Did you know that you can convert from DWF to DWG using Autodesk DWF Viewer and AutoCAD?
In the DWG Viewer zoom into the area you want to convert and select Copy from the Edit menu (in DWF Composer select Copy Drawing).
Then in AutoCAD run Paste Special from the Edit menu and select the option AutoCAD Entities.
You will end up with AutoCAD objects like 2D Polylines and text with colors retained. One some tests I did I found out that some True Type fonts where converted correctly when others did just show up question marks or other characters.
If the text was really small when viewed in the viewer it just ended up as a rectangular box. To get them as text you have to zoom in closer to the text within the viewer before copying.
Other observations where that the font names where named like" WMF-SansSerif Bold4eeb5e80" and the like. You will also loose in precision depending on the settings used when publishing the DWF.
Conclusion is that it's not a good conversion but could be useful sometimes.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Convert DWF to DWG
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ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
Hmmm... doesn't this ability negate the whole idea of a secure way to share one's design without it being pirated (one that Architects are quite sensitive about)? You can't convert PDF to DWG...
December 15, 2004
Anonymous said...
You can covert PDF-DWG using Adobe Illustrator works better than the copy paste DWF-DWG (nothing is 100% secure these days)
December 15, 2004
Anonymous said...
PDF security can be turned on, if it is security you want then at least with PDF you can set the permissions for copying, printing and editing to off. Adobe have been quite active at preventing others from creating software that can 'crack' the code.
December 16, 2004
Ragnar Thor said...
Even a secure pdf can be converted to a raster format (TIF) that can be imported to AutoCAD or IntelliCAD and then vectorized again. So I agree, nothing is secure. If you are sending illustration drawings to people you don't need to trust, maybe you should introduce some kind of error to make the drawings useless for production?
December 16, 2004
Anonymous said...
nothing is secure is not quite true. There is at least one well-known package that can produce files that are very secure in that they can only let in the people that you want to let in.
December 16, 2004
JTB World said...
You are quite correct in your comments. This is really a quick and dirty convertion. There are better (not perfect) ways available as 3:rd party solutions but this is quite out of the box.
Nothing is really secure actually. As long as you can print it out you can scan it an convert it with a raster to vector software. If you cannot print it but you can view it on the screen but limited to make a screan capture you can take a photo of your screen and then you have the raster again.
December 16, 2004
Anonymous said...
I know this comment is a bit late, but anyway, this trick is not terribly useful because the CAD object seem to paste back in the size they are on screen, not the true (full size) objects.
November 15, 2006
Anonymous said...
Use scale - reference to get the right size
December 16, 2006
Russell said...
It works. Now there is a catch. I was using Anydrawing DWF to DWG converter for flattening 3D Civil and Land Desktop contours, and it works fine. When I do this copy and paste method it makes the topo look like the old sketch command was used. It creates 90 degree angles instead of arcs. Using the Anydrawing DWF to DWG converter works fine. It would be nice if it did work. I even increased the resolution to the highest setting, but to no avail.
March 07, 2007
Anonymous said...
architects are idiots
June 26, 2007
George said...
The well-known package mentioned above is not as secure as people think. Every thing security wise for cad is just a deterant. There are work arounds for all CAD related security measures out there. Just remember NOTHING is ever secure. If some one wants something bad enough they will find a way to get it.
June 26, 2007
Hugo said...
I am not able to select the image. When I go to Edit Copy, Copy is in grey and not selectable. Would any mind explaining to me (dumb it down) how to select objects in Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard?
July 18, 2007
JTB World said...
Acrobat provides three Select tools, all located on a submenu off the Basic toolbar or directly on the Selection toolbar.
Click the Select Image tool on the toolbar and drag to select what you want to copy.
July 18, 2007
Anonymous said...
This website has products to convert PDF to DWG and DWF to DWG.
http://www.autodwg.com/
September 11, 2007
AutoDWG and AnyDWG doesn't work so don't waste your money.
ReplyDeleteyou rock! and i was about to get 30-day-free-trial of AutoDWG or AnyDWG... HA!!
ReplyDeletewell this is SUPER helpful. i had my HDD crash and i lost the dwgs that I produced. thankfully i had created and sent DWF's to the printer. Noot at least i have something to move forward with.....
ReplyDeleteCB