Thursday, March 10, 2011

PDF to DWG Conversion

What is a PDF File?
PDF (Portable Document Format) is an open standard for document exchange. PDF files are independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system. Each PDF file can contain text, fonts, images, and 2D vector graphics. Acrobat 3D can be used for embedding 3D drawings in PDF documents. The PDF file format is very famous for sharing information, especially in the cases when the author does not want that information to be modified easily.

What is a DWG File?
DWG ("drawing") is a binary file format used for storing 2 and 3 dimensional design data and metadata. It is the native format for several CAD packages including AutoCAD.

What is the Problem?
PDF meets the basic needs, be being platform independent and a thin layer of data security. But the major problem with PDF files is that fact that PDF files cannot be easily modified, especially if you want to modify the document layer by layer.

What is the Solution?
The solution of this problem is “PDF to DWG Conversion”. Term "PDF to DWG" means the process of converting a PDF file into AutoCAD format i.e. the DWG format. If you have any PDF files with CAD drawings inside then you need to not worry as these PDF files can be converted into re-usable, editable DWG files.

There are basically 3 ways of to convert PDF files into DWG files: automatic, semi-automatic, and manual. In automatic conversion a software or converter automatically converts the PDF files to DWG files. But this approach has a major disadvantage; most of the CAD conversion software can not recognize text, patterns and dimension lines. As a result of which the resulting DWG files often contain a mess of lines and dots instead of circles, lines, arcs and text as text separated into several layers.

In the semi-automatic approach a professional draftsmen manually corrects the errors produced by automatic conversion.

The third and probably the most efficient approach require experienced draftsmen to complete redraw the original drawing using AutoCAD.

The biggest advantage of using the manual approach is the fact that converted files are multi-layered and completely editable. Generally CAD conversion companies employ AIA layering standards, you should look for the one that is ready to employ your layering standards if need be.
Always look for an AutoCAD conversion company that can convert PDF to DWG and vice-versa.

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