IDRA the Agency: Software Review: PDF2Cad

As director of The Interior Design Resource Agency, I always have my eye out for time-saving solutions for interior designers.  I think this software is genius. With it you can take a simple sketch or floor plan and convert it to CAD. It’s priced affordably under $200 and the makers are offering a free trial, an evaluation version and online support among its perks. Below are some features from the manufacturers site.

pdf2cad™ converts engineering drawings saved as Adobe PDF files into DXF files that you can open and edit in AutoCAD™ and other popular engineering programs. They can then be edited and saved in native CAD formats such as DWG for AutoCAD and DGN for Microstation. pdf2cad also generates HPGL which is a popular CAD archival format.

pdf2cad is ideal for converting PDF-based CAD drawings as wells as floor-plans, network diagrams and organization charts into Microsoft® Visio®. This capability is key as more and more firms are storing and receiving drawings in the Adobe PDF file format and need to use them with Visio

Features in pdf2cad:

•Convert PDF files into the standard CAD interchange format DXF as well as HPGL

•Convert one file or multiple files using the built in batch mode

•Convert all pages or specify a page rage

•Intelligent object recognition

•Concatenates characters to form editable words and lines of text

•Cropping

•Add white space to page

•Rotate output by any degree

•Option to ignore text, images or paths during conversion

•Map fonts for high fidelity file match

•Scale page to match original dimensions of file

•Specify minimum line width

•Separates layers in CAD drawing based on colors

•Dashed/dotted lines as segments

•Saves all images as referenced file in DXF format

•Command-line version and Windows DLL available for developers

•Expanded support for non-standard fonts

•Option to remove or outline hatches/fills

•Improved reporting on errors and warnings

•Streamlined interface for faster and easier conversions