Should We Build a PDF Import/Edit Extension?

Extensions
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We are specifically focused on converting PDF into a format for Sketchup. Ultimately, we want to make it a plug-in so you can simply “Open PDF” within Sketchup. For now, the free service at convertpdf.today will convert PDF into DWG or DXF for import into Sketchup. If you already have DWG or DXF from autocad, turbocad, etc, you are all set. It’s for people who get CAD drawings and diagrams in PDF and want to use that content in Sketchup.

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It would actually be File > Import… from the menus, and then in the file browser dialog, the user will choose your importer from the filetype droplist. This will filter the file listings and the user can choose the PDF to import.

Imports should put all geometry into a component definition and place an instance in the model (either at the origin, or may let the user use the built-in place component feature.

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How long should the conversion take? I submitted a pdf yesterday to convert to dwg. Will I get an email when it’s ready?

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It should have been immediate. I’ll check it and send the link again. Sorry about that! Did you check you spam?

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Hi, Jean.

Just curious if there was any update on this project, or have you abandoned it?

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Bumping this thread in hopes there’s been some progress on this.
I import PDF construction document floorplans into Sketchup every workday.
The process is tedious and time consuming for what could be a fairly simple operation.
I Currently I do the following:

  • Extract a range of desired single floorplan pages from a multipage plans pdf.
  • Save each of those PDFs as jpgs.
  • Import the jpgs into Sketchup and manually scale to the paper size of the PDF
  • Convert the jpgs to Sketchup components, and scale up to real world size.
  • Use a PDF to DWG converter on the floorplan pdfs
  • Import the DWGs and manually scale to real world size via the tape measure tool.
  • Place and align the imported DWGs over the corresponding imported JPGs and create s single Sketchup component.

Instead of all this, I’d think in the 21st Century the technology exists to just drag a PDF into Sketchup and have it convert in one step - already scaled to the correct page size of the PDF page.
I’d gladly pay for it.

See this DropBox link for a quick example of the result of this approach:

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You are making it too difficult for yourself. Assuming that the PDF is already a vector file I would

  • open the PDF in an illustration application like Illustrator, CorelDraw or Inkscape (the last one is free)
  • Save the page as a DWG or DXF file’
  • Import to SketchUp.
3 Likes
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I’ve found that with Illustrator I still have to manually scale the imported dwg file to the original pdf page size.
Also, I find having both the raster and vector info available to in in Sketchup is very useful. Illustrator doesn’t seem to allow easily importing correctly scaled pdf raster image content - maybe there’s a setting I’m missing?

Here’s another example of what I’m currently achieving, but hoping to come up with a more streamlined workflow to do so:

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there is already the extension ‘PDF2SKP’ for an import of PDFs with vector data available for € 39,- (net) / 1 year (trial avail.):