how to convert .dwg files to searchable pdf using bricscad?

kotesh m

i want to convert my autocad files .dwg into searchable pdf files. as of now, i am able to convert them to pdf using nova pdf converter. but text is also converted/printed as graphic. is there any lsip script which will convert text of font SHX to TTF (true type fonts). i am badly requiring this code or any simple method to achieve the above function.

thanks in advance.

Jason Bourhill

Hi Kotesh,

I'm looking for this type of feature too. You can do this to a limited extent with AutoCAD, but the restrictions may make it impractical for a lot of people. The main restriction is that it doesn't recognise SHX fonts. I'm aware of Bluebeam having a publishing tool that will include SHX fonts, but I don't think they have a plugin for Bricscad.

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

Hans De Backer

At present the only way to embed shx as searchable text in a pdf, is to use Export to pdf, not print to pdf.
Meanwhile, we are working on enabling this also for _printing_ shx to pdf, it will be included in the first V13 beta release, probably mid-august.

Kind regards

kotesh m

how to embed shx as searchable text? where is this option in settings?

is it possible to replace .shx with .ttf using find and replace in a .dwg file. how to add ttf fonts to autocad drawing. where is the option to add

ttf fonts.

it is nice to know that v13 version will come with so many user features.

kotesh m

hello HANS DE BACKER,

i Followed your suggestions. using style command i have created a new style with comic sans font. after that i selected the entire autocad file and applied the new style to text and exported it as pdf. to my surprise, search feature is now working perfectly.

can you please give small lisp code apply text style to all dwg files in the folder and also export them as merged single pdf file.

thanks in advance.

Jason Bourhill

@kotesh,

Instead of modifying the drawings you could use a font mapping file. Bricscad uses default.fmp by default. The font mapping file allows you to re-map fonts to other fonts, such as shx -> ttf. this mapping takes precedence over the drawing settings. Couldn't find any info on fmp files Bricscad help, but did find some  info and explanation here: http://autode.sk/Ng6Ets

File format is pretty simple, attach an example (place it in the same folder as the drawing you wish to convert). Because the substituted font is ttf then PDF text search will work. As Hans stated you need to use EXPORT to PDF, not printing to a PDF printer.

Note this is a re-post of http://www.bricscad.com/common/support/forumthread.jsp?id=18726. Posted here as it really better relates to this, than where I originally posted.

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

default.fmp

John Gaunt

It seems that legacy PDF's never will be searchable. I have 9,000 on my system (created from DWGS) and the older the more chance I might need to search them, so any future development would have limited use for me.

Perhaps I should cling to the hope that one day my 7,000 DWG files might become searchable.

I didn't create them all, not saying it to show off, but the ability to bulk search text, mtext and attributes inside them would be extremely useful.

The Finder in Bricscad is a great tool I use often. Just a list of openable file names would do as a bulk search report.

Jason Bourhill

@John,

anything is possible, it's just how bad you really need it. Potentially you could make your legacy PDFs searchable by parsing them with an OCR application. Attach an example that I produced using Nitro PDF. Interestingly OCR only works with Nitro if the dwg is an image, it doesn't recognise a drawing that has been printed direct to PDF. Maybe some other application can do this, such as Bluebeam.

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

TEST-ocr.pdf

Daniel Eiszele

@John. Have you investigated desktop search engines? You can already search within dwg's (quickly too!). One that I have used successfully in the past is X1 ( http://www.x1.com/) having said that even windows desktop search can do the job with the right plugin. Search for WD4 on the Microsoft website.

John Gaunt

I have looked around a lot Daniel, but not seen X1. I believe some at least (including windows search) can search some DWG's, the problem is Acad kept changing the file format and apparently there is a band of 2 or 3 versions around 2005 in which a number of engines can find text, then the stored text format became garbled again.

I bought Directory Opus to try and do it, as well as have a decent file manager. It's very good for its main job, but its DWG searches turn up completely useless results. Thanks I will try your suggestions.

Daniel Eiszele

Just checked the x1 supported files and it looks like it only supports up to 2007. For 50 bucks it's the most complete option for the price. As far as ifilters that plug directly into explorer go check this out if you haven't already:  http://www.ifiltershop.com/dwg-ifilter.html. A bit expensive for casual use but it looks promising!

John Gaunt

Brrr round in circles again. I hadn't heard of windows desktop search, I installed that. Just appears to mimic Google desktop search, which doesn't seem to do anything there aren't already better tools for. Windows says it has indexed all the dwg files, but WDS says they aren't indexed. ifilter doesn't seem to make any difference installed or not. Dopus and plain windows search give different results, neither correct or complete, regardless of indexing...

I will try again when patience returns. Thanks for help.

Daniel Eiszele

From memory, in order to get an ifilter to work, you have to go into the WDS settings and manually force it to re-index based on the new settings (can't remember the actual setting or location off the top of my head; but there aren't that many places to look).   

kotesh m

HOW TO EXPORT A GROUP OF .DWG FILES IN A FOLDER INTO PDF?

i want batch command for exporting .dwg files into pdf files.

or any lisp code to batch convert.

kotesh m

i got solution to my problems.

geotools GT_MULTEXPORT command is able to process all the selected files and able to export the same to pdf.

waldo desko

@kotesh m:

i want to convert my autocad files .dwg into searchable pdf files. as of now, i am able to convert them to pdf using nova pdf converter. but text is also converted/printed as graphic. is there any lsip script which will convert text of font SHX to TTF (true type fonts). i am badly requiring this code or any simple method to achieve the above function.

thanks in advance.

Yes i got the same graphic problem when i used that same converter. But then i switched to a professional converter called as Universal Document Converter and got rid of that problem. u can try it at http://www.print-driver.com . Hope it helps

Jason Bourhill

I suggest taking another look at BricsCAD's built-in PDF generator (EXPORT to PDF). The PUBLISH command has made this a lot more accessible (would be nice to be able to access it from print too). to use simply select PDF from the publish to drop down.

There is no need to re-define text styles using LISP. BricsCAD now exports searchable SHX, alternatively you can use the default.fmp to re-map fonts. A point to note here is not all PDF readers are the same. I've found that Adobe reader will find text that other readers such as Nitro PDF don't.

Attach two PDF examples generated by publishing to PDF:

• CCL-SearchableText-SHX. Has a mix of SHX & TTF text styles i.e. was published as-is.
• CCL-SearchableText-TTF has all SHX fonts re-mapped to an applicable TFF font.

In the PDF I've tried to distort the text in many different ways, mirror, scale, clipping, backwards... In other CAD applications this type of distortion often leads to the font being represented on the screen as a bitmap. In turn this is how it is represented in the generated PDF, meaning text in this form won't be searchable. However with BricsCAD this is not the case, it is ALL searchable :-)

Regards, Jason Bourhill CAD Concepts 

CCL-SearchableText-SHX.pdfCCL-SearchableText-TTF.pdf