Why Scan2CAD?

You will probably be able to load a raster file into your CAD program - most CAD programs can import and display raster files.  However, once you have imported a raster file into your CAD program you will find that all you can do is look at it or trace over it.  You will not be able to make any changes to it.  Before you can edit it you must convert it into a vector file format like industry standard DXF which all PC CAD programs can read.  Scan2CAD does this conversion for you.  It converts old paper drawings, hand sketches, site plans, maps, artwork, CNC profiles etc. into DXF files that you can easily edit in your CAD program.  Saving you hours of redrawing time! 

Scan2CAD offers raster to vector conversion results as good as programs that cost a lot more.  It really does stand up to comparison with more expensive raster to vector converters.  In fact, we encourage you to test Scan2CAD before you buy it.  Better, we think you should compare it to rival programs.   You will be surprised at the results.  Clearly Scan2CAD is an excellent value for the money!

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In order to show the Pro features, the Evaluation version  does a few more things than the Regular version:

• Raster file saving functions - NO

• Vector file saving functions - Saves ninth of vectorized area only

• HPGL import - NO

• Detect color edges - YES

• Draw TrueType raster text - YES, using any font

• Scan a drawing too large to fit on your scanner, tile it, reassemble it in Scan2CAD - YES

• Paste raster images into Scan2CAD from other applications - YES

• Color palette manipulation features - YES

• Convert color raster images to color DXF - YES

• Convert color raster images to mono DXF - YES

• Batch conversion - Saves ninth of vectorized area only

• Font training - Restricted load and save options

Scan2CAD Features

Pre-conversion raster tidy-up:

• Cleans: Removes speckles and holes caused by dirt, stains etc.
• Deskews: Where images have been scanned in skew, you can adjust the image by a few degrees or even by a fraction of a degree
• Rotates: Turns the image through 90, 180 or 270 degrees
• Pixel ablation and accretion: Thins thick lines on the image- or thickens thin ones
• Image inversion: Makes black areas white and white areas black
• Infill removal: Deletes solid areas of pixels to leave only the raters outline
• Raster editing command called Smooth - this shaves away the short stubbly lines of two or three pixels which protrude from major raster lines, creating a vector file with much straighter lines.  

• Works with any drawing size - the only limit is the size of your scanner
• Works with any scanner that creates PCX, BMP, IMG or TIFF files

• Now also supports two additional raster file types, CALS and GeoTIFF

• Converts mono PCX, BMP, IMG and TIFF (including packbits, fax group 3, fax group 4) raster files into DXF vectors you can edit in your CAD program
• Outputs to any PC CAD Program that supports industry standard DXF files

• Lets you draw over the image, e.g. trace a new line over a line than has scanned badly.  Raster drawing tools include pixel(point), line, ortho line, rectangle, arc, circle, area (block), freehand, pen size, snap, undo, and erase.

Includes flexible conversion settings:

• OCR Text Recognition - based on Neural-Net technology with AFR (Adaptive Font Recognition).  At present Scan2CAD recognizes standard fonts (Arial, Sans Serif, Times New Roman).  If you require recognition for non-standard, hand-written, or stenciled fonts, then you may need the Pro version Training Kit.  It will allow the user to train Scan2CAD to automatically recognize and convert non-standard text on a drawing.
• New vectorization engine now recognizes lines, arcs, circles and text (within limits of the quality of the original drawing and the quality of the scanned image).
• Polyline output is now supported and DXF files are output on three layers: vectors, text and polylines.
• Easy to use: Automatically converts different drawing types using supplied conversion settings- Architectural, Electrical, Mechanical, Maps, Outline etc.
• Full control : Lets you adjust the conversion settings to ensure the best result for each drawing or part(s) of a drawing.  Conversion settings include:
• Center line tracking, outline tracking or both.
• Corner sharpening: Force two lines to join at 90 degrees
• Retain orthogonality: Force lines to stay 0 and 90 degrees
• Creates a composite DXF file when you use different conversion settings to convert different parts of the same drawing.
• Saves user-defined conversion settings for future reuse.
• Recognizes and converts lines, arcs and circles to industry standard DXF files
• Vector editing tools: Lets you draw points, lines, ortholines, rectangles, arcs, circles or freehand.  Includes snap, undo.  Erases vectors individually or in a block.
• Lets you scale DXF files for accurate import into your CAD program
• Displays Raster, Vector or Raster and Vector together (overlay).
• Zooms, pans, steps back through the last defined zooms
• SnapTidy(tm) - vector editing tools designed to make the tidying up of lines, arcs and circles within Scan2CAD quick and easy. 
• Grab points - now attach to the ends of lines and ends and centers of arcs and circles.  Text also includes a Grab Point.  Using the SnapTidy tools a user can quickly edit the drawing before exporting it to a CAD program.
• Allows you to assign real world coordinates to a known point on the raster image so that your DXF file is exported with coordinates relative to this point.