"Embedding" XREF'd PDF Underlays in a Drawing

[Anonymous]

I've got a client who, at the end of the job, expects all the drawing files in addition to the published PDFs. I recently learned they will not accept external references and expect the information for each sheet to be contained entirely within the .dwg itself. Most of my drawings have multiple PDF underlays externally referenced in.

I'm wondering if there's a way to effectively break the link between the Xrefs and the drawing and save a copy of it as-is to the .dwg itself as an embedded image. I know this will increase file size dramatically.

I'm aware of PDFIMPORT and that I can create AutoCAD objects out of PDFs.
Unfortunately these objects are not always clean and require touching up. I have well over a hundred drawings I need to do this too and it's not efficient to spent time touching up each this way. Also some of the PDFs have images that don't translate well to linework.

I'm on AutoCAD LT 2019.

Thank you in advance.

[pendean]

Is your client really wanting static images inside a DWG file? Go ask them first.

For DWG files: eTRANSMIT command is a built-in tool that will bind XREFs and package everything else your DWG file(s) need into one convenient ZIP file if you'd like to try that: usage is explained in HELP.

[Anonymous]

Is your client really wanting static images inside a DWG file? Go ask them first.

Not explicitly. They want everything contained within the single .dwg, but the format can be either an image or linework. One of their representatives suggested making a transparent image out of all my pdf underlays in their position in the drawing, then making a Raster image out of them together and binding it. They allow for one .tiff file per drawing.
Since I have well over 100 drawings this would probably be even more tedious than just making all the PDFs into linework as best I can with the help of PDFIMPORT. 
I'm looking for a better solution.

For DWG files: eTRANSMIT command is a built-in tool that will bind XREFs and package everything else your DWG file(s) need into one convenient ZIP file if you'd like to try that: usage is explained in HELP.

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I'm familiar with ETRANSMIT. While it's a great way to send drawings with Xrefs attached, it is not what I need for this. It creates an easily-sent .zip file with the drawing and its Xref's intact and ready to open, but they are all still very much there in separate files. What I need is a single .dwg with all the information in it.

Thanks for the response.

[pendean]

There is no automatic option to do what you want: you've got a lot of manual work to do.

Note: PDFs are not embedded in a DWG file, they remain separate files by default, so you will need to embed files with copy/paste actions as pictures that will be out of scale. Otherwise you are back where you started, separate files problem.

FWIW ETRANSMIT will bind dwg xrefs into the top file as an option you have to select, as in they are no longer separate, but it's never automatic. But it will also not automatically merge separate top files into one if that is also what you need to do.

Bind means insert, like you do with blocks, if that's wasn't clear.

[Anonymous]

 Yes, it's as I suspected. Busy work one way or the other.

I did not know ETRANSMIT ran a bind on Xref'd DWGs; that's good to know. But unless it can also bind PDFs that isn't my solution in this case.
Thanks for the help Pendean.

[steven-g · Accepted solution]

Would insertobj be acceptable to your client it will let you insert pdfs as ole objects which just places images into your file.

[Anonymous]

This does indeed look promising! Thanks for the suggestion.
I'm trying to find out how to select pages and cropped out sections from the PDF in question with this. It seems limited to a degree. But this does what I want in principle; turns a PDF into an image embedded in the .dwg.
Thanks again.