Exporting a CAD drawing to Photoshop?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys!

Im here to ask how you guys export your CAD drawings to photoshop to keep their detail/size. I have tried numerous methods but the drawings keep coming up really small with blurred distorted lines and im really struggling to find a fix 😕 i have tried both exporting as a pdf and plotting and then opening in PS but i have had problems with both..

I am looking to transfer a floor plan and section so i can render them in PS so any help is appreciated!

Cheers guys, Jed.

[3wood]

The classic way is print your floor plan as a black & white tif file.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

...or plot to PDF 😉

PDF can then imported into Photoshop as well as printed directly.

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Hello mate, i have tried to put it onto a pdf but it comes up tiny and when opened in PS the lines are blurred etc, whats the reason for this?

[Anonymous]

Also could you give me a quick explanation as to how i print it to black and white?

many thanks!

[dbroad]

1) If you have Photoshop, chances are you might have Illustrator as well.  If so, you should be able to open the drawing in illustrator (assuming you have saved it back to a supported version).

2) To plot a PDF black and white, I suggest that you switch from the model tab to a layout tab.  Use pagesetup to choose the DWG to PDF printer type.  Choose a plot style that is black and white (such as monochrome).  Choose a paper size that will fit your drawing to the desired scale.  Leave the plot scale 1:1 when plotting paperspace.  Add a viewport and scale the viewport using the annotation scale.  To scale a viewport, you must either have it selected or it must be active (by double clicking inside).  Use the preview command to double check that the results are what you want before plotting.

[Anonymous]

With the question being "How to Export a Cad drawing to Photoshop", once you've created a PDF (ex. ARCH D sheet) how do you properly open it or import it into Photoshop?  You went on to explain how to make a PDF (know how to do that already) but not how to bring the PDF into Photoshop or even what to do with it once in Illustrator?  If you need to do photoshop work what is the Illustrator step for? Can you export the actual drawing by doing this?  Is there a way to keep your drawing to scale or scale it with a point of reference once in Photoshop?

[TheCADnoob]

I would try taking the vectors directly into photoshop. 

I cant verify this workflow as i dont have a ps install these days. (GIMP represent!)

I belive you can open .eps files inphotoshop (using smart layer or somthign of the sort will improve the quality)

You can export from autocad to EPS  got to Export > other formats > .eps

Also have you tried publishing straight to jpeg?

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Good morning JollyJed,

There is a wealth of information in this thread! I thought I would add my two cents just in case it sheds any more light on the subject.

The drawings being brought into a format that is usable in PhotoShop will need to either be vector based such as an EPS or postscript file or in a raster/vector file of adequate resolution when output from AutoCAD.

To create the EPS file you can simply go to the File menu and select export to .EPS. If you want to create a .ps file you would have to add a postscript printer driver and print to a file using it.

Another method of obtaining a high quality file is to print to TIFF.

I have found that printing to PNG or JPG typically is too low resolution to be useful for my purpose.

Printing to a high quality PDF (high resolution) file works quite well for me. Once the data is in the PDF format, I can use File Open in Photoshop and open the PDF directly.

Make sure that if you are printing to one of these file formats, that you use a pen table that reflects your desired outcome such as monochrome, greyscale, or color.

I hope this helps.

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

[dbroad]

@Anonymous

Note, you are replying to a thread that is 15 months old.  The OP question did not state "once you've created a PDF".  He was posting on an AutoCAD newsgroup about how to export a drawing to scale.  Plotting to PDF is one method.  Exporting to PDF does not guarantee a particular scale or size.  Plotting to TIFF is another which had already been mentioned.  The most likely cause of the OP's issues was not plotting to scale.

Photoshop just opens PDF natively.  The default settings are to open it with the same page (artboard) size as the plot.  So if the plot is made to scale, the Photoshop file will be to scale.

If someone has a CAD drawing but does not have AutoCAD, they can use Illustrator to open it(assuming the DWG version is early enough).  Illustrator can export the drawing to a format readable in Photoshop.  When you open the drawing in Illustrator, you get to choose a scale or original size.  If you specify the scale, Illustrator will be prepared to export the image to that same scale.

It is easiest to scale objects on import in Illustrator but it is possible to scale objects in Illustrator. 

Since the OP did not reply to me, I still don't know whether he found any of the suggestions helpful.  Do you find any of them helpful?

[Anonymous]

it is always useful for somebody

[Anonymous]

Hi all, 

I've converted my elevation to EPS and put it into Photoshop but when I did this the drawing was so faint that it could hardly be seen. The line weights are black and 0.09 which come out fine on pdf but I can barely see the drawing at all as an EPS file. Could anyone help with this? 

Thanks!

Freya

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> The line weights are black and 0.09 which come out fine on pdf

Then import the PDF into Photoshop.

If you can see very fine lineweights on a raster file depends a lot on the resolution you assigned the raster file to import the EPS into and the ZOOM factor you look to your file, zoom in and pixels "grow" 😉

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

increase line weight

also try using pdf, adjust brightness contrast... and overlap few pdfs then
flatten dwg and use it

[Anonymous]

Sorry I should have mentioned that the drawings in PDF are blurry and poor quality, which is why I was looking for an alternative file to use. I printed the eps and although the quality is perfect, I'm getting line strikes through the drawings and they're still so faint. I have a student version, would this be why?

Thanks for your responses btw, I'm fairly new to Autocad so appreciate all your help.

I've attached an image to show what I mean, 

Thanks all, 

Freya

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> the drawings in PDF are blurry and poor quality

Then raise the resolution (click on "PDF Options" in the plot dialog), also make sure your visual styles in the viewports (or visual style in modelspace if you are plotting from modelspace) are set to "2D Wireframe".

>> I have a student version, would this be why?

No. Educ-license does the same as the full license, no difference in functionality (besides of plot-stamp).

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

if you adjust the line weight// then use in template high quality pdf //
then when you open in PS you will overlap multiple pdf copies may be 3 or 4
your dwg should be ok

[Anonymous]

Such great information, I like to take photos, it will be very useful to me!

[Anonymous]

You really help everyone who likes to take photos! Thanks for this info.