topic Re: Adding a PDF to my drawing with an issue in AutoCAD Forum

Adding a PDF to my drawing with an issue

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 07:17:30 GMT

Good morning all.

Firstly, please dont go to technical on me, I am very very new to the Autocad world but have to say i love the software so much. I am currently completing a drawing for one of my consultants at work and he has ask me to add in PDF in the drawing as a layer which can be turned on and off when needed. When adding the PDF I only got the outline of the drawings ( in colour ) but the drawing didn't added in any of the fill colours. Im not sure if i have added the drawing in wrong or what.. i just need some help!!

Re: Adding a PDF to my drawing with an issue

Alfred.NESWADBA — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 08:48:05 GMT

Hi,

>> When adding the PDF

How did you add the PDF? Which command did you use

Your screenshot does not show anything that can help us as we don't know which items are from PDF and which items are AutoCAD entities.

If you want to upload the DWG as well as the PDF we can look into your data.

Please let us know which version of AutoCAD you are working with.

- alfred -

Re: Adding a PDF to my drawing with an issue

imadHabash — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 08:55:34 GMT

Hi,

i suggest to use PDFATTACH command. then see if your issue is resolved.

Regards,

Re: Adding a PDF to my drawing with an issue

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 11:13:17 GMT

Thank you for you help. In the end I used OLE object which did the trick. I'm still finding my way around AutoCAD Lite so its all fun and games here.

Cheers

Dan

Re: Adding a PDF to my drawing with an issue

Alfred.NESWADBA — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 14:36:11 GMT

Hi,

>> In the end I used OLE object which did the trick

Sorry to say, but that's the worst decision of how to get PDF documents into AutoCAD as OLE objects makes dwg-filesizes big and in a lot of cases you might have troubles with plotting the object.

Command _PDFATTACH is how to get the PDF-object into AutoCAD so it can display the content of the file.

Command _PDFIMPORT is a command that creates AutoCAD geometry from the vectors and text-objects in the PDF (starting from AutoCAD 2017 Update 1).

Turning layers on and off is possible for both options.

- alfred -

Re: Adding a PDF to my drawing with an issue

john.vellek — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 18:24:03 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

I made a brief video that shows how to create a layer and then bring a PDF into the file on that layer. I use the PDFATTACH command to do the insertion. The PDF file is treated as a reference file meaning that the file exists outside of the drawing and is linked to it. So, if you move the PDF file to a new location or delete it then it will not be present in the drawing any longer.

If the PDF happens to contain vector geometry, then PDFIMPORT can be used to bring the information into your drawing as AutoCAD entities. If you want, you can insert the data in as a block to keep all the objects as one piece.

I too would like to discourage the OLE method as it can have lots of issues.

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

Re: Adding a PDF to my drawing with an issue

scot-65 — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 22:13:11 GMT

Another method you can try is:
Open a blank drawing. Let's call this "Source" drawing.
Insert the PDF. Insert point at 0,0.
Save the file and close it.

Open the Destination drawing.
Insert this newly created Source drawing file as an unexploded block.
Direct to the appropriate layer.
Scale, ratio and rotation can now be applied to this block as you see fit.

You can use your favorite file manager to drag-and-drop the source
into the AutoCAD editor that has destination showing.

???

Re: Adding a PDF to my drawing with an issue

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 07:09:27 GMT

Hi John.

Is there anyway that you could email me that video. Would love to keep that as a helpful tip in my cad file on my PC.

Could you email to danbrown12@hotmail.com

Thank you

Dan