Conversion software handles PDF files

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Nov 15, 2007

Scan2CAD offers CAD users with wide-format scanners or images an affordable yet professional scanning, raster editing and automatic raster to vector conversion capability.

Softcover has released Scan2CAD v7.6, a new version of their professional raster to vector conversion software which adds the ability to read, write and convert PDF (raster image only) files.

Upgrades are free to current Scan2CAD v7 users.

A fully working seven-day trial is available from the Softcover website.

Scan2CAD v7.6 are offers Windows Vista support, updated raster file support and improved automatic colour reduction.

It can convert PDF files into DXF and can scan and save images as PDFs and save archived raster files as PDFs, individually or by batch.

Scan2CAD offers CAD users with wide-format scanners or images an affordable yet professional scanning, raster editing and automatic raster to vector conversion capability.

It is available in two versions, Regular or Pro.

Scan2CAD Regular opens monochrome, greyscale and colour raster images but only saves monochrome (black/white) DXF files.

Scan2CAD Pro adds conversion to colour DXF, sophisticated OCR tools for font training, OCR dictionary and on-the-fly OCR text editing, a command line, batch processing for multiple image conversion and PDF support.

The success of Adobe's PDF file format among CAD users has led to a massive increase in the number of technical drawings and documents stored and distributed in the PDF file format.

This has led to a demand for software that will load and convert PDF files into CAD-editable ones.

There are three types of PDF file: Vector PDF is created in a CAD program, Raster PDF is scanned from a paper drawing and Hybrid PDF is created in a CAD program.

Many programs open and convert vector PDF into CAD files.

Vector PDF is created when a CAD drawing is saved as a PDF file.

Vector PDF can contain intelligent information, like layers.

Raster PDF files are created by scanning and are distinctly different to vector-based PDF files.

Raster PDF files are flat, dead scanned images with no inherent intelligence.

Raster PDF files are not well served by vector PDF conversion to CAD programs.

Most vector PDF convertors do not attempt to convert the raster components within a PDF file or do so with all the shortcomings of the poorest vectorisation software.

Softcover, the publisher of Scan2CAD professional raster to vector conversion software with 12 years of experience in the conversion of good, bad and indifferent scanned images, is well-placed to provide an expert PDF (image only) vectorisation solution.

New Scan2CAD v7.6 Pro offers the most flexible solution to date for converting image-only PDF into CAD DXF files.

Scan2CAD Pro opens raster PDF images and the raster components in a hybrid PDF file only.

Where there is one raster PDF image, Scan2CAD Pro opens and converts it just like any BMP, TIFF or JPEG image.

If a hybrid PDF file contains vector and raster data, Scan2CAD allows the user to step through the raster components to select each image individually for conversion.

Scan2CAD Pro's raster image clean-up tools can be used to individually or automatically tidy-up raster images in a batch process.

Raster clean-up tools, let alone sophisticated, professional ones, are generally unavailable in simple, cheap raster PDF-to-CAD convertors.

Softcover has an archive of thousands of different scanned images collected over 12 years.

This allowed Softcover to fully test Scan2CAD Pro's PDF compatability with hundreds of wide-format PDF files.