Is there a (free/cheap) way to turn pdf vector drawings into a dwg/dxf/eps without the errors Illustrator always seems to produce?

April 5, 2010 6:08 PM

Is there a (free/cheap) way to turn pdf vector drawings into a dwg/dxf/eps without the errors Illustrator always seems to produce? Or some other way of getting a pdf vector drawing into VectorWorks?

I'd like to import a pdf vector drawing into VectorWorks on OSX, but VW can only import pdfs as raster images. I've tried using Illustrator to export them as dwg/dxf/eps, but this always results in wonky lines and uneven curves. I've had a look for plug-ins and stand-alone converters, but they all seem to be expensive or only available for the PC.

I've also tried copying the drawing in Illustrator and pasting it into an open VectorWorks drawing, but the results are similar and worse.

I don't have any other CAD packages available to me at the moment.

posted by carnival of animals to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Are the lines wonky when you open the PDF in Illustrator -- or only after you open them (the exported EPS) in vectorworks?

If they are wonky inside AI, what kind of PDF is it? and are you opening the PDF straight, or placing it and then tracing?
posted by chelseagirl at 6:30 PM on April 5, 2010

Response by poster: The lines are wonky even if I open the exported dwg/dxf/eps in Illustrator. I tried most of the available export presets for each format but they don't seem to make a difference. I was opening the pdfs directly before, but I just tried placing it into a new Illustrator document and that didn't seem to do it either. Thanks though.
posted by carnival of animals at 6:58 PM on April 5, 2010

Can you link to a copy of the PDF? (I sent you a MeFi mail w/ my email if you need to send it privately.) I use Illustrator as a bridge from PDF vectors to dwg/dxf all the time and it's never failed like that for me; I'd be happy to take a look.
posted by range at 7:08 PM on April 5, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, the drawings aren't private: original pdf and exported dwg. In Illustrator you might have to take the line width down to notice the wonkiness, but in CAD it's obvious. Basically Illustrator (or our copy of it at least) can't seem to transcribe small short curves.
posted by carnival of animals at 7:22 PM on April 5, 2010

Best answer: I haven't got anything that can open DWG files to look at your file with, but I opened your PDF in Inkscape, and exported it to SVG, and as far as I can tell it looks great. I've found Inkscape to be an excellent free program for editing and converting PDFs - give it a go, see if it can do what you need.
posted by Jimbob at 7:48 PM on April 5, 2010

Best answer: I'm seeing a lot of wonky curves and jagged lines in the original PDF source (screenshot from Illustrator CS4) also -- is that what you're talking about, or something less subtle that I'm missing? There are also tons of disconnected paths, overshoots, etc. Inkscape shows the same thing. At "actual" size the image doesn't look bad, but under high zoom there's a lot of junk in the paths. A lot of this noise is invisible in Illustrator until you switch to Outline mode, which looks a lot more like CAD.

At the risk of deciding on incomplete evidence, it looks a little like the original PDF was generated by having Illustrator trace a source document, or perhaps less charitably, that the paths have been run through an obfuscator to make reverse-engineering the drawings more difficult.
posted by range at 8:39 PM on April 5, 2010

Response by poster: range, you're right. I just assumed the whole time that my software was the problem! Sorry for the bother! I'll just have to call the company to get their original dwgs.

Thanks Jimbob, I'll give Inkscape a go anyway, and it's good to know that I have an alternative to Illustrator if I ever need it!
posted by carnival of animals at 9:32 PM on April 5, 2010