Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 1

Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
HOW TO CONVERT AUTOCAD DRAWINGS
INTO WINDOWS-FRIENDLY IMAGE FILES
FOR DISPLAY IN DOCUMENTS AND PRESENTATIONS
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
The Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332
Summary
This document reviews the steps that a beginner should take in order to convert an AutoCAD drawing into a file
whose format can easily be recognized by Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Specifically, this document explains:
1) How to adjust the drawings background color.
2) How to export the drawing in a convenient file format.
3) How to import an image file into Microsoft Word.

Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 2
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Other presentations here show you how to 1) copy and paste drawings into Word and 2) directly import
AutoCAD drawings into Word. The Copy-and-paste option is easy to use and it usually gives good results.
When you import AutoCAD files directly, you gain excellent flexibility, but you may spend time tweaking your
Word and your AutoCAD settings in order to get the two programs to cooperate. The simplest--and the least
flexible--method for transferring AutoCAD drawing to Word is to export the drawings to intermediate file types,
usually Bitmaps or Metafiles, and then importing these files into Word. This presentation will show you how to
export your drawings as Metafiles and then import them into acceptable Word displays.
You have made this drawing in AutoCAD, and you need to insert it into a report that is prepared in Word:
To obtain an adequate display, you must first adjust the background color to white for the hardcopy presentation.
Then you must export the image into a Windows-friendly file format. Finally you must insert that file into your
Word document. This document will walk you through these steps.
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 3
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
1 Adjusting the background color
To change the background color, you first open AutoCADs Options dialog:
Select the Display tab, and select Colors under Window Elements. A Color Options dialog box will open, as
shown at the right of this screen. Here the pull-down members give you access to a number of areas in CADs
display; Here we set the Model Tab background to White. We will then select the Apply and Close button.
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 4
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
After selecting Apply and Close, we are returned to the Options Dialog:
Here we have applied the light background to the drawing, and the display behind the dialog box obviously
reflects the change. We now select OK to exit the options box. We will now export the drawing to a file that
Word can recognize and digest easily.
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 5
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
2) Exporting the drawing
To export the drawing in a Windows-friendly file format, we first open AutoCADs File menu, highlight Export
and select Export Data:
As this menu suggests, AutoCAD offers a variety of file types for exporting your drawings and / or their compo-
nents. When we select Export Data, AutoCAD presents a dialog box that asks us to specify first the file type
and location that we desire and then to determine what data is to be captured for export:
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 6
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
As this menu shows, AutoCAD offers a variety of file types for export; Bitmap (*.bmp) and Metafile (*.wmf)
are both Windows-friendly; they work well with Word and with PowerPoint. Here, Metafile is selected as the
file type for export, and the Desktop is selected as the export location for this file. The descriptive name of the
file is also visible.
AutoCAD next requires us to specify what parts of the drawing are to be exported:
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 7
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Objects are selected by drawing a selection box.
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 8
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
When the selection is highlighted, press ENTER. The display changes to reflect the operation; the dashed lines
indicate which drawing components will be found in the file that has been created in the designated directory:
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 9
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Here we confirm that the desired Windows Metafile has been created on the Desktop, as specified earlier.
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 10
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
3) Importing this file into Word
Now it is time to insert this file into your document. In Word, place the cursor at the location where this drawing
is to be displayed, then pull down the Insert menu, highlight Picture and select From File in the submenus:
Once you click on From File, you will see Words Insert Picture dialog box:
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 11
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
The Insert Picture dialog lists the Windows-friendly file formats that are easily imported into Word. Because
our file (highlighted) is a Windows Metafile, that file format is selected in the menu.
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 12
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
After we select Insert, the drawing appears in the Word document. The drawing can be then adjusted as needed,
and a caption can be applied:
Converting AutoCAD Drawings into Windows-Friendly Image Files 13
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
In this last figure, the finished drawing is captioned, and we can return to the business of writing the report.