Expert: Bill DeShawn - 12/16/2010

Question
I have been using autocad for 6 years for stuctural engineers mainly. I need to convert pdf into dwg. How can it be done?

Answer
Al:
    AutoCAD can't do the conversion.  Therefore a third-party program will be necessary.  The people I work for have intricate layering systems that require us to redraw everything based on the printed plans.  Because some of the lines are wider than others (pen settings), the conversion process can cause lines to be solids or solid hatches, or filled polylines.  Circles rarely end up as circles, arcs rarely end up being arcs, splines and splined polylines, and all other curved objects end up being polylines with hundreds of small straight segments.  It's just a much cleaner process overall to redraw the project.  The alternative, of course is to contact the author of the PDF file and ask them for the DWG file.  It could cost less than redrawing it, especially if you're both using the same AIA layering system.  If not, Express Tools has a Layer Translator that could come in handy.  However, in converted PDFs, everything will end up on one layer (either a layer created by the converter or layer 0).

    If only minor changes are required to project drawings, believe it or not, I would either convert the drawings or have converted to JPG or TIF.  Then I would reference them in the DWG.  The image will have to be scaled to match the dimensions and scale noted in the original PDF.  In some cases, I would edit the image file and reload it the DWG.  In other cases, I would create a wipeout, cover the area I want to change and draw my linework over the top of the wipeout.  Wipeout frames can be turned on during the drawing process and turned off for plotting.  I have noticed that sometimes draworder gets messed up in AutoCAD 2008, and that the TREEDEPTH system variable gets changed to 0 which screws up draworder.  If that happens, TREEDEPTH needs to be put back to 3020.  This method proved to be a time-saving method for one of our projects where there was just a few small changes.  It saved us a lot of time and money.

If you still want to try PDF conversion, such programs can be found in sites such as these where the prices are close to $200.00:
http://anydwg.com/pdf-to-dwg.html
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Multimedia_and_Graphics/Graphics_Editors/PDF_...
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Multimedia_and_Graphics/Graphics_Editors/PDF_...
These above look like they could be the same program.
http://www.aidecad.com/ (about $65.00) get trial first to check quality.
http://www.autodwg.com/pdf-to-dwg-converter/?gclid=CL_71oCQ-6UCFQQPbAody1dZpA


Trusted site:
http://download.cnet.com/AutoDWG-PDF-to-DWG-Converter-SA/3000-10250_4-10675460.h...

Do the trials first before downloading to make sure the quality of the conversion is acceptable.

Let me know how it goes.
Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn