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#38730 by john t
Thu Aug 14, 2008 7:14 pm
Can I import PDF files into DCAD and if so, how?
I 'm operating V11.08.
I'd be grateful for any assistance, John T.
#38734 by Roger D
Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:23 pm
john t wrote:Can I import PDF files into DCAD and if so, how?

Not directed or editably (?), but you can add the image to a drawing.
Open the pdf in acrobat reader.
Using the snapshot tool (camera under) and pick the rectangular area you want to use.
Having Dcad open to the drawing you want to add the image to.
Edit / Paste Special / Bitmap
It will ask for a name for the image, I'd put it in the same folder as the drawing.
Then indicate in the drawing were you want the rectangular selection.

pdf's are usually raster images, so just like a .bmp, .jpg, .png etc file, you can not snap to or alter the image.

It's a polyline image, you can cut a void in it if you want.

By drawing a dimension to an area of the drawing, you can then enlarge to get it almost to scale.

Hope this helps.
#38735 by john t
Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:08 pm
Roger,
I succeeded in placing the pdf image on the screen in the dwg I nominated; however it didn't print, only the outline (I had 'outline' on).
Any suggestions?
#38737 by Roger D
Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:18 am
john t wrote:I succeeded in placing the pdf image on the screen in the dwg I nominated; however it didn't print, only the outline (I had 'outline' on).
Any suggestions?


Check the "color" of the image, it takes on pen settings of the active color when you placed it.
Check the line weight.
But if the outline printed, seems like those shoud be ok.
Seems like there was a quirk in v11.08 & bitmaps. COlor, depth? I'll see if I can find something unless the brains from Avon remember first.

added:
Dcadwin.ini has settings similar to:

[Bitmaps]
MaxSize=100
MinSize=0.001 and

[Plot Preview]
DoPreview=TRUE
MaxBitmapMegaBytes=2

[Printer]
Enhanced Bitmap=True
#38762 by Daniel Kaczor
Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:33 am
Sometime ago someone suggested using Cool PDF Reader, which will read a pdf then allow you to save as an .emf file. The .emf (metafile) can be inserted into DataCAD and edited, but only, if the pdf is vector based. But if it is bitmap based then follow the instructions from others.

Cool PDF Reader is free from:

http://www.pdf2exe.com/reader.html
#38787 by artmanvt2000
Mon Aug 18, 2008 12:40 pm
You can also convert the pdf to a jpg file and insert the jpg into Datacad. I have used PDFill for various things, including converting pdf's to jpg's. The best part of PDFill is that it is free.

Here's the link: http://www.pdfill.com/
#38790 by john t
Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:36 pm
Thank you all for this information, I shall sift through it and apply what I can.
John T.
#43317 by Design&CodeGuy
Sat May 30, 2009 11:58 pm
I don't know if there is a better "FREE" PDF to DWG or (better yet) PDF to vector program out there, but I have just started using PDF to Vector v2.0 from http://www.verypdf.com
http://www.verydoc.com/pdf-to-vector.html
or http://www.verydoc.com/pdf-to-dwg-dxf.html if you want polylines.

See all of the downloads (including DWG to image) at:
http://www.verydoc.com/download.html

The download is free and to the best of my knowledge, does not expire.

Basically this is a cmd line prompt program, but you can just rename your pdf file and place it within the folder you unzip the program.
I edited the test.bat file (right click and pick "edit") to limit the output to emf files only. (read the readme file)
PDF to Vector Converter (PDF2Vector) converts Acrobat PDF files into following file formats.
WMF Windows Metafile
EMF Microsoft Enhanced Metafile (32-bit)
PS Adobe PostScript file
EPS Adobe Encapsulated PostScript
SVG Scalable Vector Graphics
SWF Macromedia Flash File Format
XPS Microsoft XML Paper Specification
HPGL HP-GL plotter language
PCL HP Page Control Language, Printer Command Language Format (PCL)
PDF Acrobat PDF file, convert general PDF to Vector PDF

Open DataCAD and use the insert - Metafile - command. Place and resize as necessary (enlarge - cal dist)
The results were a converted pdf into actual lines, to scale and it even recognized much of the text as text.
This turned out to be much faster than tracing. :D

This is great, but is there another FREE program that is easier? :?:

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