Image to CAD: Turn Photos and Sketches into Clean CAD Drawings

Image to CAD means turning a photo, scan or hand sketch into vector linework that CAD software can edit. FigCAD's AI first redraws your upload as clean black lines, dropping shadows, texture and noise, then your browser traces them into vectors for DXF, SVG, PDF or DWG.

Partly. The DXF viewer and the SVG to DXF converter are completely free: sign in with a free account and they run in your browser. The AI redraw that turns a photo into linework uses credits, and the DXF, SVG and PDF downloads of each result are included.

Yes. JPG, PNG and WebP all work, and so do AVIF, GIF, BMP and iPhone HEIC photos in Safari. Your browser converts every image to JPEG and scales it to 2048 px on the long edge before upload. Files can be up to 25 MB.

Yes. The AI keeps only real edges and drops shadows, color, reflections, texture and background, which plain tracing can't do. For the cleanest photo to CAD result, shoot straight on in even light and pick Line drawing or Mechanical part.

Yes, it's one of the most common image to CAD jobs. Choose Sketch to CAD for hand drawings or Floor plan for plan photos; the AI straightens wobbly strokes, makes circles round, drops construction lines and flattens paper shot at an angle.

Often, yes. Use Floor plan for building plans and Sketch to CAD for other paper drawings, photographed or scanned. Text, dimensions and hatching are left out, and dense sheets can lose fine detail, so convert one clear view at a time.

They are left out on purpose, so notes don't become messy squiggles in your linework. Add text and dimensions back in CAD, where they stay editable. Lettering inside a logo may also be dropped or simplified, so check the preview before you export.

You set the real size: enter the longest edge in mm, cm or inches, and every export uses that scale. FigCAD doesn't add dimension lines, title blocks or extra views; you get clean 2D linework to dimension in your own CAD software.

Close enough for templates, layouts and cut files, but it's a drawing, not a measurement. Camera angle and lens distortion carry through, and tiny details can be simplified, so shoot straight on and check critical dimensions before you cut or build.

Yes. You get real lines and polylines to select, trim, offset and join, not a picture pasted into a drawing. Everything sits on one layer named LINEWORK, ready to split onto your own layers. Curves are short polyline segments, not true arcs.

Yes. The DXF is a plain R12 file that AutoCAD and LibreCAD open directly, and FreeCAD, SolidWorks, LightBurn and Inkscape read it too. In Fusion 360, use Insert DXF on a sketch plane and pick the unit you set in FigCAD.

Yes. After any picture to CAD conversion, choose DWG and our server turns your DXF into an AutoCAD 2010 DWG that opens in AutoCAD 2010 or newer, BricsCAD and DraftSight. It uses extra credits, refunded if the export fails.

Yes. Set Line style to Outlines for closed shapes around every stroke, which laser cutters, vinyl cutters and CAM software expect, then load the DXF or SVG into LightBurn or your CAM program at real size. Use Single lines for CAD editing.

Classic auto-trace follows every pixel, so shadows and noise become lines and one pencil stroke often turns into a double outline. FigCAD's AI first redraws only the edges that matter, then your browser traces single centerlines, so even a phone photo gives clean CAD lines.

ChatGPT can describe a picture, generate a new image or write code for simple shapes, but it usually returns an image or code, not a clean, to-scale DXF traced from your photo. FigCAD is an image to CAD tool built for exactly that job.

The AI redraw usually takes 15 to 40 seconds. Tracing and export then run in your browser almost instantly, and changing smoothing or line style updates the preview without a new run. A conversion that stalls or fails is stopped and refunded.

Each image to CAD conversion uses credits based on the quality you choose, and DWG export uses extra. DXF, SVG and PDF downloads are free, and you can reopen any drawing in My Conversions to export again. Failed or timed-out runs are refunded automatically.

Your browser strips location data before upload. The image goes to a third-party AI provider only to make your drawing, is never used to train our own models, and only your account sees your conversions. Files are kept 30 days by default; the free tools never upload anything.

Not yet. FigCAD's image to CAD output is 2D today: DXF, DWG, SVG and PDF linework you can extrude or model from in your CAD software. 3D output such as STEP and STL is planned for a later release.