PDF to DXF

[ThomD]

Anyone know a reliable, free, way of doing this without malware, etc...

In my particular case, the drawings I need to convert are relatively simple, if that makes any difference.

Thanks

[Olav]

I use PDF2DXF. Even the free trial version does the job for me.

Complex drawings will create relatively large dxf drawings as circles and splines will be converted as polylines only. If your drawings are simple, you'll be better off.

[Raggi_Thor]

I use and sell another PDF2DXF program.
That one, and I guess all others also, can only convert vector based pdfs, not raster. That means you can convert pdfs that origins from a CAD program but not a scanned paper drawing for example.

[Olav]

To convert pictures (e.g. scanned drawings) to DXF the guy from my previous post has a solution too: Paper/Picture2DXF

The resulting DXFs occasionally need a bit of love and care, but nevertheless it's a useful tool.

[Raggi_Thor]

Nice, I tried it.
Here is a tip for new users, after converting or importing, use first Quick Select or similar to select all lines or plines with length below a certain value, for example 30mm in my test drawing, then Polyline Edit or similar (depending on your cad program) and Join with a tolerance.

[Joe Petrich]

If you have Rhino you can import a pdf into Rhino, then export it as .dxf or.dwg etc. It only works with vector based pdfs and all text and dimensions will be broken up into segments.

I use "Vector Magic" to vectorize pixel drawings like .jpg .bmp and the like.
Although not perfect (none of them is), it gives good results.

Regards
Richard