[Solved] Is there a simple way import a vector PDF via DWG?

SketchUp Pro
1

I have a few PDF vector drawings I want to import into SU (Pro, 2023).

I’ve used a free PDF to DWG converter, and imported the DWG file into SU.

It comes in at no particular scale (which I can fix with the Tape Measure tool) but although it looks ok at full screen, zoom in and you see that all the imported vectors are doubled, and form rectangles.

Is there any plugin or other method to convert these rectangles to single SU edges, without manually tracing over each one?

For example:
The entrance lobby to our amateur Abbey Theatre, in St Albans, England, when viewed as part of a full page plan:

image

But zoomed in only about 2 times, to a part of the same area:

image
image2330×1674 205 KB

you can see that each ‘vector’ is a rectangle.

PS. I don’t have access to whatever program created the PDFs in the first place. I just have the PDFs

Would I get any different results opening the PDF in Inkscape to convert to DWG?

Perhaps I should download a copy and try?

PPS. Can’t do that at the moment from the Inkscape download site. It appears to be under attack, and several attempts get only as far as a partial download of 4.2MB, then it sticks.

2

Is the zoomed image from the original pdf, or from the imported dwg in SketchUp? It looks to me that the pdf contains “paths” that outline line segments which are then filled to create the “fat lines”. The conversion to dwg and import to SketchUp appear to have retained the outline paths without preserving the fill. If so, this is an example of the sort of basic differences between pdf and SketchUp that long ago led me to give up on my attempt to create an importer for pdf. Yes, pdf is “vector” and “scalable”, but the way it represents many things is incompatible with the way SketchUp does.

3

It’s from the SU import of the PDF file.

When I zoom in on the PDF original in Preview, the lines appear single and black.

image
image1460×1028 17.7 KB

So it appears the DWG converter is doing the doubling up of lines to rectangle.

I should perhaps try to find a different converter?

Shame the Inkscape installer isn’t downloadable at the moment.

4

AHA!
Tried a different free online converter from CADsoft. PDF to DWG Converter for Free | CADSoftTools

It imported as single lines.

Sample of the lobby, enlarged, in SU after DWG import.

image
image894×548 4.84 KB

MUCH better.

The arcs come in as separate segments, of not quite equal lengths, so the Lines to Arc plugin won’t make them into SU arcs, but I have components for the door swings drawn in SU, so that isn’t big problem.

5

I think that pdf uses splines, not circular arcs, so I don’t think they will ever import as SketchUp arcs.

6

That makes sense

7

Found an alternative source for Inkscape.

Inkscape doesn’t seem to offer a DWG or DXF Export format.

So I look in Save As instead of Export.

It doesn’t list DWG as an option (though DXF is explicitly listed), but says it will guess from the file extension.

So I tell it to save as ARCH-01.dwg, import it into SU, and BINGO, it works.

image
image1904×1146 91.1 KB

AND it makes a reasonable effort to import the (raster) text, which the online importer didn’t attempt.

1 Like
8

Poly lines in AutoCAD will be seen as filled shapes by SU, the same is true for PDF’s generated by AutoCAD.
As mentioned above, Inkscape is one of the best converters for pdf’s, just remember to trash as much as possible in Inkscape prior to exporting such as text, hatches dims etc to reduce the poly count.

9

It offers DXF. DWG is a proprietary Autodesk format. The content in DWG and DXF is identical, but DWG is binary while DXF is ASCII text.