Default Conversion Settings – Giving Faster Conversions

Scan2CAD now offers more intuitive and accessible control over your conversion settings.

From selecting the objects you want to convert to fine-tuning individual tolerances, you have granular control over every aspect of the process. We know that choosing the right settings can feel overwhelming when you’re first learning the software, so we’ve redesigned how these options appear.

All conversion parameters are now neatly organized under a new Settings button. A conversion begins the moment you click Convert, allowing you to focus first on getting results and then refine settings if needed. If the initial output isn’t quite right, simply adjust your settings and convert again.
For those just getting started, we recommend choosing the preset that best matches your use case, you can always fine-tune the details afterward.

Drawing Tools

You may notice that Scan2CAD’s drawing tools are now hidden by default. To view them, simply navigate to View > View Drawing Tools.
We made this change because new users sometimes assumed that Scan2CAD was intended to replace their full CAD editor, which is not the case. While Scan2CAD includes basic drawing tools for quick edits, detailed design work is still best carried out in your primary CAD application.
If you need to make a small tweak before exporting, the drawing tools are still only a click away. For anything more substantial, simply export your DXF/DWG file and continue editing in your usual workflow.

Account Improvements

If you’ve logged into your Scan2CAD online account recently, you may have already spotted some major enhancements. Over the past year, we’ve introduced several improvements designed to make account and license management more transparent and user-friendly:

• You can now view the activation status of all your licenses, including who activated each one, a major convenience for teams managing multiple seats.
• You can switch from monthly to yearly billing, or change your subscription tier, directly from your account. There’s no need to cancel your existing plan first.
• License installation instructions now appear directly beneath each license, along with relevant download links.
• We’ve also simplified and modernized the overall account interface for a cleaner, more intuitive experience.

More to Come

You can keep track of all updates in our change-log in which you’ll find constant improvements to the Scan2CAD software. If you’ll not already a Scan2CAD user you may try for yourself today.

Auto-clean

Preparing an image for conversion is an integral part of the conversion process.You may have noticed the new Auto-clean toggle above the Scan2CAD canvas. When enabled, Auto-clean automatically cleans your raster image by removing common problematic attributes and generating an image that’s more suitable for conversion.

It’s important to note that Auto-clean won’t be ideal for every image. It’s designed to apply the most appropriate cleaning steps to the majority of images, but there will be scenarios where its automated adjustments may not produce optimal results.
In those cases, simply disable the Auto-clean toggle and manually clean the image using the tools found under the menu; ‘Edit‘ > ‘Clean Raster Image‘.

Enhanced OCR

Scan2CAD includes OCR (optical character recognition) to convert text from both raster and vector images into fully editable CAD text strings. With the introduction of Enhanced OCR, you can now expect significantly improved conversion results compared to Standard OCR.

Enhanced OCR not only delivers higher text-recognition accuracy, but it also greatly improves geometry conversion—such as lines, arcs, and arrow lines—in drawings that contain both text and geometry. By reducing false positives, Enhanced OCR helps prevent geometry from being misinterpreted as text, and vice versa.

Wall Recognition

Architectural floor plans can represent walls in various ways—using single lines, double parallel lines, or solid blocks.
Scan2CAD has always supported the recognition of single-line and parallel-line walls.

With the latest update, we’ve added support for solid-block wall recognition through the Architectural + Walls vectorization preset. If your drawing includes solid walls, you can now choose whether to convert them into solid-fill polygons or outline polygons, depending on your workflow needs.

Real world benefits

These new features—Auto-clean, Enhanced OCR, and expanded Wall Recognition—were designed to simplify your workflow and help you achieve more accurate, dependable CAD conversions. Whether you’re simple plans or highly complex technical drawings, Scan2CAD offers even more tools to ensure high-quality results with greater efficiency. If you haven’t explored these updates yet, now is the perfect time to give them a try.

The truth is, photographing paper drawings (or any other flat object) is a poor choice when it comes to CAD conversion.

You should always scan your drawing using a paper scanner.

Let’s look at the common problems that arise when photographing a paper drawing.

Problem: Photos Are Skewed (The Parallax Problem)

In simple terms, parallax refers to the apparent distortion in measurement when an object is observed (or in this case, photographed) from different angles.

Because of this unavoidable limitation, it’s effectively impossible to capture a perfectly accurate photograph of your drawing. The result will be distorted dimensions, inconsistent line widths, and inaccurate proportions for objects or text.

A scanner completely avoids this problem by using a moving camera that remains perfectly parallel to every part of the paper as it scans.

Problem: Photos Are Not Isolated

A scanner captures your drawing in a controlled lightbox environment. There are no background objects, shadows, or textures included — just the drawing itself.

By contrast, a photograph includes everything in the camera’s field of view — the table, the floor, shadows, or even your shoes — unless you spend time manually cropping and cleaning the image.

Problem: Photos Are Heavily Compressed

This might seem counterintuitive because smartphone cameras improve every year.

I use an iPhone myself and am constantly impressed by the image quality — but that doesn’t make it suitable for scanning drawings.

The JPEG (JPG) file format was developed specifically for digital photography. It allows people to store thousands of images by applying heavy compression, which inevitably reduces image fidelity.

That’s perfectly fine for portraits, landscapes, or food photos — but terrible for technical drawings.

While most modern phones offer higher-quality image formats, including RAW, these are still not ideal for CAD conversion.

By contrast, scanners allow you to save images in lossless, monochrome TIFF format — the ideal standard for drawing conversion.

Problem: Photos Have Unsuitable Lighting

A scanner uses a moving light bar that evenly illuminates the entire surface of the drawing.

This eliminates shadows, glare, and uneven brightness.

Even with careful setup, a photographed drawing will almost always suffer from inconsistent lighting — areas that are too dark, reflections, or shadows from your hand or phone. These variations make the image harder to interpret and process accurately during conversion.

Which Scanner Do You Recommend?

We don’t recommend specific scanner models. Scanner technology has remained largely unchanged for about 30 years.

Even a standard printer–scanner combination, like those found in most home offices, will work perfectly well.

The only real consideration is choosing a scanner large enough for your paper size.

But What About a “Scanner” App on My Phone?

Many smartphones, including iPhones, now offer so-called scanner apps — but these are not true scanners.

They simply apply digital corrections and filters to a photograph of your drawing. This doesn’t solve the problems described above.

At best, you’ll still face parallax distortion and lighting inconsistencies. In most cases, the resulting image will be unsuitable for accurate CAD conversion.

Summary

If you plan to convert a paper drawing to CAD, always scan — never photograph.

Scanning ensures dimensional accuracy, consistent lighting, and high-quality, lossless image data — all essential for a clean and precise conversion.

Why are PDF files such a pain? Let me to break it down for you:

PDFs are versatile

…By which I mean, they can contain data, text and imagery of different formats.

In the context of Scan2CAD, we deal with PDFs which can contain both raster and vector imagery, all of which we must appropriately convert to CAD or CNC data. Therefore the versatility of a PDF file brings a huge scope of elements which must be supported ‘out-of-the-box’.

There’s no true PDF standard

…I’m oversimplifying with this statement. There is a known way to support PDF files. But the problem is that this can be slightly (or sometimes radically) different for each PDF.   

There are tens of thousands of applications and hardware which create PDF files. Each may opt to encode a PDF in a slightly different manner. We have spent over a decade iterating upon our PDF interpreter and it’s still not unusual to find a PDF that has been encoded in a novel way which requires further development to support. You can see how much of our change log mentions added support for new PDF files.

PDFs are ‘wrappers’ for raster images

If you have a PDF which contains a raster image, you might tell someone that the image format is ‘.pdf’. It’s not quite the full story. PDFs are just wrappers which may contain any number of different raster image file formats, such as JPEG, TIFF and somewhat antiquated raster file formats such as JBIG2. This again means that quite extensive development is required to support these raster image formats contained within the PDF. In fact, as an example, we developed ‘jbig2codec’ a library dedicated to decoding just one of the raster image formats found within PDFs.

Many PDFs use solid-fill polygons to display the bounds of a page

Sometimes, you can open a PDF and it can appear blank when it’s not. This can happen when the application which created the PDF used a white solid-fill polygon to represent the bounds of the PDF page. So when opening a PDF in some applications, this white polygon overlays the contents of the page, and you get, what appears to be, an empty page.

To account for this in Scan2CAD, we automatically remove all solid white rectangles contained in the PDF be default. A setting which can be disabled if you so wish.

This one quirk of PDF files is a good example of the messy nature of the file format.

Hidden text layers are common

There are many situations that a PDF may contain useless text strings. This can happen when an application (including some document scanner software integrated with hardware) uses a commonly rudimentary OCR to create a hidden text layer, representing the text in a raster image.

I don’t really know why applications do this. I suspect it’s just feature bloat on their part. Adding a simple OCR to make images searchable.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hidden text layer – on a technical drawing – which is useful. The OCR-created text will usually contain a large amount of false positives, forming nonsense information.

What’s worse, when these PDFs are opened in a subsequent application, like Scan2CAD, the user may think that this new application is creating this nonsense text.

For this reason, in Scan2CAD, we added a quick method for deleting all vector text strings from a PDF, if required.

Conclusion

PDF files are a pain in the butt if you wish to extensively support them beyond a simple viewer. But they aren’t going anywhere. So software developers will instead rant in a blog post.

PDF files are particularly troublesome because the ‘market’ is full fo thousands of different PDF encoding methods.

In 2017 we first began a new library to support the JBIG2 raster image format. This format is commonly used as a method of embedding raster images in PDF files. We named the library jbig2codec.

The best testimonial we can offer is that we have relied upon this library to decode JBIG2 images for all of Scan2CAD’s users for the past 4 years. 

Please contact us if you would like to purchase a license to use jbig2codec. We will be happy to welcome you and offer developer assistance if required.

Scan2CAD Automate offers gives you the power to automate any feature of Scan2CAD with a simple, extendable Python API. We’re excited about how this new feature can bring Scan2CAD’s market-leading CAD conversion results to new companies and markets.

Example use-cases

Scan2CAD Automate is used in conjunction with the Scan2CAD app (available for macOS and Windows.) With a simple command, you can execute the app to run through whichever automation processes you wish. Due to the simplicity and accessibility of the API, the integration of this new feature within companies is extremely pain-free.

How can Scan2CAD Automate improve your workflow? With this flexible API, the possibilities are endless but a few simple examples would be:

• Batch-convert thousands of technical drawings to DXF/DWG in a single click
• Integrate Scan2CAD with your solution offering market-leading conversions to your users.
• Automate repetitive tasks for a manufacturing process-line, converting files to CAM/CNC format, reducing countless manhours.

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Used by the world’s leading companies

For the past 20+ years, Scan2CAD has been trusted by the world’s leading design and engineering companies.

Although we are announcing the official release of Scan2CAD Automate today, the feature has been available to users for some months. Over that time, we are pleased to see Scan2CAD Automate being adopted by Engineering and design companies large and small. From micro-sized manufacturing companies using Scan2CAD Automate to increase the efficiency of their production line-process to global engineering firms integrating Scan2CAD Automate into their solutions to offer conversion abilities to their users.

As usual, we continue to regularly release updates that will improve our automation offering as we continue to learn how our users are utilizing this feature.

Scan2CAD Automate is available on the Scan2CAD Business tier. If you have any questions about how Scan2CAD Automate can help you, reach out to Scan2CAD support and we’ll be happy to help.

This change does not affect any users who are running a current version of Scan2CAD (v10 and above).

Scan2CAD is native software that must be supported by your Windows and macOS Operating Systems. Since many years ago, Scan2CAD moved to a much-improved licensing system designed, tested and supported for modern Operating Systems. The licensing system supports all the common requirements of our users i.e. Standard licensing, Floating Network licensing, and Offline licensing.

It has become untenable to continue to support the licensing method used in very old versions of Scan2CAD because this third-party licensing system is not suitable for modern computing requirements. 

We want to make this transition as pain-free and as transparent as possible so here’s what we are doing:

• We have contacted all registered users of Scan2CAD v8 & V9 to inform them of this transition. Giving users 6 months’ notice to prepare for the sunset.
• All users with an active subscription can upgrade to the current version of Scan2CAD (v10 and above) at any time. All upgrades are included free in a subscription.
• If users do not have an active subscription – Users who have a legacy license have been offered a 40% discount on their first-year renewal to reactivate their subscription. The renewal discount can be requested here.

If you do not choose to renew your subscription you can continue using your legacy Scan2CAD license.  Importantly, the legacy software will not suddenly stop working.

The sunsetting of the legacy license system means that you will not be able to deactivate or activate the license in new locations.

If you intend to continue running the legacy software after the sunset date without renewing your subscription we recommend the following:

• Take a snapshot of your operating system so you can ‘roll back’ to a working version in-case you inadvertently upgrade something causing the legacy licensing to stop working.
• Consider that operating system upgrades may not be compatible with the legacy licensing software – Scan2CAD v8 was developed over a decade ago it is not designed for operating systems released since then.
• Ensure you have installed and activated the software in the location of your choice prior to the sunset date as you may not be able to move the legacy software to a new PC after that date.

If you have any questions, we’re always here to help.

There are many long press releases from companies during this period but we’re all too busy to concern ourselves with corporate babble.

So, to keep things succinct, I wanted to share with you a short note I sent to our subscribers this week.

Hi there,

I’m sure you’ve received a lot of emails during the COVID-19 crisis so I will keep this one short.

1. If you need a free 3-month home-use Scan2CAD license, email us and let us know.

2. If there is anything we can do to help your work during this time – email us and let us know. Maybe we can help, maybe we can’t. But we’ll try.

On our side, we’re all working from home and continuing to provide the same services as usual including free 24/7 support for all users.

Stay safe and be kind,

Luke and the Scan2CAD Team.

At the time of publishing this post, the current release is 10.2.0 The name for this version is Lovelace.

It’s common to choose a theme for product names. Google names its Android versions after sugar-filled snacks such as Donut and Honeycomb. Intel named their products after rivers, mountains, and towns near to their headquarters such as Natoma and Klamath.  And of course, Apple famously named their OS releases after the ‘big cats’ such as Tiger and Snow Leopard. In recent years Apple opted to change its theme to areas of California such as Yosemite.

Great mathematicians

At Scan2CAD we chose to honor great mathematicians with our product names. Why at Scan2CAD did we choose to name our product releases after great mathematicians? The reasons are two-fold:

1. To recognize that Scan2CAD is built on solving mathematical problems

In 1675, Isaac Newton famously wrote “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”. 

Scan2CAD stands on the achievements of great mathematicians. Vectors are paths expressed by mathematical equations, our object recognition technology is built on mathematical problems,  we use math for our image processing. Therefore mathematics is core to the value of Scan2CAD. We like to have a constant reminder that focussing on long-term mathematical problems brings great value to our users.

2. To take inspiration from their stories

When you begin to read into the histories of these mathematicians you realize that their stories are a far cry from the stereotype of a dusty pipe-smoking professor locked in a wood-paneled office agonizing over an equation. Each of these mathematicians were radicals in their own right. Each with their own discoveries that – by definition – went against the common knowledge of their time.

The stories of these mathematicians are inspiring, we hope that by featuring some of these mathematicians we can spread this inspiration a little further.

Scan2CAD’s recent product names

At the time of writing this article, we have released 3 significant updates to Scan2CAD v10 each with their own product names. 

Here’s a little insight into why we chose each name:

10.0 – Euclid

Version 10.0 is named Euclid after the famous Euclid of Alexandria, the father of geometry. 

We found this name to be apt because Euclidian geometry is about simplifying problems to their ‘core truths’. We wanted to recognize the fact that v10 is an evolved yet simplified version of the software which is focussed on the core principles of accurate conversions. 

Euclidian geometry formed the foundation of much of modern mathematics, v10.0 was the foundation of Scan2CAD’s future evolution. 

10.1 – Galois

Scan2CAD version 10.1 is named Galois after the French mathematician Évariste Galois.

Galois’ story is not for the fainthearted! He survived only to the youthful age of 20 (the approximate age of Scan2CAD) but his contributions to mathematics in his short tenure are nothing short of remarkable. Galois developed what is now known as the Galois Theory, which uses algebra to solve a polynomial equation. Confused? Perhaps NJ Wildberger can explain it better:

Galois died by gunshot in a dual which is speculated to be caused by a ‘broken love affair‘. However, shortly before his death, Galois documented much of his work and passed it to a friend for publishing.

10.2 – Lovelace

Scan2CAD version 10.2 is named Lovelace after the English mathematician and writer, Ada Lovelace.

Although Lovelace lived from 1815 to 1852, her work played a significant part in the history of modern computing. In 1842 Lovelace wrote an algorithm for Charles Babbage‘s  Analytical Engine to compute Bernoulli numbers. This work is commonly considered to be the first computer program ever written.

Lovelace’s life was dogged with illnesses, at the age of 36 she died to uterine cancer. However, Lovelace’s contributions over her short life have had a significant impact over the following centuries. 

It’s my hope that by featuring some of these great mathematicians we can inspire others with the stories of their dedication and achievements.

Let’s get started…

ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards officially announced

ArchDaily, the leading architecture magazine, has released its list of the best buildings of 2019 according to their readers. The best architecture of the year was narrowed down and rated according to their intelligence, beauty, creativity, and function to the community. There were various categories, such as Cultural Architecture, Religious Architecture, Industrial Architecture, and others.

The A45 prototype building by BIG. (Source)

According to ArchDaily, over 80,000 votes were cast over a period of two weeks. The ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards is, in fact, the biggest peer-based crowdsourced architecture award in the world. More than 4000 building projects were in contention, and they were narrowed down to a list of 75 finalists.

There are several notable firms in the list, such as MVDRV, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Heatherwick Studio. According to ArchDaily, “The winners share a crucial element in common: they represent the values of our mission, to bring inspiration, knowledge, and tools to architects everywhere.”

How developers are building their projects with a sense of community

In an article that appeared on The Independent, Robert Soning of LondonNewcastle discusses how today’s property developers are putting more of a premium on encouraging a community feel to their projects, especially as residents realize the importance of their own well-being and living experience.

“The more engagement and enjoyment that people get out of their living environment, the greater the community identity and sense of belonging,” Soning writes.

He adds, “Development extras such as a gym, landscaped communal terrace and cinema or screening room are great examples for how residents can get immersed into the lifestyle that developers have created for them. In these spaces, you can get to know your neighbors more than you would if you lived next door to each other in a detached house.”

That sense of belonging in a community is important especially in today’s increasingly fragmented society. With screens and gadgets taking up more of people’s personal time, many are searching for that face-to-face connection with their neighbors and friends, and a property development that brings people together in shared spaces rather than keeping them apart from each other invigorates this community identity among residents.

Dutch firm proposes 3D printing for Notre Dame rebuilding efforts

Dutch company Concr3de is proposing 3D printing technology to rebuild parts of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral that were damaged in the April 15 fire.

3D printed Notre Dame sculpture. (Image credit: Concr3de.)

Concr3de has already used 3D printing to reproduce Le Stryge, a demon statue situated on the rooftop of the cathedral in Paris which was damaged in the blaze. Le Stryge was created originally by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th century, and is made from a mixture of limestone and ash. Concr3de says 3D printing can use the same materials, even those found after the fire.

“We saw the spire collapse and thought we could propose a way to combine the old materials with new technology to help speed up the reconstruction and make a cathedral that is not simply a copy of the original but rather a cathedral that would show its layered history proudly,” said architect Eric Goebers, one of the founders of Concr3de.

He added, “We would break down the limestone to the right grade and the fire damage would not have an effect.”

In their reproduction of Le Stryge, Concr3de used scans from the internet and used an Armadillo White 30x30x30 centimeter printer. “It’s a custom inkjet 3D printer that is fine tuned to work with stone and stone-like materials,” Goebers explained. “It prints with 0.1 millimetre precision and the cool thing about these printers is that any geometry is possible without the need for supports. It also allows for significant material customisation.”

Here are other stories we thought you shouldn’t miss

• The University of Padua, one of the oldest surviving universities in the world, will be getting a newly-designed campus from the Milan office of David Chipperfield Architects. The firm bested proposals from other renowned firms such as Foster + Partners, Sauerbruch Hutton, and Barozzi Veiga.
• Stratolaunch, the very first all-composite aircraft in the world, has successfully completed its maiden flight. It flew up to 17,000 feet and conducted flight control maneuvers.
• Users of Box may now use Box for AutoCAD, integrated into the cloud storage plans. Box for AutoCAD is a plugin allowing designers, architects, and professional modelers to save and open their DWG projects directly to BOX.

Featured image credit: The Weihai Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, photographed by Li Yao

Additionally, we also covered Autodesk’s Chicago design field laboratory, the Mixed-Reality App from Bentley Systems for Infrastructure Construction projects using Microsoft HoloLens 2, AMD the designs for Sidewalk Labs’ Toronto location.

Let’s dive right into it!

The Tesla Model Y has arrived and features stunning product design

The Tesla Model Y Interior (Source)

Midway into March, Tesla Motors unveiled their product designs of the Model Y. The announcement was made at a party held March 14 at the Tesla design studio in Hawthorne, California. Tesla’s new crossover comes at a much-needed time for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is facing some legal troubles with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding his controversial tweets.

The Model Y is Tesla’s answer to the increasingly crowded crossover segment, with the new vehicle being a smaller version of the Model X SUV and with the same platform as the Model 3 sedan. Sporting a fastback profile that resembles the Model X, the Model Y does not feature  Falcon Wing doors which are complicated and costly to manufacture. The Model Y will be available in rear-wheel drive form, with a Long Range version and all-wheel drive variants coming by the fall of 2020.

Watch the highlights of the Model Y announcement here:

Nvidia showcases its new Turing GPU’s for CAD use in VR

At the recently held SolidWorks World 2019, Nvidia wowed users with its Turing RTx 4000 graphics board. The company’s own research has shown that majority of SolidWorks users are still using the Maxwell generation of graphics boards, which are slower in performance and hardware acceleration compared to the Turing boards. According to Nvidia, the Turing boards boost performance between 5-7 times faster.

A promo slide touting the technical specs of the Nvidia Turing. (Source)

Turing-powered graphics cards from Nvidia include the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, RTX 2070, and RTX 2060, as well as the Nvidia Titan RTX. Turing graphics cards boast of real-time ray tracing which renders realistic visuals and lighting in a 3D environment at a rate of up to 10 GigaRays. The RTX cores allow Turing-based graphics cards to process ray tracing technology at up to 25 times faster speeds than Pascal. Turing architecture also boasts of Tensor Cores which allow artificial intelligence and neural networking for better rendering. This feature was only exclusive to supercomputers in the past.

How CNC milling and photogrammetry are helping rebuild lost ancient architecture

A groundbreaking project named the Million Image Database is making it possible to map and preserve monuments and other artifacts of shared human history through 3D printing, CNC milling, and photogrammetry. This collective partnership between the Museum of the Future Foundation in Dubai, the Institute for Digital Archaeology, and UNESCO utilizes 3D printing to restore monuments and artifacts from the past, making it possible for current generations to bask in their beauty and significance.

According to His Excellency Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future of Dubai UAE, and the Managing Director of the Dubai Museum of the Future Foundation, said, “We’re delighted to be able to bring together so many people from around the world to collaborate on this important project of historical restoration and preservation.  As a result, some of the ancient world’s most remarkable achievements can not only be kept for future generations to enjoy, but thanks to 3D printing technology, can be rebuilt anywhere in the world for all of humanity to enjoy.”

He added, “This partnership between Dubai’s Museum of the Future Foundation, The Institute for Digital Archaeology and UNESCO is extending the boundaries of what we can achieve using the remarkable potential of 3D printing but is also an important example of how we can work together to make a positive contribution to preserving and sharing monuments and artifacts which represent our collective past and cement our future.”

One of the foremost projects of the Million Image Database is the scale reproduction of the 2000-year-old Triumphal Arch from Syria’s Palmyra Site. The Arch was destroyed in 2018 during the Syrian conflict. Using cutting-edge 3D technology, the reconstructed arch will be displayed in Trafalgar Square by April 18.

More picks from this month

Let’s end with some some of favourite finds from the world of design and engineering this month:

• Autodesk announces its generative design field lab in Chicago . The company partnered with the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) in opening the 100,000-square-foot innovation center.
• Bentley Systems Introduces Mixed Reality App for Infrastructure Construction Projects Using Microsoft HoloLens 2. The app allows users to interact collaboratively with digital construction models using intuitive gestures to plan, visualize, and experience construction sequencing. 
• Snøhetta and Heatherwick Studio unveil designs for Sidewalk Labs’ Toronto neighborhood. 

The NHS shares how they use Scan2CAD to convert imagery of tumours to a CAD/CAM format to manufacture lead shielding for radiation therapy.

Radiation therapy & Scan2CAD in cancer treatment

In radiation therapy; high-energy radiation is introduced to cancerous cells, damaging the cells inhabiting their ability to divide and grow. This radiation can be damaging to healthy cells therefore it is important that the treatment is only applied to the target areas. 

It is for this reason that NHS Mechanical Design Engineers turned to Scan2CAD for help in manufacturing a solution for shielding non-target cells from radiation.

Radiographers performing a CT scan

The goal of the NHS Engineers was to improve the accuracy and time involved in producing lead plates by turning to Scan2CAD. These lead plates are used as a form of ‘radiation shielding’ blocking potentially harmful ionizing radiation to vulnerable areas of the patient’s body.

Converting profiles of tumours with Scan2CAD

The NHS start by obtaining an image of a patient’s tumour using radiography. Next, a profile of this tumour is created from the scan. With an image of the tumour profile engineers use Scan2CAD to automatically convert the raster image to a precise vector profile which can be exported to a CAD/CAM format such as DXF or DWG. 

Finally, the DXF or DWG file is imported into CAM software controlling a CNC machine which cuts the tumour profile from a lead plate.

1. A CT scan of the tumour is obtained. 2. A profile of the tumour is drawn. 3. The image is converted in Scan2CAD. 4. Scan2CAD created an accurate vector outline of the tumour for CAD/CAM.
Example tumour image source.

Saving time and improving accuracy

Of course, the conversions of the tumour profile must be perfectly accurate to the original image and scaled to the correct dimensions, therefore ensuring the manufactured plate is protecting all but the target areas of the patient’s body.

Scan2CAD’s raster to vector conversion technology creates a precise conversion of the profiles. These vector lines are optimized for CAM purposes, connected polylines with as few node points as possible whilst staying true to the original form.

After the automatic conversion, Scan2CAD gives users the ability to easily scale the vector design from the original image scan’s DPI or from a defined measurement. The exported CAD/CAM file will have accurate dimensions according to these scaling settings.

The original raster image of the tumour profile and the converted vector outline in Scan2CAD

NHS Engineers discovered that Scan2CAD removed the need the need to manually trace a design in AutoCAD, saving hours per day in time spent manually tracing. Due to the accuracy of Scan2CAD’s automatic conversion the time saved is greater even when compared to other conversion software.

The implementation of Scan2CAD in the manufacturing process saved time, improved production accuracy and reduced overall costs.

This release features a number of significant improvements focussed on building a better user experience. With 10.1.0, Scan2CAD is more intuitive than ever, enabling users to become successful with the software faster than before.

We’re excited to share these improvements with you, so let’s take a look at what’s new.

Files as tabs

Switching between tabs in Scan2CAD

We’ve ditched the files list (akin to a layers list) in favour of tabs.  Through observing users we found that the files list was too subtle for understanding the files you have open and the file you are currently editing.

This problem is solved with the new tabs feature. Tabs give a constant reminder of the file you are viewing and editing and creates a more coherent experience with other CAD software such as the ‘model’ and ‘layout’ tabs in AutoCAD.

You will see that Scan2CAD will only display the tabs for files which you currently have open i.e. if you only have a raster image open you will only see the ‘Raster’ tab.

When you have a raster and a vector file open you will also see a ‘Both’ tab. This tab overlays the vector image on the raster image. Useful for viewing the accuracy of a vectorization or viewing the contents of a raster and vector PDF.

Bye-bye edit mode switching

The old method of switching between raster/vector editing.

The introduction of tabs has enabled us to simplify how you edit raster and vector images. You will no-longer need to select raster or vector edit mode, instead; by selecting a tab you will automatically switch to the appropriate raster or vector editing tools.

When viewing the ‘Raster’ tab you will automatically use raster editing tools and in the ‘Vector’ or ‘Both’ tab you will use vector editing tools.

A wider canvas

We have reduced the width of the left toolbar by 50% therefore increasing the size of the canvas area.

Hello keyboard shortcuts!

Yes, keyboard shortcuts are here! Version 10.1.0 includes keyboard shortcuts for switching tabs, opening files and more. More keyboard shortcuts will be added in future releases. You can see the up-to-date list of Scan2CAD keyboard shortcuts.

As with all updates this is free for all users with an active Scan2CAD subscription. You will be notified of the available update when you launch Scan2CAD.

As always if you have any questions you can get in-touch with our 24/7 support and remember, you can stay up to date with all updates at the Scan2CAD changelog.

Let’s begin with a demonstration of how professional conversion software, Scan2CAD, can convert an image to an AutoCAD format.

Table of contents

• What types of images can you convert to AutoCAD?
• What are your options when converting an image to AutoCAD?
  • Manually trace the image
  • AutoDesk’s Raster Design
  • Convert with conversion software
• Why do some converters create poor quality results?
• What if the image contains text?
• Conclusion – How to convert an image to AutoCAD

What types of images can you convert to AutoCAD?

To answer that question, we should first get specific; in this post, we’re focussing on converting raster images to an AutoCAD format DXF or DWG (e.g. convert JPG to DWG or convert JPG to DXF.) A raster image is an image formed of pixels such as JPG, BMP, TIF, and many more file types.

Raster images are different from vector images. Vector images (such as vector PDF files) are typically much easier to convert to an AutoCAD format because DXF and DWG are also vector file types. The technical term for converting raster images to DXF/DWG is ‘raster to vector conversion’.

Scan2CAD supports all the raster and vector image formats you would come across including JPG, BMP, TIF, DXF, DWG as well as raster and vector PDF files.

What are your options when converting an image to AutoCAD?

When you need to convert an image to AutoCAD you have three options:

1. Manually trace the image
2. Convert using Raster Design
3. Convert with conversion software

Option 1: Manually trace the image

If you opt to manually trace a drawing you will commit yourself to a long painstaking process of drawing over each individual element in your image. It’s surprising that many people are still manually tracing raster images when automatic conversion software could save them countless hours and therefore budget.

Some AutoCAD users may prefer to manually trace an image because they believe that it is not possible to achieve a high degree of accuracy with conversion software. This is due to the vast difference in conversion accuracy offered by the available JPG DWG converter or other conversion software (most notably, the poor results provided by online converters). In almost all cases, the far better option is to automatically convert your image to AutoCAD format and then manually edit the file to get that final 1% accuracy if required.

Option 2: AutoDesk’s Raster Design

Raster Design is Autodesk’s solution for automatically converting a raster image for AutoCAD.
Unfortunately, Raster Design is not AutoDesk’s core product and it doesn’t offer much of the required functionality to produce useful converted images, therefore a significant amount of manual input is still required.
Raster Design utilizes simplistic vectorization methods which are not designed to convert each image element to its correct vector CAD entity. Instead, all elements will be represented as lines or polylines.

Raster Design may be commonly used by AutoCAD users due to the fact that it is part of the AutoDesk product offering. Therefore there is little friction in trying Raster Design’s conversion results first before finding that better results can be achieved with another solution.

Option 3: Convert with conversion software

Using Scan2CAD to convert text and other elements in an image

Scan2CAD is raster and vector conversion software designed specifically for CAD & CAM. We have spent the last 20 years focused purely on improving the conversion performance, saving time and money for the world’s design, manufacturing, and AEC companies.

If you need to convert an image to AutoCAD format you will most likely find that Scan2CAD will offer the best performance in almost any circumstance.

Unlike Raster Design, Scan2CAD is a standalone application that doesn’t need to be run as a plugin to other CAD software. Scan2CAD offers OCR and object recognition which means you will convert image entities (including text) to the correct vector CAD data.

Why do some converters create poor quality results?

Scan2CAD converts a circle to a vector circle entity, not a collection of lines

The worst type of image conversion would be to convert every object in your image to the same vector element. For example, some vectorization software might convert a circle in an image to thousands of small vector lines or polylines instead of a single CAD circle entity.

With this type of simplified vectorization software; the text, arcs, circles, and all other elements would be represented as many individual connected vector lines. But that is practically useless if you need to edit the CAD drawing in AutoCAD.

This is why you need conversion software that has object recognition capabilities. What is object recognition? It is the process of identifying entities (objects) in your raster image and converting them to the correct vector CAD entity.

What if the image contains text?

If your drawing contains the text you will need to ensure that your conversion software has OCR capabilities. OCR (optical character recognition) converts text in your image to editable vector text strings, identical to the text strings you would create when writing text in AutoCAD.

If your conversion software does not have an OCR feature, the software will instead convert all the text in your image to a collection of vector lines or polylines. We call this ‘exploded text’ but it is not really a ‘text’ at all, but simply vectors in the shape of a ‘text’.

Text converted to individual vector lines

Text converted to text strings using OCR

The ‘exploded text’ can not be edited in CAD software so you will need to erase these vectors and redraw the text in AutoCAD.

Conclusion – How to convert an image to AutoCAD

If you need to convert an image for AutoCAD we recommend that you choose software designed specifically for that purpose.

Scan2CAD offers the most accurate photo to CAD conversions of your raster and vector designs. With automatic conversion software, you will save countless hours spent fixing poor-quality conversions or manually tracing files.

From significantly improved OCR to enhanced vectorization and PDF processing, we have revisited each core competency of Scan2CAD and worked to enhance the results they provide. We’re going to use this post to look at just a few of these improvements.

Contents:

• Wait—everything looks different…
• Improved OCR results
• Improved raster and vector PDF processing
• Improved vectorization results

Wait—everything looks different…

If you’re coming to Scan2CAD v10 from a previous version, the first difference you will notice is the significantly redesigned interface.

The aim of the redesign, as we touched upon when we announced the release of v10, was to improve usability. The new interface focuses on making it easier for users to learn Scan2CAD, and to successfully convert their designs as quickly as possible.

There are many significant changes to the interface which deserve a separate post. In this post, we will focus purely on some of the fundamental performance improvements.

Improved OCR results

In Scan2CAD v10, we implemented a new OCR engine for converting text in your designs to fully editable vector text strings.

This new OCR offers a number of significant advances when compared to Scan2CAD v9 and earlier versions.

Some of the improvements you will notice are:

• Fewer false positives
• Better recognition results for ‘non-standard’ fonts
• Support for languages other than English
• Better differentiation between text characters and objects which can confuse OCR, such as dash-line segments
• Better support for text at multiple angle rotations

You can see a comparison of OCR output in Scan2CAD v9 and v10 below.

Improved raster and vector PDF processing

PDF files can be encoded in thousands of different ways. Each application which creates a PDF could encode their exported files slightly differently. This presents a challenge for applications like Scan2CAD, which need not only to view a PDF but to translate it into accurate, editable contents.

As of the release of v10, Scan2CAD now supports more PDF files than ever. In practice, this means that users will experience benefits such as:

• Fewer unsupported raster image formats
• Better translation of vector entities
• Better translation of vector text strings
• More accurate text string placements (text coordinates)

And, if you keep an eye on our changelog, you’ll see that we are consistently improving PDF support—as well as on everything else Scan2CAD has to offer.

You still may come across a PDF which is not supported in Scan2CAD. In those cases, please get in touch and send us the PDF—we will work to add support for new PDF encoding methods where possible. With your help, we will make Scan2CAD’s PDF decoding as comprehensive as humanly possible.

Improved vectorization results

Scan2CAD v10 offers clear progress in raster-to-vector conversion (vectorization). This offers greater success than ever before when converting your images to CAD/CAM formats. Some of the key changes include:

• Image health checks performed prior to vectorization to ascertain whether an image is suitable for conversion
• Improved differentiation between image objects which should be vectorized and those which should be converted using OCR
• Better recognition of objects such as dash-lines

In the below animation we compare the improvements in Scan2CAD’s dash-line object recognition. Notice the parallel dash-lines are now correctly identified.

It may appear to be a subtle difference—but, in reality, this is significantly more accurate, helping to seriously reduce the time required to convert your design.

So, there’s a snapshot of just some of the improvements in Scan2CAD v10. Of course, the changes don’t stop there. You can keep an eye on the changelog to stay up to date with the work we’re doing to constantly make Scan2CAD better.

Whether you’re new to Scan2CAD or are a long-time user, you can try the latest release completely free with our 14 day trial. And remember: minor updates and major upgrades alike are included in active Scan2CAD subscriptions with support, meaning that you can upgrade to v10 at any time.

Today, we are extremely excited to share with you the release of Scan2CAD v10.

Over two years ago we decided to fundamentally improve Scan2CAD from the ground up and that’s exactly what we’ve done with v10.

Why we created v10

To summarise, the key benefits of Scan2CAD v10 are:

1. Improved usability

We know CAD software can be hard to learn, we’ve designed v10 with usability in-mind. We want to get you from new-user to successful conversion as quickly as possible.

2. Multi-platform

Scan2CAD for MacOS has been a very popular request. You can now run Scan2CAD on Windows or MacOS. As a self-confessed Apple fan, I’m particularly excited by this!

3. A foundation for constant improvement

Scan2CAD is 20+ years strong. (That’s a very mature age for software!) With decades of features and improvements comes changing technologies and complexities. With v10 we have stripped out any bloat and focussed on usability and performance.

V10 is a foundation upon which we will continue to build and improve without ‘technical debt’.

The core capabilities of Scan2CAD (i.e. vectorization, vector optimization/ conversion & OCR) have improved and edge-case features which generally added little value have been removed.

Note: Keep an eye on our new changelog to stay up-to-date with improvements.

Some features which are not currently in v10 will be added in the near future. Let’s discuss those next…

Which v9 features are not yet in v10?

If you’ve used Scan2CAD v9 and wish to compare the difference to v10, the easiest way is to download a free trial today.

Most notably, the following features are not yet available in v10:

Questions and Answers

There’s lots more we want to share regarding the release, to keep things succinct here’s what we expect would be the most popular questions.

When I purchase Scan2CAD, which version do I get?

When you purchase Scan2CAD, from July 17th 2018 onwards, you always get the latest version of the software. See the change-log to view the current version. What’s more, you will always get free upgrades for each update released as long as your subscription is active.

Where can I learn how to use v10?

We are prioritising our new range of video tutorials for new users of v10. We have found video tutorials are the fastest and most convenient way to learn Scan2CAD. We will create further learning resources thereafter.

I am already a Scan2CAD user, can I upgrade to v10?

Yes! If you have an active Scan2CAD subscription you should already have your v10 license details in your Scan2CAD Account. You can download the free trial and enter your license details to activate your license. If you do not see your v10 activation details please contact us.
If you are a user of our previous perpetual licenses you can upgrade your subscription today at a discount giving you access to v10 and all future upgrades.

I have a question which isn’t covered here.

Great – please contact us with any questions you have.

That’s why we’ve created this post as the ultimate reference for purchasing new graphics cards for CAD. We’ll walk you through what you need to know and end with our top 5 picks on the market right now.

Discrete Desktop GPU Market Share (source)

For a long time, in recent history, the discrete graphics card market was a duopoly that pitted Nvidia against AMD. And for virtually all that time, Nvidia has led the pack with graphics card development and is still the de facto dominant player. Its strategy has for years been to focus purely on GPU technology by partnering with Intel or AMD for its CPU requirements. (The company has, however, waded into the CPU waters and is developing the Grace CPU for data centers).

In comparison, AMD directly competes in both the CPU and GPU markets, a strategy that Intel has since adopted. Intel launched the Arc Pro workstation GPUs in 2022, disrupting the long-running duopoly. In doing so, Intel now produces GPUs and CPUs. But it has struggled to gain a significant market share, with its hold on the GPU market dropping from a 2022 high of 1.33% to 0% in 2024.

Besides developing and selling their own graphics card versions, the three companies provide chips to many OEM graphics card manufacturers who could be classed as their competitors but, in reality, are their board partners. These partners help bring the graphics cards to market. AMD and Nvidia partner with the likes of ASUS and MSI among other companies that only produce graphics cards for either of them. Intel partners with AsRock and Acer but also sells its own versions.

Still, and despite these developments, Nvidia continues to have a stronghold in the market. Nvidia’s domination has forced companies such as AMD to focus on solutions for specific user requirements – CAD being one of them. And, in many like-for-like comparisons, AMD has previously come out on top for certain uses. This muddies the water and justifies a lengthy post on the best graphics cards for CAD. So, let’s delve in!

What Do the Model Numbers on Graphics Cards Mean?

You have probably noticed that many graphics cards have a number in their product names. Let’s look at the below table showing 4 graphics cards from 3 different manufacturers, all of which use the same number in their model name.

So, why do all these cards reference the same model number? In the above list, all products are using the same GPU produced by Nvidia: the Nvidia 5070 GPU. Therefore, they use the same model number to inform the users of what’s under the hood.

Many brands will use the GPU chips of the market leaders, packaged in their solution. This gives smaller graphics card manufacturers the option not to compete with Nvidia or AMD on-chip performance, but instead to offer their customers another option in how it is presented. Some companies may simply offer a preferable cooling system to that of Nvidia and their own PCB design. 

Do Higher Graphics Card Model Numbers Mean Better Performance?

If purchasing a motorcycle, we would know that a 700cc engine is more powerful than a 300cc engine. The cubic centimeters measurement can’t be gamed; the engine is either the stated volume or it isn’t. Previously, the numbers used in old GPU model names did not relate to any real-world measurement.

And as the Logical Increments blog explained, it wasn’t always as simple as a higher model number being faster than other lower model numbers. For example, Nvidia’s GTX 680 was faster than the GTX 760 as it had ‘“more raw performance” than the 760.’

A lot has changed since the blog post was published in 2014. Nowadays, a higher graphics card model number means better performance. This is because the higher model number correlates to better specs such as RT cores, a higher VRAM, more compute units, and more accelerators. As a result, graphics cards with higher model numbers are generally more expensive.

Still, it’s essential to read the specifications of the graphics card you’re considering carefully and at all times. Do not assume that the number indicates the same specifications as other manufacturers.

Using Gaming Graphics Cards for CAD

The popularity of gaming graphics cards is difficult to ignore. However, whilst they often come with impressive specs, there are several key factors that differentiate them from workstation graphics cards for CAD. We’ll take a quick look at why they have become so prominent, and the reasons why they may not be a great choice for CAD.

Could I Use a Gaming Graphics Card for CAD?

GPU chip makers – Nvidia, AMD, and Intel – and their partners develop and sell different GPUs for gamers and professionals. AMD, for instance, designates gaming GPUs using the RX prefix, as in the Radeon RX 9000 series. On the other hand, its GPUs for workstations and, by extension, its graphics cards for CAD are found in its Radeon Pro W lineup.

Similarly, Intel’s graphics cards for CAD and workstations are found in its Arc Pro series, with gaming GPUs lacking the Pro designation. The same goes for Nvidia with its RTX (for workstations) and GeForce RTX (for gaming) GPUs. This distinction exists for several reasons:

1. Pro GPUs have a higher memory. For instance, the highest specification of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series (the GeForce RTX 5090) has a memory of 32GB. In contrast, the highest specification of the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada has a memory of 48 GB. Similarly, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 has a maximum memory size of 24 GB, while the AMD Radeon W7900 has a maximum memory of 48 GB. Higher memory leads to better performance and faster loading times for CAD graphics.
2. Different drivers: Pro and gaming GPUs have different drivers. (Drivers are software components or files that enable hardware like a GPU to communicate with the operating system and thereby function.) Thus, a gaming driver isn’t compatible with a pro GPU. With pro drivers optimized for CAD software and design, you will likely experience better performance when you use a professional driver and graphics cards for CAD than if you use a gaming GPU and associated drivers. In fact, Nvidia has previously reported that a new driver update increased GPU rendering by an average of 40%.

These two reasons, i.e., a higher VRAM and more optimized drivers, make a good case for using professional graphics cards for CAD rather than gaming GPUs.

Will My Graphics Card be ‘Future-Proof’?

The definition of ‘future-proof’ is a piece of technology that is ‘unlikely to become obsolete’. Therefore, this question is subjective. Whether or not you consider your graphics card to be obsolete will be dependent on how you wish to use it.

For example, a 10-year-old graphics card may still be fantastic at browsing the web, but perhaps not so great if you wish to do anything graphically strenuous. 

When it comes to ensuring your CAD PC is as future-proof as it can be, the best advice is to purchase the best model you can afford. The higher the specifications, the longer the GPU is likely to serve you.

Graphics Cards Benchmarks and Why They Matter

Our guide on graphics cards wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention benchmarks. Benchmarks are automated tests run by specially designed software. This software will perform specific tasks whilst measuring the performance and workload of the GPU.

These benchmarks are important because they avert subjective discussions on the best graphics card for a particular use. Instead, you can find empirical data on a GPU’s performance. You can even run a benchmark yourself thanks to software available from Cadalyst. Benchmark tests can regularly highlight surprising results.

One popular benchmark for CAD is the SPECViewPerf 2020. SPECViewPerf is a graphics card benchmark that measures graphics performance representing professional and CAD applications like CATIA, Creo, SolidWorks, NX, 3D Max, and Maya.

SPECViewPerf Benchmark Results for CATIA and SolidWorks (source)

Certified Graphics Cards for CAD

A number of the most prominent software developers have made life easier for us by publishing their list of graphics cards that have been tried and tested with popular CAD software. These are often referred to as ‘certified devices’ by the software developer.

If the graphics card you’re considering is supported by the software you intend to use, you will have much more confidence with your purchase.

We’ve collected a list of these published certified devices below.

Are we missing software that you’d like to see? Let us know in the comments.

Note: FreeCAD does not have their own list of specific model recommendations but their software is based on OpenGL. Therefore, we have linked to the OpenGL supported devices from Nvida.

Don’t Neglect the Rest of Your PC

There will be little point in investing in your ideal graphics card if the rest of your PC isn’t suitable for the required workload.

We created a popular post on how to build the ultimate CAD PC, in which you’ll find tips on what to consider when shopping for all PC components, including a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. It can take some time to research compatibility with all your PC’s components but the extra work is worthwhile.

Comparison: Our Top Graphics Cards for CAD

So, here’s our pick of the bunch. We’ve chosen to make a shortlist of graphics cards that would be suitable for both 2D and 3D CAD work. As a way of stating their suitability, we have referenced whether they are suitable for AutoCAD (2D), SolidWorks (3D), NX (3D), and other 2D design and 3D modeling software. We have sourced their statement of suitability from the official hardware recommendations of these software programs. We’ve also used the available SPECViewPerf benchmarks as the second, more advanced metric.

 We assume that you’re not too concerned about support for technology such as virtual reality. This isn’t yet a widely accepted requirement in CAD, but I’m sure we will need to update this article in a few years to account for that.

We have also tried not to go too high on the pricing scale whilst still focusing on professional-grade options. All options are below $1,000. Yes, you could purchase phenomenal graphics cards like the Nvidia RTX 6000 for about $8,000, the AMD Radeon Pro W7900 for over $3,700, the AMD Radeon Pro W7800 for over $2,400, and the Nvidia RTX 4000 for over $1,300. But adding those options to our comparison wouldn’t help most readers and would be overkill for most CAD work. It’s nonetheless worth pointing out that these GPUs led the SPECViewPerf 2020 benchmark, according to this comparison (referred throughout the latter part of this article as the benchmark results). And remember, whilst we give a rough guide for the price of each option, there are various specifications within each option which can increase or decrease the price.

We have also created separate lists for the top GPU manufacturers, AMD and Nvidia. Therefore if you are loyal to a specific brand, you have direct comparisons for their best options.
To finish off, we have combined what we think are the best Nvidia and AMD options overall.

Comparison: The Top AMD Graphics Cards for CAD

Here are the best AMD graphics cards for CAD

Comparison: The Top Nvidia Graphics Cards for CAD

Here are the best Nvidia graphics cards for CAD:

Comparison: The Top 5 Graphics Cards for CAD

At this point, you’ve seen our best picks from the individual GPU manufacturers. To finish up, here are our top picks from AMD and Nvidia combined. 

Here are the best graphics cards for CAD arranged in the order of performance per benchmark results:

1. Nvidia RTX A400
2. AMD Radeon Pro W7500
3. Nvidia RTX 2000
4. AMD Radeon Pro W7600
5. AMD Radeon Pro W7700

Be sure to check the detailed descriptions for each option below the list to learn more about our selections.

Here’s a quick comparison chart in order of ascending average price:

Kicking off with a budget choice for CAD users is the Nvidia RTX A400. It sports Nvidia’s previous generation Ampere architecture and is built on Nvidia’s RTX professional visual computing platform. According to Nvidia, RTX accelerates 3D graphics virtualization, rendering, virtualization, simulation, reality capture, extended reality, and other design workflows.

For its part, the Ampere architecture is crafted with 54 billion transistors, making it the largest 7-nanometer chip. It has third-generation tensor cores, smarter and faster memory, second-generation RT cores, and three other ground-breaking innovations. These innovations translate to better performance, with Nvidia reporting that the A400 delivers 3x higher performance than its predecessor, the T400.

The RTX A400 isn’t the highest-spec model sporting the Ampere architecture. Still, its computing platform makes it ideal for light CAD rendering and simulation. It’s certified for SolidWorks, Ansys, AutoCAD, CATIA, and others. So, if you’re drafting DD drawings or creating and rendering 3D models, this should be a suitable choice.

AMD acquired the Radeon GPU technology from ATI Technologies in 2006. Since the acquisition, the Radeon range has played an integral part in AMD’s GPU market growth. This range includes the Pro and RX lineups, with the former designed for professional uses. Nonetheless, both categories offer performance and value, and it comes as no surprise then that AMD’s Radeon Pro W7500 is next in our list of the best graphics cards for CAD in 2025.

The Radeon Pro W7500 comes in at just over $400 and offers great performance. And though it was positioned last in the various viewsets that form part of the SPECViewPerf 2020 benchmark, the results showed that you could depend on it for both 2D drafting and 3D modeling. But this performance is expected, considering it was the cheapest of the GPUs analyzed in the benchmark.

Nvidia’s only other GPU on this list is the RTX 2000, which is built using the new Ada Lovelace Architecture. According to Nvidia, this architecture is designed to offer revolutionary performance for ray tracing. As a result, the RTX 2000 delivers up to 1.7x higher ray tracing throughput and up to 1.6x higher overall performance than the previous generation RTX A2000. This is thanks to improved specs, including a higher memory and new generation CUDA, RT, and tensor cores.

However, despite being more expensive, the Nvidia RTX 2000 posted lower benchmark results than the AMD Radeon Pro W7600. It was outpaced in most of the SPECViewPerf 2020 viewsets and fell short in the geometric mean of all tests.

Next up is another excellent option from AMD’s Radeon Pro range. The AMD Radeon Pro W7600 comes at a higher average price than the Radeon Pro W7600. But this is expected since it has more compute units, peak memory bandwidth, stream processors, and peak half precision performance. What’s more, the Radeon Pro W7600 performed better on most of the viewsets in the SPECViewPerf 2020 benchmark than the more expensive Nvidia RTX 2000.

We end our list of top 5 graphics cards for CAD with the highest-priced and best-performing Radeon Pro W7700. At $969.00, this GPU is quite expensive, but it makes up for this cost with its performance in 3D modeling. Thanks to its impressive specs, it faired quite well in the SPECViewPerf 2020 benchmark. And while it’s not the highest spec in the Radeon Pro W7000 series, it still perks a punch. In fact, it outperforms the Nvidia RTX A4000.

Bonus: List of graphics card brands

We’ve collected a list of the most popular graphics card manufacturers. You may not have heard of many of these brands, but some of these lesser-known names are producing impressive products.

Conclusion

When choosing a graphics card for CAD, first consider the specific list of applications you will use in your CAD work. From there, you can quite easily narrow-down a list of graphics cards which would be suitable for your CAD work by looking at the list of certified GPUs recommended by the software developers. 

Most importantly, as mentioned earlier, don’t assume that one good graphics cards will be suitable for all types of graphics rendering.

If you’re unsure which models to choose, I’m confident the above list will be a big help to you. Both NVIDIA and AMD have some great options for under $1,000, for example AMD’s Radeon Pro W7500 and NVIDIA’s T1000 and A400 are all under $500 and have been officially certified for use with SolidWorks and AutoCAD. If you are able to significantly increase your budget, AMD’s Radeon Pro W7700 at ~ $969.00 packs a real punch for relatively heavy CAD 3D rendering.

Well, Autodesk thought so, which is why this week saw the launch of AutoCAD 2017 Industry ‘Flavours’ – individually designed, ready customised versions of AutoCAD which are each put together with the need of a single design industry in mind. It’s not a new trend for Autodesk to release industry specific versions of its software, but this week’s roll out sees all major design industry able to benefit from all the cutting-edge features included in AutoCAD 2017.

The unique design demands of map design differ wildly from those encountered in mechanical, electrical or utility design, so it seems kind of illogical to think that one design setup could work across the board for each of them. This is why Autodesk has added handy features into each flavour, to meet the needs of each designer, so while AutoCAD Mechanical comes equipped with libraries of standards-based parts and tools which expedite the design process, AutoCAD Utility Design includes tools to better analyse and optimise network design.

While we still recommend setting aside some time to get to know AutoCAD 2017, and taking steps to customising it to your exact specifications, it might be that the exact AutoCAD set up you need for you projects already exists!

The best news is that you can still use Scan2CAD’s image conversion software for use in each and every one of the packages, meaning that you’re guaranteed the very best image results, whatever the ‘flavour’ of your work.

This month, there’s an ambitious announcement from Graebert, the German CAD player. We’ve seen lots of partnerships blossoming between major CAD players – there’s Maple and SolidWorks, and Tech Soft 3D with Siemens PLM Software – paving the way for better productivity and CAD capabilities.

There has been no shortage of inspiring CAD projects too! We discovered the launch of Gravity Sketch, a new mobile app that’s teaching kids how to print 3D models! There’s also a popular hobbyist project that’s made waves – a CNC machine built from cardboard and paper clips. Read on to learn more.

The aggressive expansion of Graebert in India

Graebert, a German-based CAD software developer and producer of ARES Commander 2D/3D package, has recently announced the availability of its software in India. This is part of a five-year strategy to achieve 100 percent CAGR growth for Graebert India. Graebert has recently committed a $5million investment in India. Its unique strategy also includes partnering with the government to run programs like Digital India, Made in India and Smart Cities – the creation of geospatial information systems and a digitized land record maintenance system.

Besides, Graebert has also announced the launch of ARES Touch, a complete CAD application for mobile devices. ARES Touch’s value proposition lies in revolutionizing the entire CAD workflow. For example, a user may use the smartphone for viewing and annotating drawings, and switch to tablet during meetings. There is also the interesting feature of inserting Picture Notes, a visual annotation.

A first look at ARES Touch, Grabert’s new mobile CAD solution. Source: Graebert

Maplesoft partners with SolidWorks

Maplesoft has announced that it has become a Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Certified Solutions Partner. As a result, SolidWorks users can access Maple’s advanced analysis tools for rigorous mathematical analysis and optimization. Updated model parameters can then be exported from Maple to SolidWorks. As Samir Khan, product manager at Maple explains: “Integration of our products will provide users a strong connection between the engineering knowledge and the final applications, so the understanding behind the application is preserved, the process is validated, and changes are easily made. Customers will see improved productivity and significant savings in time.”

In parallel, MapleSoft has also released the MapleSim CAD toolbox. This is an add-on that allows engineers to import their CAD drawings directly into MapleSIM.

Tech Soft 3D partners with Siemens

Following the trend of innovative partnerships, Tech Soft 3D has announced that its HOOPS Exchange data access software development toolkit can now be licensed directly from Siemens. This agreement will help developers enhance data re-use by providing comprehensive access to a range of CAD formats. CAD data of any format can now be mapped to a Parasolid model, resolving issus like inconsistent tolerances and geometric discontinuities.

Gravity Sketch 3D, a mobile CAD program for anyone!

A London-based startup recently launched one of the most user-friendly CAD programs to date, Gravity Sketch. Gravity Sketch is an iPad app and a 3D design platform that transforms users’ basic sketches into 3D objects that can be shared online or even printed. It has been acclaimed for lowering the barriers to 3D literacy and CAD design. Even kids can draw using only their fingers, an iPad and some imagination. Models can drawn freehand or using combinations of various pre-programmed shapes, similar to Google’s Sketchup modelling software. The startup has also partnered with Shapeways so that users can order 3D prints of their designs from within the app itself.

A hacker builds a working CNC machine from cardboard and paper clips!

Who says CNC is dead? Here at Scan2CAD, we’ve discussed some of the most exciting new CNC innovations, and now here’s someone taking that spirit of creativity to a new level. Norbert Heinz, an accomplished hobbyist known on the Internet as HomoFaciens, has recently built a working CNC machine from cardboard and paper clips! He built the structure from stiff cardboard, an Arduino and paper clips as the limit switches and encoders. Watch the video below to see this basic machine in action!

This wacky challenge came about after [HomoFaciens] built a CNC machine using only stuff you can find in garbage cans. The maker’s key goal was to teach the basics of CNC machine to a beginner, and indeed it will. This project demonstrates how the maker culture has really blossomed. His next project is to build a self-replicating CNC machine. Gotta keep a close eye on this one…

Follow Scan2CAD’s news blog for more monthly news roundups from the CAD industry. If you’re a CAD professional yourself, be sure to check out our best CAD tips and tricks!

While the survey was wide reaching, we’ve spotted a couple of points we think highlight some important things about the way CAD is used.

2D Drafting as Important as Ever

Over the last few years, most of the headlines surrounding CAD have been related to 3D printing. Allowing you to create real, usable versions of your designs in record time, 3D printing is seen by many as the future of manufacturing in all kinds of fields—especially now that it has overcome some of its initial hurdles, with multi-material, multicolor 3D printing now a reality. While this technology is undeniably exciting, and offers unique and theoretically limitless opportunities for design, CAD users seem to still think 2D drafting is the most important application for CAD software.

Over two thirds of respondents to the survey reported that, for them, 2D drafting was still highly important for their work. Breaking down the figures shows how 34% employ CAD software to develop both 2D drawings and 3D models, while a whopping 39% CAD software exclusively for 2D drawings. These figures should come as little surprise to those who understand the far reaching uses of CAD software, which sees anyone from kitchen interior designers to fire safety planners developing 2D designs.

With 2D still at the forefront of CAD usage, Scan2CAD’s image converting software is a central pillar for aiding designers get the best results they can.

Better CAD/CAM Integration

Despite the clear tendency toward 2D applications for CAD, ease of development of final products is an important factor to many users. With a huge increase in the use of CAM (computer aided manufacture) software over the last year – estimated at 39% – it’s clear that the relationship between CAD and CAM has never been more important.

Of those planning to use CAM, 60% of the respondents to the survey spoke of the need for greater integration between CAD and CAM software, so that machining instructions could be created more easily. The journey from ideas to finished products is never smooth, but these results yet again demonstrate the CAD industry’s responsibility for making the process run as smoothly as possible.