raster to vector

I think SketchUp would get you further faster. I don't know what limitations the Google freeware version has. The full blown version is about five hundred so that doesn't fit into the "not too expensive" part. If your boss could play around with it he might be willing to use it in the field on a tablet PC. It would certainly send a "we're on top of technology" message and justify an increase in your fees.

you might try Corel Draw or Turbocad Pro.

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Photoshop/Illustrator will do the trick. If we're talking about bringing something out of a cad software to a raster software the easiest thing is to plot with a Postscript driver and create an EPS file. You can open it with Photoshop (or Illustrator to do some clean-up), and you can still use any pen tables you have in said CAD software.

I'm going the other way. .tiff file to dxf

If you really must do this the my recommendation too: Wintopo.

In the cadd program I'm using there is a routine to import BMP. JPG and TIF files. I usually do that then just trace over it. Much faster than trying to fix a raster to vector file.

Oops. I must get a handle on my dyslexia. I'll do some digging around because someone in my office used something recently that worked quite well.

A sketch like the one you describe only takes a few minutes to draw in Acad (All the details are already in your library????) Raster to vector software is rather seldom a "nice" experience.......

Regards,

ola henning

This is true, but my boss does not want the "cold,sterile look of a precise autocad drawing" at this stage. He wants a hand drawn sketch that is easy to modify. He also will not design in autocad. must use pencil and paper jojo

aren't you the drafter here?

Maybe a 8B pensil, a poorly lit bar and a cocktail napkin will do the trick (and 5 GT's)???

no

also, this this is a tool he wants long before this goes to the "drafter"

Onion Skin, aka Trace, Bumwad, etc.... Works for most people...

Onion skin, trace, bumwad? Where do these words come from??

the Mexicans

architectural firms.... aka, trash paper, butter paper, ect.

jojo

Hell if I know... First office I worked in, the guy called it 'trace." Second office, it was "bumwad". Another office, it was "onion skin." I didn't make it up...

I've always heard tracing paper or onion sheet. Never heard of bumwad which sounds like an insult...

almost forgot.... heard it called "overlay" also.