Two programs that help me

ken · 10 Jun 2008, 19:16

Hello

I do must of my modeling from ACAD files, if they are available. However most of the time the orginal ACAD files have been lost or “just can’t be found”. So I have to do the modeling from PDF files.

Have found two programs that are a great help to me. The first is CAD-Kas PDF 2 DXF 2.0. This program will turn a PDF into a DXF file if the drawing was printed or saved as a DFX. However, it will not work on scanned drawings.

So I have found this other program, Screen Tracing Paper. Now this program installs a transparent tracing paper over the screen, onto which you can trace the object onto the tracing paper. After tracing you can export as a DFX and import into SketchUp. If you know one dimension, just scale the DFX with the scale tool and pesto, you have a scaled drawing of the scanned PDF.

A lot of work sometimes, but the only way I have found to turn scanned PDF into SketchUp files.

Ken

JuanV.Soler · 10 Jun 2008, 19:51

I use Aide PDF to DXF Converter, though its become expensive.

Have to try Screen Tracing Paper.
Thank you.

Bep · 10 Jun 2008, 19:58

Hello Ken,

You know that you can import a picture in Sketchup,and trace it with the Sketchup-tools?

Greetings,

Bep van Malde

ken · 10 Jun 2008, 20:25

@bep said:

Hello Ken,

You know that you can import a picture in Sketchup,and trace it with the Sketchup-tools?

Greetings,

Bep van Malde

Yep, do that all the time. I had a program that would print any file to a JPG or BMP, and used that to input into SketchUp. However, PDF didn't print out very well. So I was always on the lookup for someway to input a PDF into SketchUp. The Tracing Paper helps, still leaves a lot of work.

Thanks for your replies

tomislavm · 11 Jun 2008, 05:54

@bep said:

Hello Ken,

You know that you can import a picture in Sketchup,and trace it with the Sketchup-tools?

Greetings,

Bep van Malde

Trace it with the Sketchup-tools, how?

plot-paris · 11 Jun 2008, 06:41

tomislavm, bet ment simply to import the pdf as an image and then drawing the plan in SketchUp like you normally would - you now just have an image to refer to.

seriously, I don't understand why SketchUp Pro does not import PDFs. if not recognizing the geometry it should at least be able to read it as an ordinary image...

(it would be really cool to have SU not only understand the line-information of PDFs but also faces and their colour. thus you just pull all the walls up and you have a coloured model )

tomislavm · 11 Jun 2008, 07:42

then it is no trace but drawing, is it?