Turning a scanned drawing into something your CAD program can edit
You have a scanned floor plan, an old map or a bitmap logo, and you need real lines you can move, scale and measure in your CAD application. Redrawing it by hand takes hours. Img2CAD from River Software is a stand-alone program that converts raster images into vector files such as DXF, HPGL, WMF and EMF.
Quick facts
- Version: 7.2
- Type: stand-alone program, so you don't need a CAD package installed to run it
- Input: BMP, JPG, TIF, GIF, PNG, PCX, TGA and more
- Output: DXF, HPGL, EMF, WMF, TXT
- Trial: a free trial version is available to download
Key features
Read many image formats and write vector files for CAD
You can feed in BMP, JPG, TIF, GIF, PNG, PCX, TGA, RLE, JPE, J2K, JAS, JBG, MNG and other formats. The output goes to DXF, HPGL, EMF and WMF, so it opens in most CAD applications.
Trace lines, arcs, circles and hatches from color, grayscale or black-and-white images
Img2CAD vectorizes raster lines, arcs, circles, arrow lines, dash lines, polylines and hatches. You can also create center lines and outlines, or outline solid raster areas.
Clean up the result automatically
Automatic correction restores intersections, aligns lines and joins fragments into lines, arcs, circles and polylines. It can remove very small vector objects and correct recognized text. You can straighten a skewed scan to a reference line and remove color speckles so colors are more uniform.
Adjust the image before conversion
You can scale the image in the X and Y directions, change brightness and contrast, and set tolerance levels to control how closely the trace follows the source.
Convert many files in one go
Batch processing and drag and drop are supported, so a folder of scans doesn't need to be handled one file at a time.
Who it's for
It suits anyone who regularly receives drawings, maps or sketches as image files and needs them in a CAD-editable form: draftspeople, surveyors, engineers and hobbyists. The vendor says you don't need prior experience or specialist knowledge to get results.
Pros and cons
- Pro: works on its own, without a CAD application installed.
- Pro: a wide range of input formats and several vector output formats.
- Pro: tools for cleaning up the result, plus batch conversion.
- Pro: a free trial lets you test your own images first.
- Con: it traces raster images into vectors, so results depend on how clean the source scan is and on the tolerance settings you choose.
- Con: the output list is DXF, HPGL, EMF, WMF and TXT, with no DWG output listed.
FAQs
Do I need AutoCAD to use it?
No. Img2CAD is a stand-alone program. You open the resulting files in the CAD application you already use.
Which image formats can I convert?
BMP, JPG, TIF, GIF, PNG, PCX, TGA and several others are supported.
Which formats can I save to?
DXF, HPGL, EMF, WMF and TXT.
Can I try it first?
Yes. A free trial version is available.
Can it convert several images at once?
Yes, batch processing is supported.