JPG to DWG in AutoCAD 2017?

[john.vellek]

How can you use a JPG file with an AutoCAD drawing? Is it possible to convert a raster JPG image into a vector based AutoCAD file?

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

There are some useful ways to incorporate JPG files into your AutoCAD drawings

• Pictures say 1,000 words. Use pictures from a job site to IMAGEATTACH into your documents rather than just redrawing with lines. Placing your image in a drawing and adding dimensions, notes, and tags can save a lot of time and effort.
• Use a JPG as an underlay. For instance place a JPG map of your site into your drawing model, send it to the back, and then trace and/or draw right on top of it. This is great for presentations and preliminary design.
• JPG images can be made into Materials in the Materials Editor so that they can be mapped onto surfaces and rendered.
• Use your Company logo on your title block or cover sheet

Is it possible to convert the JPG into a drawing file?

Native AutoCAD cannot convert a jpg image to vector based geometry on its own. There are applications though, such as Autodesk Raster Design that can make the process easier. It helps to stretch and warp an image to real, known dimensions and then helps to essentially trace the image into vectors.  NOTE: Accuracy is always a concern as pixels are a fixed size and do not stretch or correlate to real world dimensions the way vector geometry does so there are inherent flaws in the process.