As a CAD designer, my experience has been that there are not many who understand the number of, and variety of, possible roadblocks in the path to successful completion of CAD work required to complete a design.
As a CAD designer working with AutoCAD, I need data from our customers to facilitate the design of a product to their specification. Some of my work is AGV (automated guided vehicle) design for plant automation. Using AutoCAD for many years, I have had different experiences when attempting to get a customer to provide an accurate layout of their working environment. Using older versions of AutoCAD has been frustrating at best. Customers are not usually open to giving me a drawing (DWG) file of their plant, and when they agree to, their processing time is unreasonable. If only there were a way to easily get the data necessary, usable in a (DWG) format, to keep a design moving forward and meet the targeted delivery of our product.
As I have been working with AutoCAD electrical for the last 10+ years, I have come across some unique challenges when getting data to complete a design. AutoCAD electrical is an excellent tool, with many enhancements for schematic and control panel design. ACADE data, as provided by Autodesk, is usually very good, with database information and supporting CAD data typically pre-existing. A key functionality of ACADE is the linking of a schematic component data to a true footprint of that device, for use in the control panel layout.
When a new component is released by a vendor, for me to practically use it in a design, I will need two things. A schematic symbol, and a panel footprint. The schematic symbol is (usually) easily adapted from an existing component. The footprint for the panel layout is another story. Often the vendor will provide all of the electrical data for a product, while not considering that I have to put their shiny new device on an enclosure back panel. Very often their manuals, and any other available data will be missing physical information, other than referencing the overall size of the device. A square box on a panel layout is not preferred. The inclusion of relevant connection data and other component-specific data is critical.
Autodesk has your back! There is an often overlooked tool in the AutoCAD arsenal that will save the day. You can import a PDF, even a product manual page, with the required data directly into an AutoCAD drawing as usable entities with version 2017 on up! The ability to import PDF data and have Autodesk convert it into a usable drawing can save you a lot of time, as well as contribute to the accuracy and quality of a drawing.
When I need an accurate plant layout, the data is usually available in a PDF format already on file with the customer. Because I can use this data as is, I will generally save a lot of time (something that I usually do not get enough of for a task). I also know that the data I am working with is as current as possible, while not needing to jump through hoops to get it. When creating a component footprint in ACADE, I can usually get the most current data from the vendor for their product from their website if available (if not, call them and ask them for it). Keep in mind, anything on their website should only be considered as current as when it was last posted. Always verify the scale of the data imported when proceeding! Vendors will often scale the data in a manual document to fit the document format. This can be a big problem if not handled properly.
The ACADE screen shot below shows where the command is located.
It should be similar in other flavors of AutoCAD. The following dialog box will open after the user specifies the desired PDF file.
Note that the page includes more than the desired line drawings. The only data I need is the line drawings. I recommend printing a copy of the document to have as verification when validating the actual size of the image. You will want to verify and adjust as necessary, the scale factor for your drawing. When inserting the image, you will see the colors and line weights as they were in the PDF. Also note that I have current layer selected. If you desire a special layer for a PDF import, set that layer current prior to importing the page.
After importing the image there are numerous AutoCAD commands available to edit the data.
In the image below, the colors are not the same, simply change the properties of the desired lines as you would any other entity.
When text is imported, one can easily edit it with normal text editing commands.
The selected Mtext can be manipulated as any other Mtext entity in a drawing or cut and pasted into other applications.
In short, you can import almost anything from a PDF, and “borrow” it to use as a drawn entity as desired. Remember – time not spent creating something is time saved!
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