Paul,
That tool works GREAT! I tried it, half expecting it to simply discard what it couldn't convert like all of the open-source tools I'd found prior, but it worked...and well. All of the objects the PDF had to offer came right over.
Interestingly, Illustrator complains before it opens the DXFs the tool produces, but Grass is delighted with them. My guess is the AideCad people are formatting the DXF using an older standard.
Part of what I'm doing with the GIS project I'm working on is trying to convince my client that OS is the way to go (they are a non-profit). Having to buy a product to do this part of the data conversion with a non-GPL app doesn't help with that part of things. However, it's great to have something that works.
Thanks for the suggestion!
--Kurt
PA Light wrote:
Try Aide PDF to DXF Converter
http://www.aidecad.com/pdf-to-dxf-converter.html
I've successfully used it to convert PDF to DXF. Aide offers a free trial version good for 20 conversion, after which you will be required to purchase a licence.
Cheers,
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Kurt Heston [SMTP:kheston@hestonsystems.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:42 PM
To: grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] Vector drawings in PDF -> converting them
Grass 6.2 appears to be even less agreeable to the DXF format that
Inkscape writes than it was to the one Illustrator did. I'm still
playing with it, but no luck yet.
Dylan Beaudette wrote:
On Thursday 17 January 2008 11:10:39 am Kurt Heston wrote:
Dylan,
Will do. Is there a specific feature I should look for that solves my
specific problem?
--K
Kurt-
Well, I would take a look at all of the vector (path) tools available in
Inkscape. I have not used to to work with much GIS data, but I do know
that
it can import PDF data as vector (path) primitives.
Feel free to post your findings back to the list.
Cheers,
Dylan
Dylan Beaudette wrote:
On Wednesday 16 January 2008 11:22:02 pm Kurt Heston wrote:
I have a TON of vector drawings available to me in PDF format that I'm
georeferencing. So far, I'm doing it by converting them to PNGs and
using r.to.vect to massage them. This is really tedious and the data
isn't as clean as a straight vector conversion would be. In
Illustrator, I can see that all the vector math is there. That is,
the
PDF isn't simply a wrapper around raster data.
I've tried opening the PDFs in Illustrator and exporting them as DXFs,
but Grass ignores a lot of the data when I do this...they look very
different in Grass once imported. I can export them as SVG from
Illustrator, but surprisingly, there doesn't appear to be a single
open-source tool available out there that converts SVG into some
mainstream GIS file format.
Does anyone have experience doing this type of conversion? Pointers
welcome.
_______________________________________________
Check out Inkscape.
Dylan
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I found this with a search of freshmeat.net. Perhaps it will work, and free. Let us know.
http://www.pstoedit.net/
Cheers,
John
On Jan 19, 2008, at 6:43 PM, Kurt Heston wrote:
Paul,
That tool works GREAT! I tried it, half expecting it to simply discard what it couldn't convert like all of the open-source tools I'd found prior, but it worked...and well. All of the objects the PDF had to offer came right over.
Interestingly, Illustrator complains before it opens the DXFs the tool produces, but Grass is delighted with them. My guess is the AideCad people are formatting the DXF using an older standard.
Part of what I'm doing with the GIS project I'm working on is trying to convince my client that OS is the way to go (they are a non-profit). Having to buy a product to do this part of the data conversion with a non-GPL app doesn't help with that part of things. However, it's great to have something that works.
Thanks for the suggestion!
--Kurt
John,
Excellent! Works flawlessly. Just a little experimenting yielded this command:
pstoedit.exe -f dxf_s:-splineaspolyline roads.pdf roads.dxf
Without the "-splineaspolyline" argument the DXF looks just like the other conversions that didn't work.
I now have a solution with the right licensing model. Thanks for the suggestion!
--Kurt
John C. Tull wrote:
I found this with a search of freshmeat.net. Perhaps it will work, and free. Let us know.
http://www.pstoedit.net/
Cheers,
John
On Jan 19, 2008, at 6:43 PM, Kurt Heston wrote:
Paul,
That tool works GREAT! I tried it, half expecting it to simply discard what it couldn't convert like all of the open-source tools I'd found prior, but it worked...and well. All of the objects the PDF had to offer came right over.
Interestingly, Illustrator complains before it opens the DXFs the tool produces, but Grass is delighted with them. My guess is the AideCad people are formatting the DXF using an older standard.
Part of what I'm doing with the GIS project I'm working on is trying to convince my client that OS is the way to go (they are a non-profit). Having to buy a product to do this part of the data conversion with a non-GPL app doesn't help with that part of things. However, it's great to have something that works.
Thanks for the suggestion!
--Kurt
_______________________________________________
grass-user mailing list
grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user
Kurt,
I now have a pdf map from which I want to pull some vector data and use in a GIS. I am curious to hear about your workflow with this process. For me, I ran the command below and got a single-layer dxf file that does not seem to be amenable to useful work in a GIS environment. Would you mind sharing some details about how you work through the pdf to vector data process beyond getting the dxf file?
Thanks,
John
On Jan 19, 2008, at 9:42 PM, Kurt Heston wrote:
John,
Excellent! Works flawlessly. Just a little experimenting yielded this command:
pstoedit.exe -f dxf_s:-splineaspolyline roads.pdf roads.dxf
Without the "-splineaspolyline" argument the DXF looks just like the other conversions that didn't work.
I now have a solution with the right licensing model. Thanks for the suggestion!
--Kurt
John C. Tull wrote:
I found this with a search of freshmeat.net. Perhaps it will work, and free. Let us know.
http://www.pstoedit.net/
Cheers,
John
On Jan 19, 2008, at 6:43 PM, Kurt Heston wrote:
Paul,
That tool works GREAT! I tried it, half expecting it to simply discard what it couldn't convert like all of the open-source tools I'd found prior, but it worked...and well. All of the objects the PDF had to offer came right over.
Interestingly, Illustrator complains before it opens the DXFs the tool produces, but Grass is delighted with them. My guess is the AideCad people are formatting the DXF using an older standard.
Part of what I'm doing with the GIS project I'm working on is trying to convince my client that OS is the way to go (they are a non-profit). Having to buy a product to do this part of the data conversion with a non-GPL app doesn't help with that part of things. However, it's great to have something that works.
Thanks for the suggestion!
--Kurt
_______________________________________________
grass-user mailing list
grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user
_______________________________________________
grass-user mailing list
grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user