ArchiCAD is great—until you receive blueprints from 1985. 💀

[Vojtech Slavik]

I was stuck at my desk until midnight again yesterday. We all know how well exports and Xrefs work in ArchiCAD, but that ends the moment a client sends you a "dead" scanned image from the archives or a hand-drawn plan.

I’m tired of burning hours manually tracing rasters because no current tool can properly vectorize them for a clean BIM workflow. It makes no sense that in the age of advanced AI, we’re still doing this manually like it’s the 1900s.

I’m seriously considering developing a custom solution/add-on to fix this once and for all. I’d love to get your expert insight – it takes max. 1-2 minutes:

link : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1quyW04z4KUqLNh2-vprnecr3Ov7-0_QV-96HeA0HUuc/edit 

 

[Laszlo Nagy]

I just checked with Grok AI and the internet and I found two solutions that may do the job:

Scan2CAD - it converts PDFs to CAD formats like DWG/DXF:

https://www.scan2cad.com/cad-features/

A short video of how it works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCbAXPCnOK8

Plan2BIM - this one convert your hand-drawn plans in PDF/JPG/PNG to a IFC model with Walls, Doors, and Windows:

https://plans2bim.com/

A short demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6RlCjM3NLs

[Vojtech Slavik]

Thanks for the comment. I’ve done some research too and haven’t found a perfect match.

Scan2CAD comes closest, but $959/year feels expensive.
Plan2BIM seems focused on existing CAD drawings, while I’m thinking about hand-drawn plans.
Archicad doesn’t really solve this beyond exploding, right?

[Laszlo Nagy]

Yes, if you explode a DWG file placed with the Drawing tool, it will be converted to lines and fills in Archicad.

[Pavel_N]

It's a nice idea. For me, the question is, aren't we close enough with AI to make this possible without developing an app?

[Vojtech Slavik]

Yes, maybe this is relatively easy to build with AI—that’s exactly why I’m asking whether something like this already exists, or whether it’s worth investing my own time into it. I’m not a programmer; I’m still learning. And my understanding of programming with AI is that it can do a lot, but you still need to understand the problem deeply and guide it properly to get the result you actually want.

From my experience as an architect, sometimes it’s faster and more reliable to start from scratch anyway 😄—same situation as when you receive a bad export.

[Pavel_N]

I personally only do some quick conceptual verification studies based on historical documentation. The actual state never matches the historical drawings, so it's a question of whether the benefit to the community will be enough to pay for it. I dont know. It would be a nice addition to have such a function directly in ArchiCAD, I would use it from time to time (although very little), but it's not key for my workflow. For me, the way to go is to have the house scanned into point clouds and then directly model 3D based on them. Otherwise, modeling from pointclouds is much worse and flustrating work than making 2D drawings 😄 I would welcome some automation plugin here. But that's just my perspective, I really don't want to dampen your enthusiasm in any way! 👍

[Vojtech Slavik]

Thanks a lot for the feedback.
I was really only thinking about a plugin that improves the quality of the base drawings.
I know they rarely match the actual state-that’s a classic issue.
Scanning is great, but it’s not always feasible in terms of budget or logistics, and that wasn’t the target here.

[Pavel_N]

edit: I moved my post to the bottom of the discussion.

[AllanP · Accepted solution]

Since the 1990's we used illustrator for this.

illustrator vectorize image
https://www.adobe.com/au/products/illustrator/vectorize-image.html

illustrator export dxf
https://www.adobe.com/au/creativecloud/file-types/image/vector/dxf-file.html

Does illustrator not work anymore?

Does Archicad no longer import DXF files?

This is the real reason to have an Adobe License.

P.S. this process used to take under a minute on old 1990's computers to get the dxf into Archicad from the scan.

I used to work for a company founded in the 1930's and we had a lot of Physical drawings that we scanned on a large format Scanner and converted to Archicad.

[Lingwisyer]

I have used Illustrator to vectorise drawings to create CNC patterns and alpha maps a long time ago, but for a building, was there an option to straighten lines?

[Vojtech Slavik]

Yes, Illustrator (and other graphic tools) still work. But with hand-drawn drawings, the result usually still requires a lot of manual redrawing. At that point, it’s often more efficient to model directly in Archicad using the scan as a reference. I’m mainly looking for ways to automate this process.

[Erwin Edel]

The problem I generally have with scans are:

• there might have been a fold in the paper, warping the dimensions in one direction
• the actual dimensions don't match up to scale (original drafter figured 'eh, close enough'

The problem I have with 3rd party 2D linework:

• dimensions are off by a decimal or so
• things aren't properly 'straight' (90° angles also off by a decimal)

Ussually I find out about these things after I've done significant work assuming things were ok. After this donkey hit his head on the same stone too many times, I just set up a temp grid of linework with my own verified exact dimensions. It's more work initially, but fixing problems later always is even more work. For this reason I prefer images or PDF files as my reference in Archicad: there is no snapping to lines that I would have with a DWG.

[Lingwisyer]

Squiff dimensions and angles... I once received a model from the program that must not be named of an existing house that turned out to be off at so many points... My guess was that they generated an as built model from raster documents or a 3D scan...

[Erwin Edel]

3D scans are brilliant, but I still round up dimensions to round numbers (at least multiples of 10 mm) and square the corners, unless they're very obviously not to be squared.

The end result gets the old "dimensions to be verified on site" slapped on and we have a model that is much easier to work in.

[mthd]

I much prefer your “HI” Human Intelligence hand drawing, it is much easier to read. And I think your non Architect clients would also prefer that format for preliminaries at least lol.

[Vojtech Slavik]

I’m actually thinking more about converting historical drawings – mainly for renovations or pure digitization. Not for design reuse, but simply to clean up and digitize existing hand-drawn documentation.

[Pavel_N]

For these purposes, I think your idea makes a lot of sense if it brings some added value compared to vectorization from Illustrator 👍 (direct implementation into AC, layers, maybe rounding of angles or dimensions,..?)

I'm also thinking about another use of such a function - sometimes I need to get some simple sketches directly in the ArchiCAD file as a basis for making my own staff elements (people, trees). This plug-in could perhaps cover such general needs and automate the conversion of sketches (or other silhouette images from the Internet) to CAD lines and curves. Especially if the plug-in were able to access the webcam connected to the computer and the step of scanning/photographing the sketch and saving it to the computer was completely omitted.

It would also be possible to use it for converting sketches from the house construction process, when the vector saved in ArchiCAD will perhaps have a smaller size than the embedded photo or PDF. Oof course, it depends on the optimization of both formats..

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

But isn't the scan itself much better for digitization (filing, access) only? A vectorized scan will be inaccurate for tracing and modeling. It could help for some preliminary design 2D sketching at best. 

[Pavel_N]

If I want to convert a sketch to a vector drawing that I use in 2D plans, elevations and sections, then a PDF/JPG raster scan is useless. I need the ability to adjust line thickness, color, scale, consistency of the appearance of the drawings.

[Bricklyne Clarence]

There are AI

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@Vojtech Slavik wrote:

......

I was stuck at my desk until midnight again yesterday. We all know how well exports and Xrefs work in ArchiCAD, but that ends the moment a client sends you a "dead" scanned image from the archives or a hand-drawn plan.

I’m tired of burning hours manually tracing rasters because no current tool can properly vectorize them for a clean BIM workflow. It makes no sense that in the age of advanced AI, we’re still doing this manually like it’s the 1900s.

I’m seriously considering developing a custom solution/add-on to fix this once and for all. I’d love to get your expert insight – it takes max. 1-2 minutes:

link : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1quyW04z4KUqLNh2-vprnecr3Ov7-0_QV-96HeA0HUuc/edit 

 

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The answer lies in thine own query.

There are AI models out there that can do (almost) precisely what it seems you're looking for.

You just have to be patient enough to sift through what's available out there and diligent enough to make it work for what you want it to do.

Also you have to be willing to live with the,.......how shall we say,.....'quirks'.....of AI,....as well as be willing to obviously pony up ($$$$$).

I've seen AI engines that were used to take an image (photo) of a furnitre layout, like a dining table and seats, and convet it and produce (vectorized) 2D plan and elevations to be used as blocks in one's project.

It seemed insane when I saw it, but it makes sense from the perspective that the AI has access to the vast wealth of information on furniture available in the internet, to be able to deduce and reproduce what was asked for.

I should also note that this was probably one of the ways I originally felt GS could have better leveraged AI usage in Archicad, as it's a task that's not uncommon to a lot of architects.

Unfortunately we just got a glorified and advanced 'Find and Replace' tool instead, to show for it.