AutoCAD Images Raster Design

[NYC Irishman]

Anyone got an hints or tips regarding bringing a scanned line drawing into AuotCAD 2010 rather than tracing the sheet as an underlay?

Thanks in advance
John

[mbauer]

Originally Posted by NYC Irishman

Anyone got an hints or tips regarding bringing a scanned line drawing into AuotCAD 2010 rather than tracing the sheet as an underlay?

Thanks in advance
John

Hi John,

Not sure what you want to do. Been using autocad since R14 so I can probably help.

Are you asking can you use the scanned drawing into autocad? What type of file is it after scanning? Bitmap, JPEG, GIFF, TIFF or PDF?

Autocad won't import PDF files, but it will bitmaps with ease. What version of AutoCAD you using? If you're using the AutoCAD LT version it doesn not import raster, but if you have a .dwg with the raster already in it, it will show them.

Best regards,
Mike Bauer

[once]

There are lots of raster to vector conversion programs but most seem to give poor results. This one does it a bit differently and you might give it a try. Not sure if you'll find it any better than tracing over a background image.
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/airplanes/pcx2dxf/index.html

[mbauer]

Hi John,

After thinking about this, yes you can bring a scanned image in. You can also print it right from autocad.

What you will need is a line or some kind of measurment on the scanned image to scale with.

Once the image is in autocad you will need to measure the line and then actually scale the scanned image in autocad so that it is the proper length. This gives you the proper scale to the original drawing.

After that you can use autocad to print the scan to any size scale you want.

Just to let you know, as a raster image it is going to show lots of jagged bitmats on a straight line, these will also appear on the printted output (fuzzy looking lines)!

Tracing gets rid of this effect.

Where I used to work had a program called "Raster Design" that would trace the contour lines from a USGS map if it was brought electronically into AutoCAD. Biggest issue with it was any crossing lines and it had trouble following the original line it was tracing. I ended up tracing manually anyway.

If you decide to trace the lines, after bringing the .bmp file into autocad, I would suggest looking at the jagged edges of the line, choose either the left or right of the center of the line and count the "zig-zag" high point (bitmap pixels). Use the polyline tool in autocad Click to start your line and then count 1, 2, 3, 4, and place a point on every 4th zag. If you try and follow the center line it is next to impossible.

By placing a point on every 4th high point you will still follow the original shape. The 4th is used as a reference only, it might be better to do it on the 2nd or go longer and use the 5th or 6th high point as needed.

Does this help?
Best regards,
Mike Bauer

[NYC Irishman]

Thanks gents, I obviously made no sense in my 1s post so Ill let you know what I am doing.

Normally I scan the Bulkheads of a Halinksi model Ship (The white paper sheets we would normally attach to 2mm card.) and trace over them using them as an attached Underlay in AutoCAD 2010, its fine and scaling and aligning them is no problem (preset marksetc ) . Ive done it with PDF underlays or jpg/bmp, Its all the same to me really.

It works fine in a lot of ways but it is tedious and painfull. I was lead to believe I could process and image and get the lines drawn by autocad, Trimming or layering the lines would be fine, its just the lines etc would be a little help.

Anyone got an idea on importing such lines into AutoCAD via AutoCAD Raster Design 2010?

Or just Continue with tracing, Thanks Mike

John

[Gil]

Hi John,

Don't waist your time dreaming of a raster to vector conversion. Best to do the trace in Autocad though it's much easier in Rhino.

Insistent type personalities generally end up using Adobe Illustrator which has a fairly good set of vectorization tools....,

I await your letters...,

Best, +Gil

[mbauer]

Hi John,

When I ran the raster design, it was an option once loaded, that autocad had right in the drawing menus.

Haven't used ACAD2010, wasn't aware that it does PDF, so you're way ahead of me on how to do it.

Raster Design was a pull down menu in the 2007 ACAD version when I used it. We had to load it on my computer b efore it showed up.

Really was worthless though, of course it might be improved by now.

Best of Luck!

Mike

[NYC Irishman]

Thanks Gil & Mike, Ill roll with tracing the items,

Appreciate your help

John John