If you run a small engineering or architectural firm, you probably have a folder somewhere on a network drive that everyone calls “the archive.” It holds ten, twenty, sometimes thirty years of DWG and DXF files. And every few weeks, the same thing happens: someone needs to find a specific drawing from 2014, no one remembers the exact filename, and an hour disappears while a designer opens files one by one in AutoCAD trying to recognize them.

The cost of this shows up as billable hours lost to file-by-file searches, wrong revisions attached to client proposals, and tribal knowledge that walks out the door with departing employees. The drawings themselves are valuable assets — years of paid work and reusable detail libraries. Treating them as an opaque pile of files wastes that value every day.

The solution is conceptually simple. Generate a preview image for every CAD file in the archive. Display those previews in Windows Explorer, on an intranet page, or inside a document management system. Suddenly the archive is searchable by eye, and finding old work takes seconds instead of an hour. The hard part is doing it in batch, without buying an AutoCAD license for every employee who might need to look at a drawing.

Why generating DWG previews is harder than it looks

If preview generation is so useful, why doesn’t every firm already have it? Because the obvious solutions all have problems that only become visible after you try them.

The AutoCAD licensing problem

AutoCAD itself can generate thumbnails and previews. So can AutoCAD LT. But an AutoCAD LT subscription runs around 500 USD per seat per year, and that’s only for viewing and basic editing. If only your designers need to actually edit drawings, but five other people in the office occasionally need to look at them, you’re either buying licenses you don’t really need, or those five people keep interrupting the designers.

Autodesk does offer DWG TrueView as a free viewer, and it does add Windows Explorer thumbnails on machines where it’s installed. For a single user this is fine. For automated batch processing across a 40,000-file archive, building previews for a web portal or DMS, or generating previews on a server with no GUI session, it’s the wrong tool.

Why online viewers are off the table for most firms

Cloud CAD viewers such as Autodesk Viewer or DWG FastView are useful for collaboration and file sharing, but they are less practical for large legacy archives.

Many engineering firms cannot freely upload client drawings due to NDAs, internal policies, or industry regulations. In addition, most cloud viewers are designed for opening individual files rather than batch-processing tens of thousands of drawings into a searchable preview library.

For archive management, local batch preview generation is often simpler and easier to maintain.

The “just write a script” trap

The third path most firms consider is writing a script using the AutoCAD .NET API, ODA libraries, or a Python toolchain. This works if you have a developer. Most small firms don’t, and custom scripts tend to break silently when DWG versions change or when someone upgrades the server. Six months later no one remembers how the script works, and the preview pipeline quietly stops producing anything for new files.

What you actually need from a CAD preview workflow

Before picking a tool, it helps to make the requirements explicit. A workable batch CAD preview system for a small firm needs to:

1. Process files in batch, ideally thousands at a time, without manual clicking
2. Run on a standard Windows machine without requiring AutoCAD installation
3. Support DWG, DXF, and ideally older or related formats like DWF, HPGL, and PLT for legacy archives
4. Output common image formats (PNG, JPG) for thumbnails, plus PDF for sharing and SVG for high-quality web previews that scale on screen
5. Automate itself — watch a folder, process new files as they arrive, no scheduled human intervention
6. Handle errors gracefully so one bad file doesn’t stop the whole batch
7. Stay on premises, with files never leaving the company network

This list also functions as a buying checklist. Any tool that can’t tick most of these boxes isn’t really solving the problem; it’s just shifting work around.

How reaConverter handles batch CAD preview generation

reaConverter is a Windows batch file conversion tool that has been developed for over twenty years. It supports more than 800 input and output formats, including the CAD formats that matter for archive work: DWG, DXF, DWF, HPGL, PLT, and several others. For the use case described here, the Pro edition is what you need, because batch automation and watched folders are Pro features.

Download reaConverter Pro

Supported input and output formats

On the input side, reaConverter reads DWG and DXF files from AutoCAD versions going back to early releases, plus DWF, HPGL/2, PLT, and other 2D CAD formats commonly found in legacy archives. This matters more than it sounds. Most archives accumulate files from different CAD tools over the years, and a preview system that only handles current AutoCAD versions leaves a chunk of the archive invisible.

On the output side, you can generate previews in any image format reaConverter supports. For a typical preview workflow, three outputs cover almost everything:

• PNG or JPG thumbnails for Windows Explorer, file managers, and most document management systems
• SVG for web-based preview interfaces where users may want to zoom into the drawing
• PDF for archival and sharing with clients who don’t have CAD software

You can output more than one format from a single conversion job. A common setup generates a small JPG thumbnail and a larger PDF for every DWG, both saved alongside the original.

Automating the workflow

This is where reaConverter Pro earns its keep. There are two automation modes that matter for archive work.

Watched folders monitor a directory continuously. When a new DWG file lands in the folder, reaConverter processes it automatically using a saved conversion profile and writes the output wherever you’ve configured. For an active project archive where designers save new drawings throughout the day, a watched folder means previews appear within seconds of a file being saved, with no scheduled jobs and no human involvement.

Command-line operation runs reaConverter as a CLI tool. This is what you want for the initial bulk conversion of an existing archive, and for any workflow that fits better into Windows Task Scheduler or a server-side script. A nightly job that processes the day’s additions, or a one-off command that converts the entire historical archive over a weekend, both work cleanly from the command line.

Together these two modes cover the realistic shape of an archive: a large historical backlog that needs a one-time bulk conversion, plus a continuous stream of new files that need previews generated as they arrive.

Adding OCR for scanned legacy drawings

There’s a bonus use case worth mentioning, because almost every firm older than fifteen years has it. Somewhere in the archive there are scanned PDFs and TIFFs of paper drawings from the pre-CAD era, or from acquired companies, or from projects where the originals were lost. These files are technically in the archive, but they’re functionally invisible — you can’t search their contents, and visual thumbnails of scanned blueprints often look identical to each other.

reaConverter includes OCR. You can batch-process scanned drawings to extract the text — title blocks, revision tables, notes — and either embed it back into a searchable PDF or output it as a text file alongside the original. Combined with preview generation, this turns a pile of opaque scans into searchable, browsable assets. It’s the same workflow as the DWG preview pipeline, just with a different input type.

Where this approach fits, and where it doesn’t

Honest limitations matter here. A preview system that promises to handle everything will disappoint at the worst possible moment.

reaConverter works well for:

• 2D architectural and engineering drawings (the bulk of most firms’ archives)
• Standard mechanical part drawings and assembly views
• Civil, structural, and electrical drawings
• Mixed archives with multiple CAD formats and legacy scanned documents
• Throughput in the thousands to tens of thousands of files

reaConverter is not the right tool for:

• Very large 3D assemblies — full automotive models, complex aerospace assemblies, large BIM coordination models with millions of polygons. These need a dedicated CAD or visualization platform.
• Drawings that depend heavily on custom AutoCAD object enablers (AutoCAD Architecture, Civil 3D, Plant 3D specialty objects may render in simplified form)
• Drawings with broken or missing xrefs — these will preview, but the preview will be missing the xref content, same as in any non-AutoCAD tool

If your archive is mostly 2D drawings with the occasional 3D model, reaConverter handles the realistic 90% case. If your work is large 3D assemblies, this isn’t the right tool, and that’s worth knowing before you invest setup time.

A practical setup for a 50,000-file CAD archive

Here’s a concrete recipe for a small firm with a multi-year archive that needs preview generation set up in an afternoon.

Step 1: Install reaConverter Pro on a single machine. This can be an existing workstation that’s left on overnight, or a small server. No special hardware is needed for 2D CAD work.

Step 2: Create a conversion profile. Open reaConverter, add a sample DWG file from your archive, and configure the output: typically a 1024×768 JPG thumbnail and a PDF. Save this as a named profile (for example, archive_preview). The profile captures every setting, so subsequent runs are reproducible.

Step 3: Run the initial bulk conversion. Point reaConverter at the root of your archive and let it process everything once. For a 50,000-file archive of typical 2D drawings, plan for this to run overnight or across a weekend depending on the machine. Use the command-line mode if you want to script it or run it on a server.

Typical performance on a mid-range Intel i7 workstation:

• ~3–5 standard 2D DWG previews per second
• ~8–10 hours for a 50,000-file archive
• Typical PNG preview size: ~100–150 KB per drawing

Step 4: Set up a watched folder for ongoing files. Once the historical archive is converted, configure a watched folder on the directory where new drawings are saved. From this point forward, every new DWG that designers save gets a preview generated automatically.

Step 5: Make the previews discoverable. This is where preview output meets your existing infrastructure. The simplest setup just stores PNG thumbnails in a parallel folder structure mirroring the archive, which Windows Explorer can browse directly. More ambitious setups feed the previews into a document management system, an intranet page built on a simple file index, or a tool like Daminion that’s designed for visual file libraries.

The result, after one afternoon of setup and one weekend of bulk processing, is that the whole archive becomes browsable by eye, and stays that way without further intervention.

Frequently asked questions

Does reaConverter require AutoCAD to be installed?

No. reaConverter reads DWG and DXF files natively and does not require AutoCAD, DWG TrueView, or any other Autodesk software to be present.

What CAD formats can reaConverter generate previews from?

The main supported inputs for CAD preview work are DWG, DXF, DWF, HPGL/2, and PLT. The full format list is broader, but those are the ones that matter for typical engineering and architectural archives.

Can reaConverter generate SVG previews of DWG files?

Yes. SVG is among the supported output formats, which makes it useful for web-based preview interfaces where users may want to zoom into the drawing without losing quality.

How does Watch Folder automation actually work?

You configure a folder for reaConverter Pro to monitor. When a file matching your filter appears in that folder, reaConverter applies the conversion profile you’ve assigned and writes the output to the configured destination. The whole process runs in the background and does not require a user to be logged in interactively, depending on how it’s set up to run.

Is there a licensing limit on how many files can be processed?

No. A reaConverter Pro license is a one-time purchase that allows unlimited file processing on the licensed machine. There are no per-file or per-batch fees.

reaConverter Pro is available as a one-time purchase Windows license. For firms maintaining large legacy archives, the time savings are usually immediate.

Download reaConverter Pro

Batch convert Zeiss DCM to PDF — no more one-by-one exports

Eye care clinics using Zeiss Forum face a persistent workflow problem: when another provider requests patient data, the only export option is DICOM — a format most recipients can’t open. Staff end up downloading PDFs one at a time, sometimes 50 or more per patient.

reaConverter 8 now includes dedicated support for Zeiss Forum DICOM files, including the non-standard embedded PDFs that cause other converters to fail.

Download reaConverter

Why Zeiss DICOM Files Are Different

Standard DICOM converters often can’t read Zeiss Forum exports. That’s because Zeiss stores PDFs inside DICOM containers using a proprietary structure that doesn’t follow typical DICOM conventions.

The result: your conversion software reports “Reading file… Fail” even though the data is intact inside the file.

reaConverter detects these Zeiss-specific structures and extracts the embedded content correctly.

What You Can Convert To

• PDF — for referrals, insurance, and external providers
• JPG, PNG — for individual images
• TIFF — for archival quality

All formats support batch processing — convert entire folders at once.

Step-by-Step DCM to PDF Conversion

Follow these steps:

1. Install reaConverter 8

Download the latest version from reaConverter.com. Zeiss DICOM support requires version 8.0.184 or later.

2. Add Your DCM Files

Drag your .dcm files into the main window, or use Add Folder to load an entire export directory.

3. Select Output Format

Choose PDF for most sharing scenarios. The output panel lets you set destination folder and naming conventions.

4. Click Start

reaConverter reads the Zeiss DICOM structure, extracts embedded documents, and writes them to your chosen format. No manual steps required.

Who This Helps

This feature addresses a specific need for:

• Ophthalmology and optometry practices using Zeiss Forum
• Medical records staff handling inter-provider transfers
• IT administrators managing clinical data workflows

If your clinic regularly shares Zeiss imaging data externally, batch DICOM conversion eliminates hours of repetitive manual exports.

Automation Options

For high-volume clinics or IT teams managing multiple Zeiss workstations, reaConverter offers additional automation capabilities:

Watch Folders — Set up a monitored folder that automatically converts any new DCM files as they arrive. Drop Zeiss exports into the folder and get PDFs out without launching the application.

Command Line Support — Integrate DICOM conversion into existing scripts, scheduled tasks, or backup workflows. Automate nightly batch processing or trigger conversions from your practice management system.

Both options are available in reaConverter Pro, making it possible to build hands-off conversion pipelines that require zero manual intervention.

Background

This feature was developed after a customer reached out about their Zeiss Forum workflow:

“When we get requests to send patient data to another provider, all we can do is download 10–50+ PDFs one at a time because Zeiss only allows for DICOM files on export, which nobody we deal with can use.”

We obtained sample files, identified the non-standard DICOM structure Zeiss uses, and built extraction logic that handles it reliably.

Conclusion

Converting Zeiss Forum DICOM to PDF using reaConverter eliminates one of the most time-consuming bottlenecks in ophthalmic data sharing. Instead of manually exporting dozens of files one at a time, you can batch process entire patient folders in minutes. Whether you’re handling a single referral or managing large-scale data transfers between providers, reaConverter gives you a reliable way to turn locked-down Zeiss DCM exports into standard, shareable formats — no workarounds required.

Get reaConverter and convert your first DCM to PDF in minutes!

Download reaConverter

Turn PDFs, TIFFs, CAD multi-page documents and other multipage files into a single, continuous image (vertically or horizontally) with reaConverter’s Merge to One Image option. This feature is particularly useful when converting to formats that don’t support multiple pages, or when you need scrollable visuals for easier viewing, sharing, or presentation purposes. Whether you’re handling scanned documents, technical drawings, or creating social media content, this tool streamlines your workflow by turning multiple pages into one cohesive file.

Download reaConverter

What is “Merge to One Image”?

Merge to One Image combines all pages of a multipage document (or multiple documents) into a single output image. Pages can be stacked vertically (one long scrollable image) or placed horizontally (wide panorama), preserving the visual fidelity of each page while making the result easier to view, share, or embed in presentations.

This feature is particularly useful when converting to image formats that don’t support multiple pages — such as JPG, PNG, or BMP. Instead of saving just the first page or creating separate files, Merge to One Image ensures all your content stays together in one continuous image.

Quick Step-By-Step Guide

1. Add files

Drag-and-drop your multipage files (PDF, TIFF, PLT, CGM, CG4, etc.) into reaConverter or use Add files / Add folder for batch processing.

2. Enable single-file output + Merge

Go to Saving Settings → Multipage files. Choose “Save all processed files to one file” and tick “Merge to one image”. Then pick Vertically or Horizontally depending on whether you want a long vertical strip or a wide image.

3. Choose output format & quality

Select JPG/PNG/TIFF as needed and configure DPI/quality to balance fidelity and file size.

4. Convert

Click Convert to produce the single merged image. reaConverter will process the pages and generate the final file in your specified output folder.

Advanced Options and Batch Use

Batch processing: Add many multipage files or entire folders — the same Merge settings are applied to each job.

Group files into one image: If you need to control grouping (e.g., merge every N files into one image), use the “Save group of files to one file / Group by” option in the Multipage settings.

Orientation choice: Vertical stacking is best for documents/slides; horizontal stacking is useful for panoramas or side-by-side comparisons.

Supported Inputs and Outputs

reaConverter supports a wide range of input formats, including:

• PDF – Portable Document Format
• TIFF – Multipage Tagged Image File Format
• TGA (Targa) – High-quality graphics with alpha channels, common in animation
• CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile) – Vector format for precise technical diagrams
• CG4 (CALS Group 4) – Compressed raster format for engineering documents
• PLT (HPGL Plotter) – Vector-based format for CAD and plotting applications
• And many other raster and vector formats

Output formats include formats that don’t natively support multiple pages:

• Single-page outputs: JPG, PNG, BMP, …
• Multi-page capable: TIFF, PDF

When converting to single-page formats, Merge to One Image ensures no content is lost by combining everything into one continuous image.

Command line and Automation

You can automate Merge to One Image jobs with reaConverter’s command line and Watch Folders to integrate this into production pipelines or hands-off workflows (useful for scheduled exports or large batches).

See the automation and integration section in the reaConverter tutorials for parameters to enable multipage merging and choose orientation.

Practical Use Cases

Marketing: Export an entire product catalog as one scrollable JPG image for Instagram stories or website previews.

Education: Merge lecture slides into a single PNG reference image for students.

Technical documentation: Combine multi-page technical drawings or scanner outputs into a single image for quick review.

Web graphics: Convert multipage PDFs to single PNG images for easy embedding in web pages without viewer plugins.

Tips & Troubleshooting

Large final files: A long merged image can become very large. If file size is an issue, lower output DPI or use JPG compression.

Different page sizes: If source pages vary in width/height, consider normalizing size (resize pages or set a fixed DPI) before merging to avoid unexpected padding or misalignment.

Order of pages: Make sure input files/pages are in the correct order in the file list before converting, the merge respects that order.

Preview first: Always preview one example output when changing orientation or quality settings to confirm the result.

Example: convert a PDF booklet to one long JPG

• Add booklet.pdf
• Saving Settings → Multipage files → “Save all processed files to one file” → check “Merge to one image” → choose Vertically
• Output format: JPG, quality 85%, DPI 150
• Click Convert
• Result: booklet_merged.jpg (single long image)

Conclusion

The Merge to One Image feature is a simple but powerful tool for turning multipage content into single, shareable images — especially useful when working with formats like JPG, PNG, or BMP that don’t support multiple pages. It’s great for presentations, social media, documentation and faster review. The feature works offline, integrates with reaConverter’s batch and automation tools for production use, and ensures no content is lost when converting from multipage to single-page formats. Try different orientations and output settings on a sample file to find the balance of quality and file size that fits your workflow.

Install reaConverter

JPEG is probably the most popular extension for storing and transferring images. Many users prefer this format for sending photographs by email or uploading them on social networks. The reasons are obvious: JPEG can be opened with even the most basic image viewer, provides small size and decent image quality.

The format is also used as output extension by many scanning and faxing devices. Using JPEG you can get a quick and small digital copy of a document. As this is a raster format, however, what you get is an image reproduction of the document. Not an actual text. This means scanned JPEG cannot be searched or edited. Depending on your area of work, this can be a considerable problem. For example, if you scan a certificate or an invoice that you need to make quick corrections to, the JPEG format will not be of much help.

With reaConverter’s latest edition, you can now convert scanned JPEG images with text into searchable and editable PDFs. This powerful converter uses an advanced technology called optical character recognition (OCR) to transform the scanned image of a text into an actual text. OCR uses shape and pattern detection to identify letters, words and non-textual data, such as table formatting or special figures. reaConverter lets you set the language in which you want this feature to operate, thus helping you obtain optimal results.

Install reaConverter

Load scanned images

Add one scanned JPEG or a group of them using reaConverter’s drag-and-drop tool. Pick them manually or load them automatically, according to size and extension, using the Advanced file select option.

Enable OCR

Go to the Menu button and then to Saving settings → Format saving settings → PDF

Check the box at the bottom, near Convert to searchable PDF in language. reaConverter lets you opt between 6 different language (English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch), for best results in rendering the text in the output PDF. You can also reach this window via a shortcut. Place the pointer on the PDF button placed in the Convert to area and then click the Settings icon that appears in its upper left corner.

Save the result

In the Saving settings tab, pick the location where you want to store the resulting PDFs. You can save them in the source folder, a subfolder or another location of your choice. Don’t forget to make sure the PDF button from the Convert to area is clicked.

And then just press Start!

Video Tutorial

Advanced users can use OCR feature from command line interface or DLL in manual, automated or scheduled mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.

PDF (Portable Document Format) is one of the most widely used formats for storing and transferring both text and image data. Some of its main advantages include being compatible with any operating system, containing formatting that does not change from one viewer to another and offering great quality at accessible size.

PDF is widely used for uploading online content, and for this purpose in particular it can be optimized via linearization. This basically allows you to download pages as you read them. Or in other words, spend significantly less time between the moment you click on a link to a PDF file and the moment you actually get to read it.

Linearization or fast web viewing is a great way to make PDF files more easily accessible over the internet. Non-linearized PDFs need to be downloaded entirely before they can be opened and this can translate into long waiting times for users. reaConverter’s latest edition supports conversion into linearized PDF in no more than a few clicks.

Install reaConverter

Load files for conversion

Add one or more files you intend to convert. They can be non-linearized PDFs, Microsoft Word files or other image formats. You can add them one by one, add entire folders or automatically add batches of files according to size and/or extension from a folder, using the Advanced file select option.

Setup PDF saving settings

Go to the Menu button and then to Saving settings → Format saving settings → PDF

You can also reach this window via a shortcut. Place the pointer over the PDF button, from the Convert to area of reaConverter’s main window. Then click the Settings icon from its upper left corner. In this window, tick the box near Create linearized PDF.

Setup Multipage saving settings

Go to the Menu button, click Saving settings → Multipage files

Here you can choose to save all processed files into one PDF document or create separate PDFs for each input file.

Save the result in linearized PDF

Go to Saving options and pick the destination for the output PDFs. Save them in the source folder, a subfolder or another customized location. Finally, don’t forget to make sure you clicked the PDF button from the Convert to area.

Then simply press Start!

Video Tutorial

Advanced users can linearized PDF files using command line interface or DLL in manual, automated or scheduled mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.

DWF (Design Web Format) is an Autodesk extension usually attached to drawings representing architectural plans, building projects or product designs. The format was released in mid-1990s with the aim of improving accessibility for users who don’t necessarily know how to use AutoCAD but are part of creative teams responsible for designs.

DWF files allow you to view, review and print design data. They can be single-page or multipage and are highly compressed, which means they are usually small in size and easy to transfer or store. However, most regular image viewers cannot open DWF files. They usually require some specialized software or a CAD program.

Access to DWF files can be improved if you convert them to a more widely used multipage extension, such as TIF or PDF. With reaConverter’s latest edition you can now convert multipage DWF files in no more than a few steps. This powerful software supports over 50 output image formats, including raster, vector and CAD extensions. Plus, you can customize the conversion and apply it to only a selected number of pages from the input DWF.

Install reaConverter

Load DWF images

Load one or more DWF files into reaConverter.

They can be added manually by browsing your computer, via the drag-and-drop tool or using the Advanced file select option. The latter option is ideal for the automatic selection of certain groups of images according to size and extension, from a folder containing mixed formats.

Multipage loading settings

Go to the Menu button and then to Loading settings → Multipage loading settings

Here you can opt for converting every page from the input file or just a selected number of pages.

Apply Image Editing

Do you need to apply any editing to your images? Watermarking and Auto cropping are just some of the available actions.

Check the ones that best fit your needs. You can opt for applying the actions to all pages from the input multipage DWF or only to a selected few by clicking Menu → Loading settings → Multipage editing actions settings

Start conversion

In the Saving settings section, enter the location where the output images will be saved. Then go to the Convert to area and pick the extension of the resulting images.

Next, press Start and your newly converted images will soon be ready!

Video Tutorial

Advanced users can use our command line tool or DLL to perform multipage DWF conversion in manual, automated or scheduled mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.

Do you a have a printed document and need to make a digital copy of it? Scanning is a quick option. Or an even quicker one is photographing it with your smartphone. In both cases, what you will get is an image of the text, most likely saved under a raster format, such as PNG, JPEG or TIFF. In fact, the latter is often preferred by scanning and faxing devices due to its good quality rendering of text.

But while being an accessible and flexible format, supporting both lossy and lossless compression, TIFF has one major disadvantage. Texts scanned under this format cannot be edited or searched. This might be a problem if, for example, you have a scanned book and need to look for a certain keyword. Or if you want to translate the scanned document via machine translation. The best solution in such cases is converting to a format that can be edited and searched — PDF.

reaConverter’s latest edition features optical character recognition (OCR) as part of the conversion process, allowing you to convert scanned TIFF images with text into searchable and editable PDFs. OCR is an advanced technology by which the software imitates how the human eye and brain work, recognizing certain patterns and characteristics in the input text and turning it into a searchable and editable digital copy. The feature is not limited to text, but also extends to recognizing formatting (columns, numbers, paragraphs etc.) and non-textual data, offering an accurate rendering of the input TIFF in the output PDF.

Install reaConverter

Load scanned images

Add one or more scanned TIFF images with text. Use the drag-and-drop tool, add entire folders or use the Advanced file select option, which allows you to automatically load files of a certain size and extension from a certain location.

Create searchable PDF in required language

Go to the Menu button and then to Saving settings → Format saving settings → PDF

Tick the box at the bottom of the window: Create searchable PDF in language. reaConverter lets you choose between 6 different language to perfect this feature.

Save the result

In the Saving options section, decide where you will save the output images — in a customized location, in the source folder or a subfolder. Finally, don’t forget to click the PDF button from the Convert to area, at the bottom of the reaConverter window.

If you place the pointer on this button and then on the Settings icon that appears in its upper left corner, you’ll get a shortcut to the Format saving settings window described in the previous step of this tutorial. Use it in case you want to customize your conversion using any of the available options, for example PDF security settings.

Then simply press Start!

Command-line Interface and Watch Folders

Batch image conversion into searchable and editable PDF can also be done via command-line or Watch Folders. In case you are a developer and want to include it in a custom software solution, reaConverter provides detailed steps of how this is done and a full list of configuration parameters here.

Quick cmd example:
cons_rcp.exe -s source.tiff -o output.pdf -create_searchable_pdf 1 -searchable_pdf_lang eng


Video Tutorial

Advanced users can use OCR feature from command line interface or DLL in manual, automated or scheduled mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.

DWG is one of the most commonly used formats in the construction industry. Created in the 1980s as a proprietary extension of AutoCAD — probably the best known software in this business — DWG is perfect for storing design and geometric data, building project and sketches, detailed maps etc. So if you are an architect, engineer, designer or have another profession connected to constructions, you probably use this format a lot.

Though extremely practical for storing detailed representations of building details, DWG files have the downside of being extremely large and offering a relatively limited compatibility with other software. That’s why most professionals in the industry choose to convert DWG vector files to PDF — which offers significantly wider accessibility options — when sending them to clients or partners who don’t have AutoCAD installed, for example.

If you are one of those professionals who need to handle a large number of DWG to PDF conversions on a regular basis, we have some great news for you! reaConverter offers a handy solution that helps avoid repeating the same set of operations over and over again, thus saving time and effort. Using the Watch Folders feature, you can now automate your conversions in no more than 4 easy steps.

Install reaConverter

Activate the Watch Folders

First, go to the Menu button and activate the Watch Folders option by ticking ON in the dropdown menu.

Create System Folders

Next, open Windows Explorer and create an input folder and an output folder. In the first one you will store the DWG files that need to be converted, and in the second one — the resulting PDFs.

After you go through all the steps listed below, the input folder will become a “watch folder”, which means all files stored in it will automatically undergo conversion.

Set Conversion Configuration

Set your desired conversion configuration in reaConverter — i.e. click the PDF button in the lower part of the window and put the output folder you created as location for the converted files in Saving options tab.

Then go to the Menu button and click Save configuration as…

Then save your .cfg (configuration) file. In addition to the actual conversion, you can add here a series of security options related to the output PDF file.

To do so, go to Menu → Saving Setting → Format Saving Settings → PDF (or click on the upper left icon from the PDF button) and choose a password for opening the document, or grant permissions connected to editing, printing or copying the PDF.

Start the Watch Folder

Last but not least, go to the Menu button again and click Watch folders → Settings

Then load the .cfg file and assign the input folder. Now all the DWG files you drop to input folder will automatically be converted to PDF and placed in the output folder!

Video Tutorial

Advanced users can convert DWG to PDF with command line interface or DLL in manual, automated or scheduled mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.

When preparing one or more PDF documents for print on a device that uses the Printer Command Language, converting to PCL is be the best solution. Compared to PDFs, PCLs files are faster to print and generally offer better accuracy for both fonts and graphics. PCL files are created for a particular printing hardware and shape the image data so as to best fit its requirements. This makes the printing process work quicker and generally be more effective.

Though initially created only for Hewlett-Packard printers, PCLs are now widely supported by many other brands as well, being considered a de facto printing standard, together with PostScript (PS).

reaConverter’s latest edition helps you manage PDF to PCL conversion in no more than a few clicks and also allows you to customize the process by picking the desired output page size, positioning the image or designing the PCL for monochrome or color printers.

Install reaConverter

How does it work?

Start reaConverter and add all the PDFs you intend to convert to PCL by using the drag-and-drop tool or by picking them one by one from a local folder.

In case the PDFs are mingled with other formats in a folder, you can use the Advanced file select feature that will allow you to automatically select only your desired extension.

Save the result

In the Saving options tab, pick the location of the resulting PCLs. Save them in the source folder, a subfolder or another folder of your choice.

Finally, pick PCL from the buttons placed at the bottom of the main window. If it’s not there, click Plus and find it in the newly opened window. Then place the pointer on the upper left corner of the PCL button and click the Settings button.

Alternatively reach the same location by following this path: Menu → Saving settings → Format saving settings → PCL

Now you can opt for a particular page size (A4, A6 or other standardized formats), position the input image on the output page and pick the type of printer you will use.

reaConverter lets you create PCLs for color or monochrome printers using different types of PCL versions (3, 4, or 5/6).

Then simply press Start and enjoy your new PCL files!

Video Tutorial

Advanced users can customize PDF to PCL conversions using command line interface or DLL in manual, automated or scheduled mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.

Printing detailed maps, building projects or various types of full-colored graphics often works better when done via PLT than PDF files. As opposed to other comparable formats, PLT or “plotter” images are specifically designed for being printed with cutting plotters or other similar plotting devices. PLTs employ the HPGL language and can be created with several kinds of CAD software, such as AutoCAD, or through conversion. In case you have a PDF you intend to print with a plotter, reaConverter helps you handle the conversion quickly and effectively.

The main advantage of printing with a plotting machine — compared to laser-jet or inkjet printers — is that the former can use vectors as input files. In other words, plotters can read and render on paper lines and curves, whereas regular printers use raster files, which represent images as connected dots or pixels. Vectors can be scaled at any size without losing clarity, but raster images get distorted when enlarged. For this reason, PLTs are extremely convenient for printing architectural projects, as well as for posters and banners, or other types of large-scale graphics.

There is also a downside, however. The use of HPGL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language) often implies sending arbitrary sets of output lines to the plotter, which means the machine wastes a lot of time skipping between lines and ends up being less effective. With reaConverter, this problem can be fixed in no time! By using the PLT optimization feature, you can make sure lines and curves are sent to the plotter in a sequence that requires a minimal amount of skips. Thus the process becomes better timed and effective.

Install reaConverter

Here is how you can convert a PDF into an optimized PLT in a matter of seconds.

Load PDF files

Start reaConverter and load the PDF you intend to convert. reaConverter can also handle batch conversion, so feel free to add as many files as you need. You can select them manually or drop them directly into the reaConverter window. When you have to deal with large quantities of PDFs mixed between other formats in a folder, the Advanced file select can come in handy, as it lets you automatically select a specific extension.

Create optimized PLT files

In the Saving settings tab, choose the format and location of the output images. Pick PLT from the buttons placed in the lower part of the window. In case it isn’t there, click the Plus button and you will get a full view of all output formats supported by reaConverter. After you pick PLT, move the pointer on the button and click on the Settings icon, placed on its upper left side. Click it and then tick the box next to Create optimized PLT. You can also reach this window by following this path: Menu → Saving settings → Format saving settings → PLT

Then pick the location of your output file — in a local folder of your choice or directly online, using one of the supported storage cloud service.

Finally, press Start and your plotter-ready files will soon be done!

Video Tutorial

Advanced users can handle PDF to PLT conversion using command line interface or DLL in manual, automated or scheduled mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.