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PDF to Drawing


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Very simple solution, but only works if the pdf has been created using vectors and not by rastering.

 

  1. Import the pdf into a new blank drawing - choose design layer and scale to suit yourself
  2. Scale the pdf to the size you need it to be
  3. Ungroup it (cmd + U)
  4. Click away from it (to deselect it)
  5. Delete the 'bitmap' image - This should be on top
  6. You should be left with what looks like a filled rectangle with nothing in it
  7. Select all objects (there may be a number of groups and sub-groups - don't worry about it) and change the fill in the attributes palette to 'None'.  It would also be good practice to change all lines to solid black with a thickness (I usually go for 0.18mm or 0.25mm)
  8. Ungroup everything (as many times as it takes)
  9. Delete the junk you don't want

 

Line drawing created.

 

As a side note - any solid fill will import and convert as a bunch of unfilled polygons, and you may get RSI from methodically going round the drawing and clicking to delete.

 

 

 

Edited by Kevin C
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Thanks for the instructions it seems to be the Vectorworks standard. I can't seem to get it to work.   I ungrouped, deleted the bitmap, got it to the white box.  There is no data in the white box.  Is it possible that its been locked by the engineering firm that created it?  Or am I missing a setting.  I control Zd back to ungroup and then pulled the two apart.  

Screenshot (26).png

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Unfortunately, it's not locked or anything fancy.  It's just been created using a raster pdf maker - I.e. it creates an image only and not the vectors required to convert to lines.  I wouldn't think it has been done deliberately, just the way the originating firm has done it.

 

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@Landartma um wait. maybe you have it?  my experience is that a raster pdf does not ungroup to reveal components.  A vector pdf ungroups to reveal  a stack of several components, usually 3: a bitmap on top, a white rectangle (this is the paper/page and  border) and, usually, at the bottom of the stack, another group containing (groups of) the vector geometry. in your image, you show the rectangle, and to the left, a “page“ of line work and text. is that “page” a group?  or is that the bitmap?  if it’s a group, ungroup it to access the vectors. if that is the bitmap, then resort to tracing or zamzar or other conversion technique.

 

note that the pdf vectors are close, but not necessarily accurately placed or sized. eg circles may end up faceted, walls may have weird widths, text is lines rather than fonts, etc.

 

hth

-B

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No the bit map is static. It will not have any vectors. I just wondered if that image to the left was the vectors and not the bitmap. 
 

A vector based pdf can be ungrouped and will usually have the 3 components: bitmap, page rectangle and a group with the vectors. The page rectangle and bitmap can be deleted unless needed for some other use. 
 

Hope your trace works out. 
 

-B

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  • 1 year later...

Vector-based PDFs can only be created directly from CAD software, such as Vectorworks, AutoCAD, Illustrator, etc. You cannot scan a piece of paper and get a vector PDF. Scans are inherently raster-based. You'd have to take your scan and either trace it manually or try an auto-trace software such as Zamzar mentioned above (which I haven't tried myself).

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I've used wintopo in the past US$283 but if your hours are valuable it's amazingly useful. VW's implementation of this is nffp. Depending on what your raster looks like it can be worthwhile pre-processing it in PS/Gimp whatever to get a better output from Wintopo.

 

This can also be done via zonal_statistics in QGIS and also GDAL but both are a learning curve.

 

In the past I've managed to e.g select all trees (in PS) for a 100km² city raster map and get polygons for all using Wintopo.

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  • 3 weeks later...

@Ashley CusackAre you working with a raster pdf?  There are many OCR (Optical Character Recognition) apps for Mac and Windows and online conversion websites which can convert pdf images to text.  Priced from free to expensive.  Output probably would require some form of cut/paste/move to get every block into font/size/location desired.

 

If it is vector based pdf, the text should be selectable via the pdf reader.  Select/copy in the pdf reader, then in vwx, open a text object and paste. Formatting is probably lost, so an added job.

-B

Edited by Benson Shaw
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  • 4 months later...

Long time since we had this conversation.  I got really busy in the field and am just getting back to a mountain of design work.  My understanding is that it is cad based programs that create the raster PDF.  I spoke with a few graphic people even high end printing and reproduction people I spoke with could not do it with their equipment.  I put the time in messing around with a simple residential plan against just tracing out the plan and decided its probably quicker just to do it the old fashion way...relatively speaking.  Any bigger projects tend to come from engineering firms that are all readable.

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4 hours ago, Landartma said:

Long time since we had this conversation.  I got really busy in the field and am just getting back to a mountain of design work.  My understanding is that it is cad based programs that create the raster PDF.  I spoke with a few graphic people even high end printing and reproduction people I spoke with could not do it with their equipment.  I put the time in messing around with a simple residential plan against just tracing out the plan and decided its probably quicker just to do it the old fashion way...relatively speaking.  Any bigger projects tend to come from engineering firms that are all readable.


I think you should end this mystery and just post the PDF file for people to dissect 🙂

 

I’m betting it is a printed drawing, scanned into the computer, and saved as PDF.  You can plainly see the raster scanning artifacts in the screen shot you posted.

 

While it is possible to output a Raster PDF from a CAD application, it’s not the typical situation.  Most PDF softwares are set up to respect fonts and vectors upon installation to preserve graphic quality while reducing file size.  You have to set a configuration up to burn raster PDFs.  There are reasons firms do this… paper/digital transfer, creating archival drawings, lack of skills, or simple spite.

  • Like 1
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3 hours ago, Landartma said:

Capital Idea Jeff!  Here it is.  This is not the one I originally questioned but its been an issue with every one I've done. ORCHID LN BASE MAP.pdfORCHID LN BASE MAP.pdf

 

Well that exploded fine on my PC, Ctrl u, delete white box, select all, change to class of choice. 'tis a pity we can't extract layers. 

 

Still a weird file tho' as it has the vectors, AND a jpg version of the vectors.

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51 minutes ago, unearthed said:

Well that exploded fine on my PC, Ctrl u, delete white box, select all, change to class of choice. 'tis a pity we can't extract layers. 

 

Still a weird file tho' as it has the vectors, AND a jpg version of the vectors.

 

I opened that PDF file with PDF Studio 2021, and there aren't any layers in the PDF.

 

I believe that vector-based PDFs typically do have both a raster version and the vector linework version. (As a test to confirm, I made a PDF with Vw 2022 using File > Export PDF, drag & dropped the PDF back into Vw, ungrouped it and there are both a raster and vector version).

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5 minutes ago, rDesign said:

 

I opened that PDF file with PDF Studio 2021, and there aren't any layers in the PDF.

 

I believe that vector-based PDFs typically do have both a raster version and the vector linework version. (As a test to confirm, I made a PDF with Vw 2022 using File > Export PDF, drag & dropped the PDF back into Vw, ungrouped it and there are both a raster and vector version).

 

Actually I think Vectorworks creates the rasterized bitmap upon ungrouping. Although it is true that some PDFs may have both.

 

Ed's PDF appears to be vector only.

  • Like 2
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5 hours ago, Landartma said:

Capital Idea Jeff!  Here it is.  This is not the one I originally questioned but its been an issue with every one I've done. ORCHID LN BASE MAP.pdfORCHID LN BASE MAP.pdf

 

This PDF you have posted is Vector based and appears to have been created by Vectorworks.

When imported into Vectorworks, and un grouped, the vectors are revealed.

The PDF does not appear to contain any layers when imported into AutoCAD.

This does not seem to be an example of the problem you originally posted about.

  • Like 1
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