I use this program for water slide design. I often have to use a landscape or pool design from a builder to design my slides around. Can I import a PDF (a lot of the times this is all they provide) onto a top plan in the assembly to be able to design more efficiently without have to switch between programs to do this?
Any info or ideas?
Thanks
Hi John. I can request them and get them sometimes, but PDF is the normal preference for these guys. I can insert a PDF into AutoCAD and I can save the SW Drawing to a CAD file, then copy, paste, and scale. This wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to make a minor change and then do all of these steps again. It just seems like there has to be a better way. Why would something this simple be such a big deal for SW? And If I didn't have AutoCAD as well, what would I do then?
Just trying to save some steps so I can actually spend more time on the design and less on the working between programs.
Roxanne McClain - Unfortunately the different Softwares will have a disconnect somewhere, otherwise it'll all be the same stuff.. The other choice for AutoCAD is www.draftsight.com which is free, unless you need to work in an advanced design mode, but it would work for what you're doing..
Hi Roxanne,
Assuming the image(s) in the PDF are still vector elements you could use Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. They'll allow you to open the PDF and save as a dxf. You could even scale to 1:1 before saving to dxf if you wanted.
I will have to check out the PDF to sketch info myself.
my process to use customers info: is import the image as a JPG into a sketch and then scale the image to a known dimension. sometimes AUTOTRACE will let you pull the lines into a nice workable SW sketch.
you will have to look but there are some pdf to dxf or dwg converters out there. some good some bad. some cost and some are free.
David Matula wrote:
you will have to look but there are some pdf to dxf or dwg converters out there. some good some bad. some cost and some are free.
I've been using Able2Extract Professional for PDF to various formats conversion and it is simply a great tool.
Roxanne McClain - Maybe with a Premium version ??
Can you ask for a DFX or DWG?