I am new to Inkscape and CAD. The problem I am having is that, some of the PDF files load fine. ( It take a minute to load) That is not my problem. I have some PDF files that will load in a split second. These are the files I am having trouble converting to DXF. It shows the file has been converted but nothing shows up. Has anyone encountered this problem?

The PDF files that take a minute to load work fine when converting to DXF.

I suspect the fast-loading files don't contain any vector shapes to convert to DXF.
You can check this by:

- Select all (Ctrl+A)
- Do Ctrl+U repeatedly, until in the status bar it no longer says that the selection contains a group
- Look what it says instead: Image only? If so, then, well, there's no vector data at all. Just a raster image. And those cannot be converted to dxf, unless you vectorize them first, which may or may not be feasible, depending on the content.

- If it says 'Path(s)' and not 'Image', then please share one of those files, so we can take a look.

Thank you for the quick response.

After following the steps you suggested I do believe no vector data is my problem.

The PDF I am having trouble with has:
Image 2475X1750 embedded in layer Layer1. In the status bar.

The PDF that works fine has:
11143 objects selected of type Path in layer Layer1.

Now I will have to find out if I can create vector data from my PDF.

Thanks again.

Hhmm, this is the 2nd time I've responded to this kind of comment, recently:

I am new to Inkscape and CAD.

It's possible I'm mis-reading your intended comment. But just for clarity, Inkscape is not a CAD program. They can create very similar type of contents, and sometimes it probably doesn't matter which kind of program you use. But Inkscape and CAD work very differently.

Although now that I think of it, doesn't CAD mean "computer aided design". From that perspective, even a raster editor could be thought of as computer aided design??

But anyway, as far as I understand, CAD is meant for technical drawings, while Inkscape has many other uses. I could be wrong about this part, but I have the impression that Inkscape does not have the same kind of precision as CAD. (I'm thinking of the many situations where "rounding errors" come into play, with Inkscape.)

If we ever can get a nice graphic for the Inkscape website, about the different between raster and vector, I wonder if it should include the distinction from cad, as well?

Thanks for responding Brynn,

I could of worded that better. I am new to using CAD programs. The CAD program I am using is UGNX11. I am using Inkscape to changes some PDF files to DXF files so I can bring them into UGNX11. Having the difference between raster and vector in the PDF files caught me off guard. Thanks again for the response.

Are you able to get the source files of the pdfs that just contain a raster image?

Can you share an example file that is representative for the kind of thing you're trying to import?

Are we talking about 2 or 3 files, or a large(r) number?

Moini

Sorry for the slow response. I was pulled away to work on another project. I have attached one of the files I am having issues with. Thanks for looking at this.

Ah. So, these kinds of things would require something called 'centerline tracing'. Inkscape's built-in vectorizing tool converts 'lines' into areas, so a straight line would become a stretched rectangle, and that is usually not what people need for these kinds of diagrams.

There exists a centerline tracing extension here:
https://github.com/fablabnbg/inkscape-centerline-trace

It's difficult to install on Windows (if that's where you are), but possible.
However, the quality of the image (looks like a bad scan to me) is low, the lines aren't discernible in some places. And the lines cross in many places.
With this kind of picture, centerline tracing cannot produce really good results.

So the most promising way to do this (if it's really just a couple of images) would be to manually trace the lines, using the Bézier tool. It doesn't take very long - and I assume you don't really need every part of the drawing (i.e. not the graphs or the text) but only the drawings of the item (whatever that is...) itself.