Does Scan To CAD support AutoCAD?

The Short Answer

Scan To CAD's "2D Floor Plan" output produces 2D files in the form of a .pdf (with annotated dimensions), a 2D .dwg, and a 2D .rvt. The .dwg file includes annotated dimensions as well, and it can be used in AutoCAD.

The Long Answer

For those looking to use AutoCAD, we recommend purchasing our 2D Floor Plan output. The 2D .dwg file will be best-optimized to work with AutoCAD (vs. 3D .dwg's exported from other formats), and should allow for full manipulation of the file in terms of editing the drawing or changing annotations.

The .dwg file comes with pre-annotated dimensions (the same as on the PDF included with your output) for convenience, but you may turn these off or add different ones if desired from inside AutoCAD.

Scan To CAD 3D outputs include .dwg's but these aren't designed for use with AutoCAD.

Units and Scale

Our Scan To CAD outputs are delivered in inches by default (and can be changed here for future orders). If you are importing your Scan To CAD files into AutoCAD and intend to use any other unit besides inches (even if they are within the same system of measurement, e.g. feet), you will need to rescale the units based on their relative ratio to inches. Changing the unit type in AutoCAD alone will simply change the label, not the numbers. 

As an example, if you import with inches (default), 10 units is 10 inches. If you change the units in AutoCAD to architectural, or metric, 10 units is now 10 feet or 10 meters and the scale is way off.

The instructions below will guide you through rescaling units in AutoCAD from inches to different metric units using the SCALE command (you can find other methods for changing units in AutoCAD in this AutoDesk support article):

  1. In the command line, enter and select “SCALE"
  2. When asked to select objects, type “all”
  3. When prompted for basepoint (on cursor), enter “0”, then “,” then “0” to set the basepoint to 0,0
  4. Next, specify the scale using the conversion listed below and found in this AutoDesk support article:
    • Inches to Millimeters = 25.4
    • Millimeters to Inches = 0.0393701
    • Inches to Centimeters = 2.54
    • Centimeters to Inches = 0.393701
    • Feet to Millimeters = 304.8
    • Millimeters to Feet = 0.00328084
    • Feet to Centimeters = 30.48
    • Centimeters to Feet = 0.0328084