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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Manipulate AutoCAD linework and text, and inspect layers, following a PDF import.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
5 min.
Transcript
00:04
Depending on the complexity of the PDF file,
00:06
you may have seen a progress meter that showed up in the lower left hand corner
00:11
of Autocad
00:12
as the line work began to be imported.
00:15
Once complete,
00:17
you can start to click on the imported elements
00:20
and notice that these are individual elements but they're now autocad elements,
00:26
they can be moved
00:28
edited, et
00:29
cetera.
00:31
Next, let's take a look at the layers.
00:34
If we go into our layer properties,
00:37
you'll notice
00:38
that the layers look similar to what it looks like for binding an X
00:42
ref
00:43
AUTOCAD places PDF at the front of the embedded auto
00:48
CD layers
00:49
including any Xref geometry that came from the PDF.
00:53
One thing to note here, if the PDF file was not created with layers,
00:58
then no Autocad layers will be created.
01:01
This functionality gives you the flexibility to
01:04
delete unwanted items easily using layer properties.
01:09
If the create object layers option was chosen instead,
01:13
then only three layers are created
01:17
PDF geometry.
01:19
PDF solid fills
01:21
and PDF text.
01:23
While this can simplify things by reducing the number of layers,
01:27
keep in mind that you may have to do more work to
01:31
move these elements to proper layers for your C AD standards.
01:35
Notice that even though I have autocad elements, not everything is perfect.
01:40
For example, if you look at the location of the contour labels,
01:45
there are white boxes instead of contour labels.
01:49
Why?
01:50
Well, this can occur when the contour labels from the C AD file had masking enabled.
01:56
And this is typically used to show a break in the contour line
02:00
if we select one of them
02:03
and then right click and use select similar.
02:06
All of these masks are selected in the drawing,
02:09
we can simply hit the delete key
02:12
to get rid of them.
02:14
Now,
02:15
let's look at the imported text elements.
02:19
If you hover over one of them,
02:21
you can see that they actually identify
02:24
as poly
02:25
lines instead of text.
02:27
It's also an individual letter instead of being part of a word.
02:33
Let's convert these poly lines into actual autocad text objects
02:38
to do this.
02:39
We'll go to the insert tab,
02:42
go to the import panel
02:44
and you'll see commands that can assist with this process.
02:48
Let's start with the recognition settings
02:52
in the PDF recognition settings, dialogue
02:55
under SHX
02:57
fonts to compare,
02:59
choose the fonts that are closest to the imported fonts.
03:03
Also notice options for create text on
03:08
recognitions threshold
03:10
which has a slider
03:12
and a check box
03:14
for use best matching font.
03:17
After selecting all of the options, click the OK button,
03:22
you are then prompted to select objects. In
03:25
this example, select all of the elements of basin one
03:31
text
03:32
after the selection,
03:34
right, click
03:35
and choose, enter
03:37
the recognizes
03:39
HX text, dialogue reports,
03:42
whether the process was successful or if it ran into issues.
03:47
You can see in this example, four text objects created,
03:51
click the close button
03:52
to finish the process.
03:55
As you can see
03:57
individual lines of text
03:59
were imported
04:01
to finish this up.
04:02
We'll use the combined text command to create one m
04:06
text item out of the individual lines of text.
04:09
So I'll go back to the import panel under the insert tab,
04:14
click, combine text,
04:17
select our objects,
04:19
right, click and choose enter
04:23
and just like that, we now have one m text item
04:27
instead of four individual pieces.
Video transcript
00:04
Depending on the complexity of the PDF file,
00:06
you may have seen a progress meter that showed up in the lower left hand corner
00:11
of Autocad
00:12
as the line work began to be imported.
00:15
Once complete,
00:17
you can start to click on the imported elements
00:20
and notice that these are individual elements but they're now autocad elements,
00:26
they can be moved
00:28
edited, et
00:29
cetera.
00:31
Next, let's take a look at the layers.
00:34
If we go into our layer properties,
00:37
you'll notice
00:38
that the layers look similar to what it looks like for binding an X
00:42
ref
00:43
AUTOCAD places PDF at the front of the embedded auto
00:48
CD layers
00:49
including any Xref geometry that came from the PDF.
00:53
One thing to note here, if the PDF file was not created with layers,
00:58
then no Autocad layers will be created.
01:01
This functionality gives you the flexibility to
01:04
delete unwanted items easily using layer properties.
01:09
If the create object layers option was chosen instead,
01:13
then only three layers are created
01:17
PDF geometry.
01:19
PDF solid fills
01:21
and PDF text.
01:23
While this can simplify things by reducing the number of layers,
01:27
keep in mind that you may have to do more work to
01:31
move these elements to proper layers for your C AD standards.
01:35
Notice that even though I have autocad elements, not everything is perfect.
01:40
For example, if you look at the location of the contour labels,
01:45
there are white boxes instead of contour labels.
01:49
Why?
01:50
Well, this can occur when the contour labels from the C AD file had masking enabled.
01:56
And this is typically used to show a break in the contour line
02:00
if we select one of them
02:03
and then right click and use select similar.
02:06
All of these masks are selected in the drawing,
02:09
we can simply hit the delete key
02:12
to get rid of them.
02:14
Now,
02:15
let's look at the imported text elements.
02:19
If you hover over one of them,
02:21
you can see that they actually identify
02:24
as poly
02:25
lines instead of text.
02:27
It's also an individual letter instead of being part of a word.
02:33
Let's convert these poly lines into actual autocad text objects
02:38
to do this.
02:39
We'll go to the insert tab,
02:42
go to the import panel
02:44
and you'll see commands that can assist with this process.
02:48
Let's start with the recognition settings
02:52
in the PDF recognition settings, dialogue
02:55
under SHX
02:57
fonts to compare,
02:59
choose the fonts that are closest to the imported fonts.
03:03
Also notice options for create text on
03:08
recognitions threshold
03:10
which has a slider
03:12
and a check box
03:14
for use best matching font.
03:17
After selecting all of the options, click the OK button,
03:22
you are then prompted to select objects. In
03:25
this example, select all of the elements of basin one
03:31
text
03:32
after the selection,
03:34
right, click
03:35
and choose, enter
03:37
the recognizes
03:39
HX text, dialogue reports,
03:42
whether the process was successful or if it ran into issues.
03:47
You can see in this example, four text objects created,
03:51
click the close button
03:52
to finish the process.
03:55
As you can see
03:57
individual lines of text
03:59
were imported
04:01
to finish this up.
04:02
We'll use the combined text command to create one m
04:06
text item out of the individual lines of text.
04:09
So I'll go back to the import panel under the insert tab,
04:14
click, combine text,
04:17
select our objects,
04:19
right, click and choose enter
04:23
and just like that, we now have one m text item
04:27
instead of four individual pieces.
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