Photo to DXF

Photograph a part, set one known dimension, and get an editable DXF at true size.

Reverse-engineering something you can hold usually starts the same way: you have the object, you do not have the drawing, and redrawing it from calliper measurements takes an afternoon. A photograph already contains the outline. The problem is that a photograph has no scale and no notion of an edge, which is what this converts.

The pipeline removes the background, extracts the silhouette and any internal holes, fits the result to real curves, and scales everything against one dimension you provide. What comes out is a DXF of ARC, CIRCLE, LINE and LWPOLYLINE entities you can dimension and constrain, not a bitmap traced into ten thousand tiny segments.

Who this is for

  • Machine shops working from customer photos

    A customer sends a phone photo of the bracket they want copied. This gets you a profile to quote against in minutes rather than redrawing it by hand.

  • Engineers replacing a discontinued part

    The original drawing is long gone. Photograph the part you have, set the scale from one calliper measurement, and start from geometry instead of a blank sketch.

  • Product designers working from reference

    Over half of engineering time goes into redrawing things that already exist. Starting from the real outline skips the part that was never design work.

Try it on your own image

Converting is free and unlimited, no account needed, and no charge for retuning until the result is right. You only pay when you download.

Output format

What are you converting?

Redraws rather than measures, so detail can shift. Check the preview.

Drop an image here or click to browse

PNG, JPG, or WebP · Max 10 MB

How to do it

  1. 1

    Photograph the part flat-on

    Lay it on a plain background with even light and shoot straight down, as square to the surface as you can manage. Perspective is the single biggest source of error here: a photo taken at an angle produces an outline that is genuinely the wrong shape, and no amount of post-processing recovers it.

  2. 2

    Pick a mode

    Precise Outline suits photographs of real objects. It removes the background and extracts the exact silhouette, purely geometrically. AI Drawing suits sketches, hand drawings and low-contrast images, where it redraws a clean line version before tracing.

  3. 3

    Set the scale from something you have measured

    Drag a line across a dimension you already know, an overall length, a hole spacing, and type the real measurement. Every curve is scaled to match, so the DXF imports at true size. Measure the longest dimension you can: a 2mm feature measured to ±0.2mm is a 10% scale error applied to the whole part.

  4. 4

    Check the preview, then download

    Converting is free and unlimited, so iterate until the outline is right before you take anything. You only spend a credit when you download, and re-downloading a file you already took is free forever.

Which format to take

Take the DXF for CAD and CNC. It opens in Fusion 360, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Onshape, FreeCAD and Rhino, and it carries real arc and circle entities you can constrain. Take the SVG instead if the destination is a laser cutter or a vector editor. Both come from the same conversion and one credit covers both, so there is no reason to choose carefully.

Image to DXFImage to SVG

What to check before you rely on it

  • A photo captures one face. You get a 2D profile, not a solid. Thickness, draft and anything on the far side are yours to add.
  • Perspective error is not recoverable. Shoot square to the part; a tilted photo yields a subtly wrong outline that looks plausible.
  • Scale is only as good as the dimension you type. There is no automatic calibration from a reference marker, so a mistyped measurement scales the whole part.
  • Shiny, transparent or dark-on-dark parts confuse background removal. Matte parts on a contrasting background work best.
  • Very fine detail near the resolution limit of the photo will be simplified away rather than invented.

Common questions

Will the DXF be the right size?
Yes, if you set the scale. Drag a line across a dimension you already know in the photo and type the real measurement. Every curve is scaled to match, so the file imports at true size instead of at an arbitrary scale you have to correct afterwards.
Does it produce real arcs and circles, or just polylines?
Both, correctly. After tracing, paths are simplified and then tested against circles, arcs and rectangles. Anything that genuinely fits is exported as a true ARC, CIRCLE or LINE entity you can dimension and constrain. A freeform outline stays a polyline, because that is what it actually is, but a simplified one rather than one point per pixel.
Can it give me a 3D model instead?
Not from one photograph. A single photo contains one view, so what you get is an accurate 2D profile. Extruding it to a solid is a single operation in any CAD package once the profile is right.
What does it cost?
Converting is free and unlimited, with no account needed. Downloading is what costs: signing up grants 3 free downloads, then it is £1.99 per file as a one-off rather than a subscription.

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Photograph a part, set one known dimension, and get an editable DXF at true size.

Convert an image