topic Re: Text From PDF Not Importing Correctly to AutoCAD in AutoCAD Forum

Text From PDF Not Importing Correctly to AutoCAD

iialanji — Wed, 31 May 2023 17:30:10 GMT

When importing a PDF into CAD, the text is created with hatches and is not legible when plotting to a new PDF. See snapshots below.

Re: Text From PDF Not Importing Correctly to AutoCAD

paullimapa — Wed, 31 May 2023 18:44:57 GMT

these are solutions from autodesk:

The text of an imported PDF-file will not be recognized as a text but is converted to polylines in AutoCAD-based products (autodesk.com)

Re: Text From PDF Not Importing Correctly to AutoCAD

iialanji — Wed, 31 May 2023 19:13:24 GMT

I have gone through those steps with no change in the appearance of the text.

I don't exactly need AutoCAD to recognize it as text, I simply need it to appear correct and plot so the text is legible. I will not be editing the text itself.

Re: Text From PDF Not Importing Correctly to AutoCAD

pendean — Wed, 31 May 2023 19:43:02 GMT

@iialanji AutocAd's PDF Import has limitations, "text" in PDFs that are actually just images are a major one.

Share your source PDF file, it would be easy for anyone over here to confirm the issue.
Or you can purchase a better OCR/R2V converter from a 3rd party vendor if this is a regular need for you.

Let us know.

Re: Text From PDF Not Importing Correctly to AutoCAD

iialanji — Wed, 31 May 2023 20:18:27 GMT

That sounds like what I'm experiencing. See the attached file. Let me know if your import turns out the same. What are some of those converters you mentioned that can better convert text from a PDF to CAD?

Re: Text From PDF Not Importing Correctly to AutoCAD

paullimapa — Wed, 31 May 2023 20:40:03 GMT

So whoever created this pdf used a font that AutoCAD cannot recognize.

Best to have access to the original dwg.

If not, then just attach the PDF instead of Import it

Re: Text From PDF Not Importing Correctly to AutoCAD

Valentin_CAD — Wed, 31 May 2023 20:47:54 GMT

@iialanji ,

You may also try to convert the PDF into an image and import it using AutoCAD Raster Design.

See how in this tutorial video:

Re: Text From PDF Not Importing Correctly to AutoCAD

TheCADnoob — Wed, 31 May 2023 21:18:16 GMT

PDFs can be ugly behind the scene, I would try washing your PDF through something else to see if you get better results.

I opened the PDF in Inkscape and saved a DXF out of there and got this. If you have another vector editing program you could try that as well. I had read somewhere about printing from PDF to DWF, but I don't currently have the stuff installed on my PC at the moment to test that.

Re: Text From PDF Not Importing Correctly to AutoCAD

iialanji — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 14:05:46 GMT

The solution was to use a free online PDF to DWG converter. Here's how the text shows up from the converted file. There are many different sites that can convert and all of them yield slightly different results, so just try a few and find which one works best for you.