likely be accurate or precise enough for cutting parts but may be good enough for conceptual presentation. Scaling, skewing, and defects in the original all will need correcting to get anywhere close to accurate.

If the images are of drafted work, try to get the drafted work.

MHO

dave

Re: Tracing drawings

Corsten.Au — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 22:35:25 GMT

If you have a PDF file created from Autocad, then you might convert that PDF to Autocad pretty easily..

but you mentioned JPEG file with plan, elevation etc.. its tough for a software to extract various elements are

various elements are flattened out..

Get some to draft it for you..

Re: Tracing drawings

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 08:00:48 GMT

Thank you everyone for the responses. I have given Illustrator a try, but got a lot of awkward lines with hardly any 90 corners. Raster design worked fairly well. I just had to go in and do a lot of trimming/extending. Thanks again!

How to Convert Image into Vector Adobe Illustrator

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 07:42:41 GMT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pox-LknTJaY