Convert scanned AEC drawings to CAD for free

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Sep 15, 2006

AEC professionals can now convert scanned architectural drawings, building services plans, civil engineering site plans, etc, into CAD files for free using Scan2CAD Pro evaluation program.

AEC professionals can now convert scanned architectural drawings, building services plans, civil engineering site plans, etc, into CAD files for free for a limited period using the new Scan2CAD Pro evaluation program.

Softcover International, the publisher of Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software, have released a 14-day full-working trial of their industry leading converter.

Softcover's new trial program gives AEC professionals and CAD users unrestricted access to the full power of Scan2CAD Pro for the conversion of scanned drawings, schematics, sketches, site plans and maps into DXF files for editing in CAD.

At the end of the 14-day trial period Scan2CAD Pro's vector save will be disabled.

However, Scan2CAD Pro's powerful raster editing tools will remain available to the user.

The Scan2CAD trial will continue to work as a free, fully-working raster editor for tidying-up scanned drawings.

The new Scan2CAD Pro trial program can be downloaded from: www.softcover.com The Scan2CAD Pro trial loads all popular raster file formats, like BMP, TIF, PNG, etc, and will convert these to DXF which can be opened and edited in any PC CAD program, like AutoCAD, etc There are no restrictions on the size of the drawings that the Scan2CAD trial will open and convert.

It will convert drawings up to A0-size and larger into DXF for editing in any PC CAD, CNC, GIS or mapping program.

The Scan2CAD Pro trial will convert as many drawings during the evaluation period as the user can process.

Drawings can be converted singly or en masse using Scan2CAD's batch facility for automated raster editing and or vectorisation of monochrome (black and white), greyscale and colour raster images.

The Scan2CAD Pro trial will save monochrome or colour DXF files with or without OCR text recognition.

Users wanting to test Scan2CAD Pro's OCR can even train an OCR neural net to extend text recognition to non-standard fonts.

At the end of the 14-day trial period Scan2CAD's vector save, batch processing, command line and OCR font training will be disabled.

The expired evaluation program will continue to work as a free raster editor.

The expired program will load raster files or scan direct from scanners which support TWAIN-compliance, including Colortrac, Contex and Graphtec wide format scanners.

Useful raster editing tools, like auto-rotate, despeckle, thresholding, smooth lines, enter raster text, etc, allow users tidy up and enhance scanned CAD images for free.

The Scan2CAD Pro Trial includes:.

Complete Scan2CAD Pro functionality.

Substantial technical documentation, including: Comprehensive, illustrated Help.

Scan2CAD Hints and Tips (PDF, 17 pages).

Andrea's Real World Guide to Vectorisation (PDF, 15 pages).

Free email technical support to anyone using the trial or subsequently the raster editor.

Key Scan2CAD features:.

Converts scanned raster images into editable CAD DXF files.

Powerful raster editing with auto-rotate, despeckle and thresholding.

NO paper-size restrictions - converts all drawing sizes up to A0+.

Converts standard raster file formats (TIFF, BMP, CALS, PNG, JPG, etc).

Converts monochrome (black/white), grayscale and colour raster files.

Flexible conversion controls saving lines, arcs, circles, Bezier curves, etc Exports DXF with an attached raster image for Raster Overlay editing in CAD / CNC.

Exports DXF to the size and scale of the original paper image.

Includes SnapTidy vector editing tools.

Affordable - from just £179.78 (Regular) or £279.28 (Pro) incl pandp and VAT.

Optional printed manual and FREE lifetime email technical support.

Version: 7.5d.

File Size: 5.6 Mb.

User Period: 14-day trial.

Platform: Windows 95/98/NT4/Me/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista.