Read PDF file into Mcam

[GibbsMachineCorp]

Hello all. Is there a way to read a PDF drawing file into mastercam? I get a lot of drawings from customers that are pdf's and it would be a lot easier to work with these parts if I could just read the pdf into mastercam.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

X6 MU2

[Thad]

I have no idea if this works, but if you have Acrobat Pro, you can save the .pdf as an .eps file. MC can open them.

 

If you can, email me the pdf and I'll give it a try.

[GibbsMachineCorp]

^{Thanks Thad but not allowed to send these files out. We don't have Acrobat Pro. I'll have to try something else.}

[Mark V.]

If you have adobe illustrator open the pdf with that and save as a dxf file.

 

.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Keep in mind that when you import the converted drawing into Mastercam, there could be small translation errors in the geometry. It is much better to start with real CAD file, instead of trying to convert a PDF into one.

 

Are these PDF files hand drawn? The company you are doing the work for should have Solid or Wireframe geometry available for you to work from. Can you request the native CAD model that they used to make the drawings?

[EX-wccprogrammer]

If you have no choice but convert a PDF, you could try this:

 

http://pdf.my-addr.com/free-online-pdf-to-eps-convert.php

 

I have never used it, personally. But it is worth a shot.

[Jayson Kramer]

Also the issue of the PDF scales being off to.

Now if the PDF has point data then using pro you can copy this point data of to say word or notepad and save as a TXT file and import this as point data into MC just did this a few months back with impeller Vain data.

 

JM2C

[Josh T™]

The company you are doing the work for should have Solid or Wireframe geometry available for you to work from.

 

+1. This has always been an issue with a lot of outside customers. You're probably getting these drawings from purchasing people who couldn't even CAD! Back in the day, we put in our pre-reqs that a digital file was required for CNC Programming purposes. We usually got generic files (IGES, STEP, DXF, etc.) but it was usable. One customer sent Pro-E models and that was a blessing!

[Reko]

If you have adobe illustrator open the pdf with that and save as a dxf file.

 

If you don't have any software, you can download "Inkscape" for free... it will open Adobe PDF's... open the PDF in Inkscape and save it as a .DXF file... be sure to close the tolerances to .0001" when translating to the DXF for best possible accuracy.

 

Like Jay said, the scaling will be wrong, but you can do the math and scale it properly once the file is pulled into Mastercam.

 

Colin is also correct... it is better to get a CAD file from the customer, but I have had customers tell me they could only supply a PDF... so this might be a decent alternative... but BE CAREFUL. It has worked for me several times, but double check everything.

 

http://inkscape.org/

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

PDF = higher cost to ship.

 

When we do turn-keys, we quote a CAD model supplied price and a Drawing Only Supplied Price. Most companies don't like to see that 40-80 hours (obviously depending on the complexity of the drawing) of CAD work cost so we get CAD 99% of the time. Funny how people get when they see the actual cost/time spend on often unnecessary CAD work.