Raster2Vector v8

Scan2CAD v8 is a competitively priced, two-in-one application solution. It offers both Raster to Vector and PDF to CAD conversion in one program.

Scan from inside Raster2Vector using TWAIN (Acquire).
Use any TWAIN-compliant scanner of any size.
Use any scanner of any size whose software saves standard raster files.
If you have a desktop scanner, you can scan large drawings as a series of "tiles" that you can assemble, merge and vectorize inside Raster2Vector:

1. Use Acquire to grab scanner-sized "tiles" from large drawings.
   
2. Alternatively, load tiles that have been saved as separate raster files.
   
3. Re-assemble the drawing using accurate move, deskew and merge tools.
   
4. Tidy up and vectorize the drawing in the normal way.
   
5. Save As DXF to the same size and scale as the original drawing.

Load and save raster PDF files, vector PDF files and PDF files containing both raster and vector entities.
Load multi-page PDF files.

Load and save: BMP, CALS (Type 1 – .CAL, .CALS, .GP4, .CG4, .MIL), GIF, IMG, JPEG, PCX, PDF, PNG, TIFF, GeoTIFF
In theory the maximum raster image size that Raster2Vector will handle is 32,000 x 32,000 pixels. This equates approximately to a 13.3 foot x 13.3 foot or 4m x 4m drawing scanned at 200 dpi or a 6.6 foot x 6.6 foot or 2m x 2m drawing scanned at 400 dpi. For most drawings 200 or 400 dpi is optimal.

In practice the maximum raster image size that Raster2Vector will handle is determined by your PC's system resources – for example the amount of physical and virtual RAM it has.

Load black and white, grayscale and color raster images – 1 Bit, 4 Bit, 8 Bit and 24 Bit.
Convert between raster file types – e.g. load a raster image as a BMP file and save it as a compressed TIFF file to save disk space.

Most raster effects and clean up tools are color aware and can be restricted to work on a single color. Automatically remove speckles caused by dirt, stains etc. (despeckle) or quickly erase dirty areas using area erase and flood fill. Fill holes. Thin lines. Thicken lines. Thicken pixels – useful for filling dithered lines. Smooth – removes "hairs" from "hairy-looking" images. Outline solid raster areas. Remove speckles of color to make colors more uniform. Detect edges between different colors. Simple or Adaptive Threshold – dynamically convert grayscale and color raster images to black and white to get the clearest possible image on the cleanest possible background.

Automatically reduce the number of colors used on the image – makes colors more uniform for color vectorization.
Manually reduce the number of colors used on the image. Display a histogram of colors to help choose which colors to reduce to.
Decrease or increase color depth.
Change one color on the raster image to another.
Change the palette so that it matches the palette in your CAD program.

Identifies continuous lines, dash and dash dot lines, arrow lines, hatch lines, polylines, circles, arcs or Bezier curves and text.
Choose from ten supplied default conversion types for quick and easy results – use the one that best describes your drawing:

• Architectural.
  
• Electrical.
  
• Mechanical.
  
• CNC Profile.
  
• Site Plan.
  
• Contour Map.
  
• Sketch (traces every detail of a raster image using many short lines).
  
• Outline (outlines solid areas of black or color).
  
• Scanline (creates an exact vector copy of the raster original. The vector image is made up of many closely spaced parallel horizontal lines).
• User (your own user-defined settings).

Default conversion types give good results on most drawings but easy to use settings let you control the conversion process if you want to. Settings include:

Center line tracking, outline tracking or both.
Control whether vectors follow the raster image loosely (produces less vectors) or closely (produces more vectors).
Specify a Gap Jump Distance – Raster2Vector jumps over any gaps in the raster image that are smaller than the value you specify, allowing continuous vectors to be produced over broken raster lines.
Specify a Loose Ends Length – Raster2Vector removes "loose end" vectors shorter than the value you specify.
Choose to have vectors join or pass at intersections.
Align the vectors to a grid.
Optionally identify dash and dash dot lines, arrow lines, hatch lines, polylines, circles, arcs and Bezier curves.

In the illustrations above the raster image is shown in gray and vectors are superimposed in black. Where relevant vector ends are enclosed in small squares.
Convert the whole raster image, or just part of it. Convert different parts of the image using different conversion settings.
Convert vectors separately or at the same time as text.

Convert text using OCR – turns text into editable vector text rather than text made up of small lines.

• Set Character Rotation so text is recognized the right way up.
  
• Choose Character Set – Standard recognizes all characters, Number recognizes numbers and symbols only.
  
• Split touching characters – may improve text recognition where raster characters have bled into each other.

Convert text on the whole raster image, or just part of it. Convert text on different parts of the image using different OCR conversion settings.
Convert text separately or at the same time as other drawing elements.

Any PC running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.
Any PC capable of running XP, Vista or Windows 7 will have enough RAM for running Raster2Vector, but if you are going to be converting large or color raster files, the more RAM your PC has the better.
We recommend a minimum screen resolution of 800 x 600.