Converting CAD files to PDF

Convert CAD files to PDF when you need to share technical drawings with teams that don’t use CAD software.

Teams often convert DWG and DXF files to PDF for:

• Design review
• Document management workflows
• External stakeholder sharing

Convert CAD files to PDF with the Java SDK

Nutrient Java SDK provides CAD-to-PDF conversion through the Document API.

You don’t need to build:

• CAD parsing logic
• Custom rendering pipelines
• Layout-preservation code for technical drawings

Prepare the project

Define a package and class:

package io.nutrient.Sample;

Import the required SDK classes:

import io.nutrient.sdk.Document;
import io.nutrient.sdk.exceptions.NutrientException;

public class CADToPDF {

Create main and declare NutrientException:

    public static void main(String[] args) throws NutrientException {

Open the CAD file

Use Document.open(...) inside a try-with-resources statement(opens in a new tab) so Java closes the document automatically:

        try (Document document = Document.open("input.dwg")) {

Use an absolute path or a path relative to your working directory. The SDK supports DWG and DXF input.

Export as PDF

Call exportAsPdf(...) to create the output file:

            document.exportAsPdf("output.pdf");
        }
    }
}

Handle errors

Nutrient Java SDK raises NutrientException when an operation fails. You can declare it in the method signature, as shown above, or catch it with try/catch for custom handling.

Summary

The conversion flow has two steps:

1. Open the CAD file.
2. Export it as PDF.

Download this sample package to run the example locally.