Explode Into Current View, Turns Into Figure, No Vectors

[ethanbodnar]

• Place as External Drawing or Drag and Drop PDF
• Explode Into Current View seems to make it from a "Drawing" object to a "Figure" object, without creating any vectors
• Tried "not keeping the original elements after exploding"
• Renovation Filters has show "new items" turned on
• Also, tried exploding the Figure, but you get less options for pens and such

Any ideas?

AC 24, Mac

Thank you so much!

[Rajesh Patil]

If it's PDF then make sure it has been generated by any CAD software so vector base info has been saved in it. 

[ethanbodnar]

Ohh! When you say that, it makes sense. Don't really have a way to know for sure if this file was made in a CAD program, it's a very complex site map from the surveyor so I assume it was done in CAD.

Pretty sure doesn't work like this in Illustrator, think Illustrator just finds the lines using processing power maybe. Remember doing this a decade ago in college, ha

I'm not seeing in the official Graphisoft documentation where it says that the file has to be made in CAD though, so I'm not 100% sure...

[Karl Ottenstein]

No, Illustrator doesn't just find the lines either.  If what you see in a PDF is vector, both ARCHICAD and Illustrator bring in vectors.  If, as seems the case with your PDF, the image is a bitmap, then it comes in as a bitmap.  Illustrator does have a feature that lets you trace the bitmap to generator vectors...but the accuracy depends on the pixel density of the embedded bitmap image in the PDF.

[ethanbodnar]

Can we please update the official help guide from Graphisoft to include this vey important information. That is where I started and it seems like a very easy thing to note there, so I could have saved a lot of time knowing this was a factor. @GRAPHISOFT @Anonymous

https://help.graphisoft.com/AC/25/INT/_AC25_Help/070_Documentation/070_Documentation-98.htm

Also, it seems like Karl deleted this post maybe, I got a very confusing email notification, without providing any reason except that it was a duplicate. There is another very similar post, but it talks about renovation layers hiding new items, not my issue.