PDF to CAD and BOQ: AI Drawing Tools

Project drawings usually arrive as PDFs. Fine for reading — but to work with one, someone redraws it in CAD or measures it by hand. Our new AI Services take on both jobs: PDF to CAD and Drawing to BOQ. Here's where the AI is exact, and where you should still check its work.

First question: is your PDF vector or scanned?

Both tools need a vector PDF — one plotted or exported from CAD. Zoom to 800% in your PDF viewer: if lines stay crisp, the geometry is there to read. A scan or a photo of a paper print is only pixels, so there is nothing to convert or measure. Both tools check every page first: scanned or blank pages are skipped and never charged.

PDF to CAD: geometry copied, not traced

PDF to CAD turns each page into a DXF for AutoCAD, BricsCAD or any CAD program. Lines, polylines and hatching are copied from the PDF's own geometry, so positions are as exact as the PDF itself. A PDF doesn't carry the original layers, blocks or dimension objects, so layers are rebuilt by colour; real text stays editable, outlined text arrives as shapes, and curves become short straight segments.

The scale trap — and real coordinates

The most common mistake with a PDF drawing is trusting the printed scale. A title block that says "1:1000 on A1" is really 1:2000 when the sheet was printed on A3. The AI reads the title block and the sheet size, corrects this and tells you which scale it used — still, check one known dimension in CAD. If you need the drawing in real-world coordinates, give the coordinates of a labelled point on the sheet (a control point, benchmark or grid label) or of the sheet's lower-left corner.

Drawing to BOQ: measuring is easy, meaning is the hard part

Drawing to BOQ takes a vector PDF or a DXF and produces a draft Bill of Quantities in Excel. Every line, area and symbol is measured exactly from the drawing: lengths for kerbs, pipes and walls, areas for paving, asphalt and slabs, counts for manholes, lights and doors. What a computer can get wrong is what each line is. The AI decides from the legend, layer names, notes and, for a PDF, the drawing itself — so the result is a draft for a quantity surveyor to review before tendering.

Prefer DXF when you have it. Named layers like "KERB" and symbol blocks leave little to guess; a PDF only has colours and line weights.
Hatched areas are measured as areas, never as the length of their pattern strokes.
Volumes need a thickness — tell it "asphalt 50 mm" or let it read one printed on the drawing.
Not measured: earthworks and anything that needs levels or sections, and reinforcement.

Review it, then rebuild the Excel

After a takeoff you can edit every item on the page — rename it, move measured groups, add a thickness or a rate — and rebuild the workbook as often as you like for 30 days, with no new AI run. The Excel shows live amount formulas, which measurements make up each item, and everything measured, including what was left out.

Paying, and your files

No subscription: each run is paid from your AI wallet, and you see the maximum price before you confirm — you're never charged more, and failed runs or skipped pages are returned to your wallet. Your drawing is processed in an isolated sandbox and deleted when the run finishes; results stay downloadable for 30 days.

A ready-made starting point

Have a drawing to convert or price? Start with PDF to CAD or Drawing to BOQ, or see everything in AI Services.