What's new in Scan2CAD version 7

Features marked in the list below are available in the Pro version of Scan2CAD only.

In most of the illustrations below the raster image is shown in gray and vectors are superimposed in black.

Improved vectorization quality

Version 6 Version 7

Scan2CAD's vectorization is generally improved as in the example above.

Dash and dash dot line identification

Version 6 Version 7

In the diagrams above vector end points are enclosed in small squares.

Where possible Scan2CAD v7 converts raster dashed and dash dotted lines to vector dashed and dash dotted lines. Scan2CAD v6 converted each dash in a dashed line to a separate line. It is much quicker to edit a single dashed line than a dashed line made up of individual dashes.

Bezier curve identification

Scan2CAD v6 could only convert raster curves to vector arcs. Scan2CAD v7 can also convert raster curves to vector Bezier curves. Bezier curves provide a better representation of curvy shapes such as contour maps, aerofoils, ship hulls and freeform artwork.

Scan2CAD includes full Bezier editing and drawing capabilities. Bezier curves are exported from Scan2CAD as splines. If your CAD or CNC program doesn't support splines, you can export Bezier curves as polylines or arcs with a user-defined number of segments.

Arrow line identification

Version 6 Version 7

Where possible Scan2CAD v7 identifies arrow lines and groups the arrow head and line together as a block. Scan2CAD v6 did not distinguish between normal lines and arrow lines. Arrows that have been identified and saved as blocks can be quickly deleted and replaced with true arrows in your CAD program.

Hatch line identification

Version 6 Version 7

Where possible Scan2CAD v7 identifies areas of hatch lines (brown lines in the right hand diagram above) and groups them together as a block. Scan2CAD v6 did not distinguish between normal lines and hatch lines. Areas of hatch that have been identified and saved as blocks can be quickly deleted and replaced with true hatching in your CAD program.

New angle snaps

Version 6 Version 7

In Scan2CAD v6 you could set Orthogonality On so that lines that were almost at 0 or 90 degrees would be snapped to exactly 0 and 90 degrees. In v7 this has been extended to 30, 45, 60, 120, 135 and 150 degrees.

The angle tolerance within which Scan2CAD snaps lines is now user-defined.

New vectorization settings

The vectorization settings in Scan2CAD v7 are more intuitive and easier to understand than the vectorization settings in v6. New settings include:

Lines join at intersections Lines pass at intersections

Control over whether lines join or pass at intersections. Letting lines pass at intersections makes images with crossing lines - such as where a drawing appears over a grid - much easier to edit. (In the diagrams above line end points are enclosed in small squares.)

Loose end vectors No loose end vectors

Deletion of "loose end" vectors.

Loose vectors Tight vectors

Control over whether the vectors to follow the raster image loosely (produces less vectors) or tightly (produces more vectors).

New default vectorization settings

There are new default vectorization settings for Site Plans and Contour Maps.

Improved OCR (text recognition)

Scan2CAD v7 includes a new neural network and the ability to split some touching characters. This will improve text recognition on some drawings.

  A new Text Editor and Dictionary spellchecks vectorized text for quick and easy editing.

  • Includes a 30,000 word UK and US Design Dictionary.
  • Add words common to your drawings to the Dictionary.
  • Create your own Dictionary in any language.

100% accurate TrueType Font outlining

  1. Select a font.
  2. Write some text.
  3. The text is converted to 100% accuracte vector outlines that you can export to your CAD or CNC program as DXF.

Grid

  • Set a grid of 0.0625, 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 pixels.
  • Display the grid - useful for counting the size of raster speckles, gaps to be jumped etc.
  • Draw vectors using snap to grid.
  • Edit vectors using snap to grid.
  • Vectorize so that vectors are snapped to the grid:

Vectors not snapped to the grid     Vectors snapped to the grid
   

New view features

Scan2CAD v7 has a much improved pan and now also includes a Fade command. Fade fades the raster image so that it is easier to see the vectors on top.

Normal raster image     Faded raster image
   

One click vector line type editing

If Scan2CAD misidentifies a hatch line, arrow line, continuous line, dash line or dash dot line you can quickly change it to the correct line type - just select the correct line type and click on all the lines that need to be changed to that type.

Improved TIFF and DXF read

Scan2CAD now supports a wider range of TIFF files, but please note that it does not read multi-page or layered TIFF files.

Scan2CAD's DXF read has been improved. It will now read its own DXF files even when they have been scaled. It will also read most other DXF files, however its DXF read is not intended to be comprehensive and it will only load those parts of DXF files that it supports, i.e. lines, polylines, arcs, splines (Bezier curves), circles and text.

Plus ...

  • Scan2CAD now remembers the scale settings set in the Vector Scale Settings dialog.
  • Draw continuous, dash, dash dot and arrow lines.
  • Save DXF files with elements layered by color or by type.
  • Sort the colors in the palette by palette order, hue or luminance. This makes it easier to select similar colors for color reduction.
  • New Scanline setting lets you select more than one vector per pixel row for a denser image when converting using Scanline.

New documentation

Scan2CAD v7 is supplied as an internet download only or with a CD and new 300 page printed manual. The new manual and Help include Scanning and Raster Quality Checklists to help you create raster images that will give you the best possible vectorization results.

New feature in Scan2CAD v7.1

(Free to existing Scan2CAD v7 users - click here for details.)

Templates

Templates are user-defined areas that determine which areas of a raster image will be vectorized. They can be polygonal or rectangular.

You can define as many templates as you like.

Raster image (solid lines) with a polygonal and a rectangular template (dashed lines).

You can vectorize the area inside the templates or the area outside them. Or, you you can vectorize the areas inside and outside the templates using different settings.

Vector image (solid lines) after vectorizing the area inside the templates.

Vector image after vectorizing the area outside the templates.

Templates can be saved for future re-use.

New features in Scan2CAD v7.2

(Free to existing Scan2CAD v7 users - click here for details.)

  • Improved polyline support - Scan2CAD can now create closed polylines made up of both lines and arcs.
  • New scaling option - scale drawings by specifying the distance between two points on an image.
  • Change Color Depth option - lets you increase as well as decrease the color depth of raster images.
  • Support for file association - use Windows Explorer to associate file types such as TIFF and BMP with Scan2CAD. When you double click on images with associated file types they will open up in Scan2CAD.
  • Scroll mouse support.
  • Changes you make to vectorization settings are now stored until you make another change or reset the settings to default.
  • Specify which DXF version Scan2CAD saves by default.
  • WMF and EMF export.
  • "Warning: Color Image" dialog emitted when loading a color raster image. This helps users who have inadvertently saved black and white drawings as color raster files to take appropriate action.

New features in Scan2CAD v7.3

(Free to existing Scan2CAD v7 users - click here for details.)

Simple and Adaptive Thresholding

When you scan a drawing in monochrome your scanner or scanning software has to make a decision about which parts of the drawing to set to black in the raster image and which to set to white.

If your drawing is clean and sharp this is not normally a problem. However if your drawing has faint lines or a dirty or tinted background you will have to experiment with your scanner's settings until you get a raster image where, as far as possible, the parts of the raster image that are supposed to black are black and the parts that are supposed to be white are white.

If your scanner or scanning software sets too much of the drawing to white, it may contain breaks and holes and faint parts may be lost. If your scanner or scanning software sets too much of the drawing to black, text characters may "bleed" so that white spaces within them or between them become filled and speckles and dirt may appear in the background.

Too much white Too much black
Optimal  
 

One method for deciding which parts of a drawing will be set to white and which to black is called thresholding.

Scan2CAD now includes two thresholding functions - Simple Threshold and Adaptive Threshold. Simple Threshold works well on images where the darkness of the drawing and the darkness of the background are consistent across the image. Adaptive Threshold works well on drawings that contain both strong and faint lines and on drawings where the background color varies.

Both thresholding functions work dynamically to convert grayscale and color raster images to black and white. Because they work dynamically you can see which parts of the image are being set to white and which are being set to black as you are thresholding, so you can quickly get the clearest possible image on the cleanest possible background.

Instead of experimenting with your scanner's settings until the black/white balance of your raster image is correct, which may involve scanning a drawing several times, you can now scan a drawing once, in grayscale, and convert it to monochrome using Scan2CAD's thresholding functions.

One click auto deskew

You can now deskew skewed black and white raster images by clicking on the new Auto Deskew Icon.

Colortrac SmartLF scanner support

Scan2CAD now supports SmartLF scanners directly. The Scan2CAD SmartLF scanner driver includes facilities for:

  • Monochrome, grayscale and color scanning.
  • Simple and Adaptive thresholding.
  • Ejecting or holding the drawing after scanning.
  • Automatically deskewing drawings that are scanned skew.
  • Automatically rotating scans by 90 degrees, 180 degrees or 270 degrees.

Zoom Window and Zoom Extents icons

You can now zoom into a selected area and zoom extents by clicking on icons.

New features in Scan2CAD v7.4

(Free to existing Scan2CAD v7 users - click here for details.)

Improved recognition of arcs, circles and Bezier curves

In particular, the recognition of circles that intersect with other elements has been significantly improved. For example:

 

Now - version 7.4

Colored vectors superimposed over pale gray raster image. Blue = circles, red = lines, magenta = arcs and text, dark gray = arrows.

We are continuing work on improving small circle recognition, so watch this space!
 

Before

Colored vectors superimposed over pale gray raster image. Blue = circles, red = lines, magenta = arcs and text, dark gray = arrows.

Improved zoom and pan

  • You can now zoom and pan using your mouse scroll wheel, as in AutoCAD. Scroll forwards to zoom in and backward to zoom out. To pan, press down your mouse's scroll wheel and move your mouse.
  • The zoom and pan have been made dynamic so you can use them while using the raster and vector drawing commands.
  • The area of the screen covered by the image is no longer reduced when you zoom or pan (the gray area no longer appears).

Attach Raster Image

When you save a DXF file from Scan2CAD you can now include a reference to the raster image in the file. When you load the DXF file into AutoCAD (or any CAD program that can accept attached raster images), both the DXF file and the raster image will be loaded, correctly overlaid. You can also assign a color to the raster image so that it is easily visible beneath the vectors.

(A side benefit of this feature is that AutoCAD LT users can now use Scan2CAD to load raster images into LT. This is not normally possible as the image insert command in LT is disabled.)

Close All

You can now close both the raster and the vector images at once using the Close All option in the File Menu.

New shortcut keys added

  • Press the comma key (with < on it) to decrease the Grab Snap Distance.
  • Press the period key (with > on it) to increase the Grab Snap Distance.

New features in Scan2CAD v7.5

(Free to existing Scan2CAD v7 users - click here for details.)

Multi-level undos

You can now undo up to 256 raster and vector edits.

Preview Window

A new Preview Window has been added to the following functions:

Remove Speckles, Remove Holes, Simple Threshold, Adaptive Threshold, Thicken Lines, Thicken Pixels, Thin Standard, Thin Ortho, Outline, Brightness and Contrast.

The Preview Window lets you dynamically preview the effect of applying a function to the raster image. You can zoom and pan around the Preview Window to view the effect on different parts of the image.

For example, in Remove Speckles you can see speckles disappearing and appearing as you make the speckle size larger and smaller using a slider. This eliminates the trial and error previously involved in finding the correct speckle size.

The Reduce Colors dialog

A Preview Window has been added to the Reduce Colors dialog. You can now select colors by clicking on the image in the Preview Window, making it much easier to select the correct colors for reduction.

Multiple reductions can now be done in the Reduce Colors dialog without the need to return to the main image after each reduction.

Snaps added

Two snaps - the Between Ends Snap and the End Point Snap - have been added so you can snap to vectors and vector end points when you are drawing vectors or moving grab points. The snaps are especially useful for trimming and extending vectors with a single click.

Plus ...

  • The second option in the "Warning: Color Image" dialog now automatically enters the Simple Threshold dialog for quick thresholding of grayscale and color images.
  • If a simple threshold won't work on a difficult image use the new Adaptive button in the Simple Threshold dialog to quickly switch to adaptive thresholding. You can also switch to simple thresholding from the Adaptive Threshold dialog.
  • Support for Colortrac SmartLF Cx 40 and Gx 42 scanners added.
  • Command line option updated to include the following commands: AUTODESKEW, THRESHOLDSIMPLE, THRESHOLDADAPTIVE.
  • The raster statistics dialog now additionally displays the width and height of the raster image in inches or mm, the paper size the raster image fits on and the compression format of TIFF files.
  • Image resampling added.
  • CIT raster file support added.
  • Added GP4, CG4, MIL, JPE and JPEG extension options to raster Save As.
  • You can now select by dragging a selection box in any direction, not just top left to bottom right.
  • You can now cut or copy out of Scan2CAD and paste into another application or into another Scan2CAD drawing.
  • When tiling you can now tile images that are larger than the receiving target sheet.
  • Scan2CAD now remembers the currently selected print option.
  • Video tutorials updated.

New shortcut keys added

  • Press \ to use Move Grab Point.
  • Press k to temporarily disable the Grid Snap Distance and then to reenable it.
  • Double click your left mouse button to deselect the Pick Color.
  • Press Ctrl+D to measure a distance in pixels.
  • Press Ctrl+B to toggle the Between Ends Snap on and off.
  • Press Ctrl+E to toggle the End Point Snap on and off.
  • Pan by holding down the Space Bar and dragging your mouse.

New features in Scan2CAD v7.6

(Free to existing Scan2CAD v7 users - click here for details.)

  • Updated Help so that Scan2CAD is compatible with Windows Vista. Please note that Windows 95 does not support the updated Help.
  • Improved color reduction so that the colors that are retained after reduction are more "logical".
Scan2CAD Pro only:
  • Added raster PDF file load. If the PDF file contains a single raster image, it will be loaded in the same way as any other raster image. If the PDF file contains many raster images, you can step through them and select the one you want to load.
  • Added raster PDF file save. Any raster image can be saved as PDF.