Revit LT and PDFs

[rteplow]

I am running Revit LT 2021.1 and Autocad LT for Mac 2020 on my MacBook Pro. I know that Revit LT cannot link to PDFs but I had a workaround for awhile: I linked the PDF to a .dwg file and then linked THAT to my Revit file. It actually worked but just yesterday I opened Revit after not using it for over a week. Before doing that, I saw that I needed to upgrade Windows 10, which I did. When I got into Revit I linked to the .dwg file and saw the native objects but not the PDF. I don't remember if I might have used different settings when I had success; nothing seemed obvious.

One workaround would be to draw in the topography in Autocad, but I would then have to do the same thing once again in Revit. Another is to convert the PDF to a JPG, but it wouldn't scale up as well and I doubt I could snap to the contour points. I'm hoping that there might be a magical setting that would bring back PDFs.

I've seen another thread where people say if you want PDFs so much then "just" buy the full version of Revit. This is not helpful: the price difference is significant and I am unemployed. Anyhow, thanks in advance. I appreciate all the help you've given me so far.

[ToanDN]

Try to set the pdf in cad ti attached instead of overlay, pdf path in cad to absolute. If that doesn't work, try pdf import instead of link in cad.

[syman2000]

Can you convert the PDF to DWG or you need whatever PDF graphics to show?

[rteplow]

Thanks; I thought of that, but I think only .dwg xrefs allow for a choice between attach and overlay. I didn't see that option when linking to a PDF.

[rteplow]

Thanks, I'll try that. I did in fact find a post that lists a few programs that can convert a PDF to DWG.

I would still like to find out how I managed to do this before, though.

[barthbradley]

Are you saying you could see the PDF in the DWG Link in the Revit View before  -- but now you can't? Maybe it's just turned off in the View. Did you look under Imported Categories Tab in VGOs?   

[rteplow]

Yes, I could see it before. Yes, I checked imported categories tab in VG.

No, I don't remember what I did differently, if anything. Grrrr.

Thanks, though.

[barthbradley]

So all the other DWG Elements are visible in all your Project Views - just not the PDF?  

[rteplow]

Correct. And, as you can see from other advice, I couldn't choose between attach and overlay with a PDF file.

I might have to import the PDF instead of linking, which makes the DWG file messy. But that may not matter since it's just a linked file in Revit that I can detach once I gather the info. Or I might convert the PDF to a DWG. I've seen a post about that which suggested a few programs that do that:

1. CADSoft PDF to CAD  Converter
2. PDF to AutoCAD
3. PDFConverter

Is one program better than the other?

[syman2000]

PDF to AutoCAD is pretty good. I have use other freebie PDF to DXF online but not very effective as the native AutoCAD PDF import.

[barthbradley]

...I still don't understand how the PDF was there in the View before you upgraded Win10. I can't see a correlation, especially if the DWG Elements are still visible in the View after the upgrade. Did you try Reloading the Link? 

[semhustej]

I tried this workaround (attach PDF into dwg and than link this dwg to Revit) without success. Revit warned me, that "Some elements were lost during import" when I linked the dwg. I am using Revit LT 2022 with Windows 10.

It's a shame you cannot ling PDFs with Revit LT.

Tom