Vector Conversion

[joecnc2006]

Just had to share this.

Yesterday I was scratching my head, I had recieved some PDF drawings from an architech (i work in Civil engineering field) on a large commercial project, normaly this is not a problem, if anyone knows about pdf and how they are created you will know that the pdf will retain the original format of the file which generated it. i.e rasters will be rasters, text will be text, and vectors will be vectors. So what i usually do is use a Commercial software we purchased to do the vector conversion back to dxf or dwg. For some reason these particular files when converted would give me the "Fatal Error" in Autodesk Civil Land Desktop 2008, every single time no mater the version i save in, So after trying this a while and on the phone with tech suport of the conversion software, i was still at sq. one.

So dumb founded, I happen to glance at one of the Seals I had V-Carved here at the office for other engineers and surveyors, and was thinking to my self, "Hey V-Carge has a PDF open feature and a save as DXF file so I wonder what would happen" so i opened the PDF file and did the Export and it worked like a charm, all i had to so in Acadd was rescale from architect scale to Engineering scale and I had a live working drawing. Use it as a x-ref shaded in the background and was able to produce the site layout and workout my Site grading plan.

Lesson here think out side the box, the software is so usefull in everything we do, you will be surprised. BTW: the commercial software to do the conversion cost $265.00, so for a little more cost we could have V-Carve with a Big added bonus of everything else it does.

I was also curious to see one of the plans as it would be cut in wood, can you imagine giving a client his progect on wooden sheets... LOL

Joe

[Juka]

Thanks ! That PDF opening was new to me.

[SCROMAL]

Joe
This new to me too.
Thanks Steve

[ger21]

Thanks ! That PDF opening was new to me.

I think the .pdf's only work if they contain vector data, though.

[Tony Mac]

Hi Joe,

Fantastic application and thanks for taking the time to share this information. I'm sure there's a market for carving this type of design into polished wooden panels to make a high quality products such as unique framed plans for businesses or board room tables ??

An extension to the type of work shown below that a VCarve Pro customer in Guernsey is carving on a ShopBot router.


Spot-on Gerry,

VCarve Pro will extract vector lines, arcs, curves etc - from PDF's but not any image data - bmp, jpg, gif etc. Saving a scanned image as a PDF will not make it machinable because there won't be any vector information in the file.

Tony

[Glidergider]

That's really funny to me, because when I describe my DIY CNC machine to friends, I call it my Fred Flintstones CNC. Carving your drawings in wood is perfect. Fred would be proud. If only my router had the sound of bare feet padding briskly on the mdf.

Just had to share this.

I was also curious to see one of the plans as it would be cut in wood, can you imagine giving a client his progect on wooden sheets... LOL

Joe