PDF to DWG: your PDF floor plan as a real AutoCAD drawing

Most PDF to DWG converters only copy the vector lines inside the PDF, and give you nothing at all for a scanned sheet. Plan Chat works the other way: drop the PDF, pick the page with the floor plan, and an AI drafter redraws it as CAD, with closed walls, door and window blocks, dimension chains and room tags with areas, on named layers. You get a DWG for AutoCAD, a DXF and a scaled PDF sheet.

Open the CAD studio See drawings made with it →

Some new accounts get their first drawing free while we test it.

CAD floor plan drawn by the AI drafter: structural grid, hatched walls, doors with swings, dimension chains, room tags with areas, room schedule and legend — A family house, 12 × 10 m, drawn from a short brief in about three minutes. Watch it being drawn.

How it works

1. Drop the PDF
A plan set, a permit sheet, a builder’s brochure or a scanned PDF. Multi-page files are fine: pick the page with the floor plan in the studio. Password-protected PDFs need to be unlocked first.
2. The drafter redraws the page
The page is turned into an image in your browser, then the drafter reads the printed dimensions, sets up the grid and draws walls, openings, fixtures, dimensions and labels, and checks its drawing against your page.
3. Download DWG, DXF or PDF
DWG in AutoCAD 2010 format, a layered DXF and an A3 PDF at a true scale. Correct anything by chat or with the CAD tools first.

Real drawings: pdf to dwg in practice

All community drawings →

Scanned PDFs work too

A scan has no lines to extract, so converters return an image. The drafter reads it like a person would and draws it again as geometry.

Layers instead of loose lines

Walls, doors, windows, grid, dimensions, text and furniture each sit on their own layer (A-WALL, A-DOOR, A-GLAZ, A-ANNO-DIMS …), not hundreds of exploded segments on layer 0.

Uses the numbers on the sheet

Printed dimensions are read and used. Where the sheet has none, give the overall size or one room size and the drafter scales the rest.

What you get

DXF	Layered, opens in AutoCAD, BricsCAD, DraftSight, LibreCAD, QCAD, Rhino, SketchUp (import) and Revit (link).
DWG	AutoCAD 2010 format, so every AutoCAD from 2010 on and most DWG-compatible programs open it.
PDF	A3 landscape sheet plotted to a true scale (1:50, 1:100 …) with a border and a title block.

Plus a 3D model built from the same walls and openings, photoreal renders of any version, and every version kept with its own link.

Layers in the drawing

A-WALL	walls, with A-WALL-PATT for the cut hatch
A-DOOR / A-GLAZ	doors with swings, windows
A-GRID	structural grid with bubbles (A, B, C … / 1, 2, 3 …)
A-ANNO-DIMS	dimension chains, overall and per bay
A-ANNO-TEXT	room names, numbers and areas, room schedule
A-FURN / A-FLOR-FIXT	furniture, kitchen and bathroom fixtures
A-FLOR-STRS / A-SITE / A-PLNT	stairs, site elements, trees

Tips for the best result

One floor plan per drawing: for a set with several levels, start a new drawing per page.
Tell it the unit if the sheet does not say (metres, millimetres or feet and inches).
Vector PDF exported from CAD and you only need the lines? AutoCAD’s PDFIMPORT does that for free; use the drafter when you need a clean, layered plan.
Crop-heavy title blocks are fine; the drafter draws the plan, not the border.

Questions

How do I convert a PDF drawing to AutoCAD?

Two ways. If the PDF was exported from CAD and you only need its lines, AutoCAD can import it (PDFIMPORT) and you clean up the layers yourself. If it is a scan, a photo or a plan you want as a clean, layered floor plan, drop it into the Plan Chat studio and pick the page: the AI drafter redraws it and you download a DWG for AutoCAD, a DXF and a PDF sheet.

How do I convert a PDF floor plan to DWG?

Drop the PDF into the Plan Chat studio and pick the page with the plan. An AI drafter redraws it as a CAD drawing with walls, doors, windows, dimensions and room areas on named layers, and you download it as DWG (AutoCAD 2010), DXF or a scaled PDF.

Can I convert a scanned PDF to AutoCAD?

Yes. A scanned PDF only contains a picture, so line converters cannot help. The drafter reads the scan and draws the plan again as CAD geometry, using the dimensions printed on it.

Is this better than a free PDF to DWG converter?

It does a different job. A free converter copies the vectors already in a CAD-made PDF, as loose lines without layers, and returns nothing useful for scans. The drafter produces a clean, layered floor plan from either kind, and it is paid: a drawing usually uses 700 to 1,800 credits from a plan starting at $12 a month.

Does it convert any PDF drawing?

It is built for architectural floor plans: houses, apartments, ADUs, offices and similar single floors. It does not convert mechanical parts, electrical schematics, P&IDs, survey maps or elevations into CAD.

Is the DWG accurate enough to build from?

It is a clean drawing of what the PDF shows, made by AI, and can contain mistakes. Check the dimensions against the original and have a licensed professional review any plan used for permits or construction.

Try it with your own plan

Drawings, changes and renders use credits from an AI Architectures plan, from $12 a month; DXF, DWG and PDF downloads are included. See pricing.

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More ways to use Plan Chat

AI concept drawings can contain mistakes: check dimensions and have a licensed architect or engineer review a plan before you build or apply for a permit. Plan Chat is part of AI Architectures by 20Vision: 500,000+ hours of drafting, modelling & rendering saved, 280 years of full-time work our users got back, across 80,000+ designs.