<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>With summer vacations in full swing, I went looking for the CAD drawings for my latest project just after my client’s point of contact went away. So, I was looking for PDF to CAD converters as I did have a .PDF set of the drawings.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I ended up trying 3 “trial” converters and had success with 1:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I started with the trial version of PDF2DXF2012. On my machine, the installation did not seem to work and the trial seems to only give you a viewer rather than the actual .dxf file so I was not able to fully test this converter and didn’t have time to keep playing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Next was VectPDF – this tool seems to be a plug in with AutoCAD allowing you to make the conversion from within AutoCAD. Sounds neat but I am not an AutoCAD user so that did not help my situation.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The third converter I was successful with was Able2Extract 8. The trial is limited to 7 days and only 3 sheets per conversion but it installed and outputs either a .dxf or .dwg (with other options as well – Excel, Word & Powerpoint). I selected the .dxf and was able to open the resulting file into eQUEST to trace my model custom footprint and zoning. There are probably other good tools out there but I was pleased to find one that worked with limited fuss and let me get on with my model. The link for Able2Extract is <a href="http://www.investintech.com/">investintech.com</a> (Note – I am not affiliated with the company, just found the tool useful for what we do!) The cost of the software is $100 or $35 for a 30-day subscription.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Cheers,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Brian<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>