Michael Gilbert Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 We are often asked to redraw supplied architects PDF plans to create marketing materials. If the PDF is a vector drawing then we can do this by opening PDF in illustrator, export as DXF and then import into VW. Any advice on simplest most efficient way would be appreciated. Especially pertaining to page sizes, scaling and duplicate lines from illustrator. Thanks Michael Quote Link to comment
WhoCanDo Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 If the PDF is vector, then you should be able to "File / Import PDF" from VW itself (I don't think Fundamentals does it). You can easily scale this down as you wish. However you will have to draw over the PDF objects if you want polygons to use in VW. Quote Link to comment
Ross Harris Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 If you ungroup the imported (or you can drag and drop) vector based PDF you’ll have all the line work. You’ll find you will have to ungroup it a few times to get there. 4 Quote Link to comment
cberg Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 How did I not know this? This is really awesome!!! Quote Link to comment
Benson Shaw Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 (edited) The ability to acquire geometry from a vector based pdf is part of vwx for many versions (since v2014?). And it’s really great. But some trIcks and pitfalls go with it: Select the pdf object>Ungroup> result usually contains a rectangle (no fill) surrounding a white rectangle, in front of a group containing the geometry. If an image is included in the pdf, it will be shown as a Bitmap, probably on that white rectangle. Unless needed for something else, delete the rectangles. The geometry in the group will include loads of vertices, because text and curved lines will all be reduced to faceted segments. Often it is advantageous to Select All then Compose to join the adjacent segments into longer poly lines. Note that this pdf geometry may not be dimensionally correct. Eg walls may have “unusual” and inconsistent thickness. It’s close, but not same as importing CAD geometry. -B Edited February 21, 2019 by Benson Shaw Thinking hard 2 Quote Link to comment
Michael Gilbert Posted February 21, 2019 Author Share Posted February 21, 2019 Thank you to everyone for responding. Benson - looks like we can setup a Keyboard Maestro macro to do an initial search and delete certain objects, e.g. zero line weights etc. and then Compose as per suggestion. Adding any simple saved search as VW script drop down menu, then adding drop down menu selection as steps within Keyboard Maestro macro can make it quite easy to create strings of actions. Will look into this. Thanks Quote Link to comment
Art V Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Another option could be to use software that converts PDF files to DWG/DXF, as those can often do a better job than Illustrator and maintain text editabiliy. PDF Fly or PDF2DWG are two of such programs. The advantage of this is that you can do batch conversion of PDFs in an easier way than with VW and it may require less cleaning up afterwards. Quote Link to comment
Michael Gilbert Posted February 25, 2019 Author Share Posted February 25, 2019 Thanks Art - will check these out. Quote Link to comment
Jim Smith Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 The importing of PDF & being able to ungroup is something I use often. As Benson says, you have to be aware that some lines & polys are not always 100% accurate. I had put this down to many of the PDF drawings I import are drawn in Imperial & we work in Metric. I always ask for critical dimensions as a double check. Otherwise I'm impressed with the job VW does, before this feature was part of VW I purchased a piece of software that performed the same function. It was expensive & turned a PDF into millions of tiny lines. Quote Link to comment
Michael Gilbert Posted February 28, 2019 Author Share Posted February 28, 2019 Thanks - yes learning! Quote Link to comment
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