PDF to AutoCAD: import a PDF into a drawing

To bring a PDF into AutoCAD you either attach it as an underlay to trace over, or import it with PDFIMPORT so its vector lines become editable objects. Both commands exist in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT 2017 and later. This page covers the work inside the program: choosing between the two, fixing the scale, recovering text, and cleaning up what the import produces.

Attach or import: two different results

Start by deciding whether you need to edit the PDF's content or only see it. The two commands give different drawings.

• Attach (PDFATTACH, Insert tab). The PDF stays a separate file, shown as a reference under your own work. You can snap to its lines, switch its layers, and clip it, but you cannot move or delete individual lines. This suits a site plan you draw over or a supplier detail you only dimension against.
• Import (PDFIMPORT). The vector content becomes lines, polylines, arcs, hatches, and text in your drawing. You can edit everything, and you also inherit every flaw of the PDF: broken curves, duplicated lines, and text drawn as strokes.

An attached underlay can be imported later: select it, right-click, and choose PDF Import. Many drafters attach first, check what is in the file, and import only the area they need.

How to convert a PDF to an AutoCAD drawing with PDFIMPORT

1. Type PDFIMPORT and pick the PDF file, or pick an attached underlay.
2. Choose the page, then the insertion point, scale, and rotation. Leave scale at 1 for now; it is easier to correct afterwards with a known dimension.
3. Under PDF data to import, keep vector geometry and TrueType text. Turn off raster images unless the sheet has a logo or photo you need.
4. Under layers, choose Use PDF layers if the PDF was exported with layer information, otherwise Create object layers, which sorts the result into layers by object type.
5. Under import options, turn on joining line and arc segments and converting solid fills to hatches. Both save a lot of manual cleanup.

The result is ordinary AutoCAD geometry. Save it as a DWG in a version your recipients can open.

Fix the scale after import

A PDF stores paper size, not drawing units. A plan plotted at 1:100 arrives a hundred times too small, and an architectural sheet in inches may come in at an odd factor. Find a dimension printed on the drawing, measure the same distance with DIST, and compare.

To correct it, run SCALE, select everything, pick a base point, type R for Reference, click the two ends of the known dimension, and type its real length. Check a second dimension elsewhere on the sheet. If the two disagree, the PDF was scaled unevenly at some point, for example by a scanner or a print-to-fit step. Then trace the drawing rather than trust it.

Text that arrives as lines

Most CAD drawings use SHX fonts, and a PDF made from them stores each letter as small line segments. After import those letters are geometry, so you cannot search or edit them. Recent AutoCAD releases include PDFSHXTEXT, which compares the strokes with SHX fonts you select and turns matching groups back into text objects. Afterwards TXT2MTXT combines single lines into paragraphs. Text set in TrueType fonts in the original imports as text directly, provided you kept that option on.

Recognition is good on clean vector PDFs and weak on dense notes or rotated labels. Plan to retype critical notes, such as material callouts and revision text.

Clean up the imported geometry

Imported drawings usually contain overlapping lines, where the PDF drew an edge twice, and polylines broken into many pieces. OVERKILL removes duplicates and merges overlapping segments. PEDIT with the Multiple and Join options connects loose segments into polylines, which you need for hatching and for cutting outlines. Check that circles are still circles: a hole exported as many short segments has to be redrawn if you will dimension it.

Scanned PDFs are a different case. They contain only a picture, so PDFIMPORT brings in an image with no lines at all. Tracing is the only route. PDF to DWG describes the options and compares methods for people who do not use AutoCAD; PNG to DWG covers raster tracing.

Check the converted drawing

Before you send the result, open the new DWG on a second computer to see what the recipient will see. Drop it into the viewer on dwgviewer.app, which reads DWG from R14 to 2018 and newer in the browser without uploading the file. Toggle layers, measure the known dimension again, and look for missing text. For a DXF copy for laser or CNC work, see PDF to DXF, and for how the drawing format works, AutoCAD file types.

AutoCAD and DWG TrueView are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. DWG Viewer is an independent browser tool and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Autodesk.

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