arcgis-desktoparcmapgeopdfgeoreferencingpdf
I receive a lot of PDF maps (vector, image, with georeference and without) and I am having to convert them to an image file before I can add them to ArcMap and georeference.
I can't see any obvious out-of-the-box utility that would allow me to add and georeference a PDF directly without having to convert to an image file first.
Any ideas?
I would prefer to add a PDF to map directly without any prior "pdf to image" conversion
The pay for program pdf2cad will convert to dxf or hpgl.
If the geopdf has layers in it there is an option to save the layers to dxf.
Sometimes (actually pretty often) when there is a layer in the geopdf that gts the "default" name you have to edit the dxf.
"defalut" is not a valid layer name in dxf files.
But the dxf files are editable in a text editor.
You also have to geo-reference the dxf afterwards. (I have put in an enhancement request for reading the coords from the geo-pdf.)
In distance select measure and measure a known distance (i.e. mile section), then use feet and put in 5280.
On tie point if you know a point on the ground ,determine it's pixel values then you can put both those coordinates in and hit select.
The only thing you don't get is rotation but this just gets it close so you can finish it up in cad.
I like the software and I am about to pay for the upgrade. v8 i think.
It is not what I would call a high class software but worth the money and I can't really remember it ever crashing on me.
One other bug I have found is that when there is an image (see next section for more) and you open the dxf the image is referenced in upside down. ?? To reparir I use the mirror command and select the mid of one side and flip it over. But often the images aren't important to me just the vectors.
Image pdf:
if there is a background image in the geopdf it is converted to an image in the dxf.
Also if there are any layers in the arcmap document that are transparent or have other cartographic effects they may be added (merged) to the image layer in the geo-pdf.
If this image is important enough to use. What I do is use Irfanview it handles many many image formats and there is a pdf plugin. I open the pdf in irfanview and save to my favorite image format and then insert and geo-reference.
BTW: get the complete plugins. And ghostscript also to make the pdf plugin work.
I know this question is old, but I had this issue recently and eventually came out with a way to do this.
This can be accomplished by using Osgeo's gdal, which happens to have a PDF driver included. Basically you can do something like:
from osgeo import gdal
#Open your Unreferenced PDF
src = gdal.Open("originalFile.pdf")
Then obtain or calculate somehow the desired Projection System and Geotransform you want to add to the PDF. For example, we can extract those from a GeoTiff by doing:
#Open the Tiff to obtain its data from
geoTiff = gdal.Open("someMap.tif")
#Obtain its Projection system and its Geotransform
coords = geoTiff.GetProjection()
gt = geoTiff.GetGeoTransform()
Finally, set the projection and geotransform to your PDF and then create a copy with the PDF Driver:
src.SetProjection(coords)
src.SetGeoTransform(gt)
#Instantiate a PDF driver and save your Referenced copy
pdf_driver = gdal.GetDriverByName("PDF")
dst = pdf_driver.CreateCopy("referencedFile.pdf", src, 1)
The result is a PDF that is georeferenced to have its upper-left corner placed at location gt using the Projection System coords. This can be verified by opening the PDF on QGis or ArcGis, or well by using the gdalinfo command on your referenced PDF.
Best Answer
A new PDF to TIFF tool has been added to ArcGIS 10.3 for Desktop:
You will still be doing a conversion step but at least any georeferencing within your PDFs should be honoured to save you needing to do that.