Convert .pdf into .dwg

[Steve Jepson]

Could anyone recomend one of the programs out there for converting a .pdf into a .dwg or .dfx ?

[Eduardo Rolon]

Adobe Illustrator will work as long as the pdf is Vector.

[Steve Jepson]

Thanks. I didn't know that.

[Chazz]

The bummer is that illustrator (and maybe other tools?) turn bezier curves into a billion polygonal nodes. So much so that the results of artwork that is heavily bezier-dependent become unusable in ArchiCAD. Worse, I cannot remove the nodes or lessen them in AC 12 using the standard techniques though this could just be user-daftness.

[Steve Jepson]

I agree. A .dwg from a .pdf in not much more useable than the orignial .pdf is.

I did get better results viewing the converted .pdf in ArchiCAD 12 than I did with AutoCAD 2009. It could be that I just don't have the settings right yet.

I think the conversions would be very good if you open the original .dwg with the Acrobat 9 Pro, then save it as a .pdf. Then when you convert that .pdf into a .dwg again it would still have all of the layers and things in tack.

This is not going to be the case very often for me. The .pdf's I am wanting to convert never were made into .pdf's like that. They were simply .dwg's that were made into regular .pdf's using the print or save function. This is much different than the kind of .pdf you can get out of a .dwg when you open it using the Acrobat 9 Pro which preserves all of the layers, 3d objects, etc...

Here is a screen shot of the regular .pdf I converted into a .dwg for use with ArchiCAD 12.

It all looks exactly like the .pdf, however, it's mostly polylines. Not text, dimensions, or anything like that.

Using Find and Select, I was able to group a lot of things line the duct work which can be used for helping to make an MEP model or or just a 2d HVAC drawing so it is at leat a way to get some informaion out of a .pdf and into an ArchiCAD format.

Perhaps the .pdf to .dwg conversions are only useful for smaller and simple things.

I am skeptical that this kind of conversion would ever be very useful for ArchiCAD since we can already import the .pdf and trace it.

One advantage I can see to the .pdf to .dwg conversion is in finding the exact dimensions or scale of the things in the .pdf.

In the past I would stretch the .pdf to as close to scale as I could for something I know the size of in the drawing. Now if I convert the .pdf into a .dwg I can trace it with much more accuracy. No more guess work about dimensions or scale. You can dimension a .pdf with the Acrobat but it is not always as accurate as you may need it to be.

[Anonymous]

Steve wrote:
Could anyone recomend one of the programs out there for converting a .pdf into a .dwg or .dfx ?

Try this one: http://www.autodwg.com/pdf-to-dwg-converter/