Blueprint to CAD

A scanned plan becomes linework you can edit, with the labels still readable.

Most blueprints that need converting are not files any more. They are a scan, a photograph of a pinned-up sheet, or a PDF someone exported from a scan years ago, and none of those can be edited. Retracing one by hand is a day's work that nobody enjoys and everybody postpones.

Bevell traces the sheet directly. Upload the PDF, TIFF or image, and the centres of the drawn strokes come back as DXF geometry: walls, door swings, stair treads, dimension lines and their witness marks, the compass rose, the title block border. Nothing is redrawn or invented, so what you get is what was on the paper.

Lettering is the one thing a drawing asks for that a photograph of an object does not, and it is a switch you control. Read rather than traced, room names and annotations arrive as editable CAD text instead of thousands of tiny polyline outlines. It starts off, because handwriting and poor scans convert better traced than misread, so you turn it on for a sheet whose lettering is worth reading.

Who this is for

  • Architects and surveyors

    A legacy sheet becomes a base drawing to work over, rather than something to redraw from scratch.

  • Contractors and estimators

    Take measurements off geometry at true scale instead of scaling a printout with a ruler.

  • Facilities and property teams

    Turn an archive of paper plans into files that can be marked up and reissued.

  • Renovation and interiors

    An existing-conditions plan to design against, without paying for a fresh measured survey.

Try it on your own image

Preview unlimited conversions for free, no account needed, and retune until the result is right. You only pay when you download.

Drop a file here or click to browse

Photo: PNG, JPG, WebP, up to 10 MB and 52 megapixels

Drawing: PDF, TIFF, up to 50 MB

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How to do it

  1. 1

    Upload the sheet

    PDF and TIFF up to 50 MB, or a photo or scan as PNG, JPG or WEBP. A drawing set converts one sheet at a time: once it has converted, a Page field picks the sheet you need.

  2. 2

    Use Direct trace

    A PDF or TIFF starts on Direct trace, which follows the drawing as-is rather than having an image model redraw it. Pick it yourself for a photo of a sheet.

  3. 3

    Decide about the lettering

    Tick Read lettering as text for a machine-plotted sheet. Leave it off, as it starts, for handwriting or a poor scan, where a traced label beats a misread one.

  4. 4

    Set the scale and download

    Drag across a feature whose dimension is printed on the sheet and type that number. The DXF exports at true size.

Which format to take

DXF is what you want here: it opens in AutoCAD, Revit, Fusion 360, FreeCAD and everything else, and carries the text. The SVG comes from the same conversion if you need the sheet in a vector editor instead.

Open the converter

What to check before you rely on it

  • One sheet per conversion. A drawing set is converted sheet by sheet, each picked with the Page field.
  • No layer separation yet. Linework arrives on one layer, with read lettering on its own TEXT layer. Sorting strokes by weight is built and being tested, but it is not switched on, so nothing is promised here that you would not get.
  • Hand lettering reads unevenly. Room names usually come through, small hand-drawn dimension strings often do not, and that is what the text switch is for.
  • Scale comes from you, never from the drawing. Dimension text is read as text, never as a value.
  • Dense sheets take around a minute to convert, and a very large one can run out of time. Cropping to the area you need is faster and usually better.
  • You get geometry and text, not a structured model with blocks, rooms or constraints.

Common questions

Can I upload a PDF?
Yes, up to 50 MB. The page is rendered at high resolution and traced. If your PDF is a drawing set, convert it once and then pick the sheet you need in the Page field.
Will the room names come through as text?
If you tick Read lettering as text, yes. Words become editable CAD TEXT entities on their own layer, keeping position, size and angle. They are set in your CAD program's font, so the original letterforms are not preserved. If that matters, or if the sheet is handwritten, leave it off, as it starts, and the lettering is traced exactly as drawn instead.
Do I get walls on their own layer?
Not yet. Linework comes back on a single layer, and lettering you have had read sits on a TEXT layer of its own. Splitting strokes by weight, which is the convention drafting actually uses, is built and in testing but not switched on. Separating by name, walls against doors, is not something stroke weight can tell you and is not planned.
Is the output to scale?
Once you calibrate it. Set a known dimension from the sheet in the scale step and the DXF exports at true size, ready to measure against.
What about a blueprint that is a photo, not a scan?
That works, though a flat scan is better. Photograph the sheet square-on in even light, avoid shadows and page curl, and crop to the drawing. Perspective is not corrected, so an angled photo produces an angled drawing.

Read next

A scanned plan becomes linework you can edit, with the labels still readable.

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