What CADverter reads out of a PDF
The PDF content stream is interpreted directly: m/l path segments become lines and polylines, c/v/y Bézier segments become splines, re rectangles become closed polylines, and stroke and fill colours are kept. Illustrator wraps each of its layers in a form XObject; those forms are descended into so the artwork inside is converted, not skipped. Compressed object streams, which every PDF since 1.5 uses, are unpacked in the browser.
Two honest limits, stated before you drop the file
Text is not converted to geometry. The glyph outlines live in font programs embedded in the PDF, and outlining them is a font-rendering job this converter does not attempt; text stays absent from the DXF rather than appearing as garbage. If the labels matter, outline the text before exporting the PDF (Illustrator: Type → Create Outlines; Inkscape: Path → Object to Path) and they arrive as paths.
Only the first page is read. A drawing is one page; a multi-page PDF converts page one. Split the PDF first if you need a later sheet.
Raster content — a scanned drawing, a photograph placed on the page — is not vector data and is ignored. There is nothing in a scan for a DXF to hold; that job needs raster-to-vector tracing, which is a different tool.
Scale: points become millimetres
PDF’s unit is the point, 1/72 of an inch. Coordinates are converted at exactly 25.4/72 mm per point, so a drawing exported at 1:1 arrives in DXF at 1:1 and a title-block dimension agrees with the geometry. A drawing plotted to A3 at 1:2 arrives at half size — the PDF has no idea what the original scale was — so scale the DXF by 2 in CAD if you need model units.
The DXF that comes out
AutoCAD 2000 (AC1015) DXF with $INSUNITS set to millimetres. Bézier curves are written as true SPLINE entities, not flattened; colours are carried per entity. AC1015 is used rather than R12 because R12 has no SPLINE, ELLIPSE or LWPOLYLINE and every curve would have to become segments. Anything the reader could not interpret is counted and reported in the panel so you know whether the DXF is complete.
When this works well, and when it will not
It works well on PDFs that were exported from CAD (AutoCAD, SolidWorks drawings, Fusion, FreeCAD), from Illustrator or Inkscape, or from a CAM or laser package: the geometry is real vectors. It will produce little or nothing from a scanned paper drawing, a screenshot placed in a PDF, or a PDF whose “lines” are actually a raster image; open it in a PDF viewer and zoom in — if the lines blur, there are no vectors to convert.
SVG, Illustrator and EPS too
The same drawing model writes SVG (true curves, layers as groups, millimetre size), Adobe Illustrator and EPS at true scale, and HP-GL for plotters. Or press Make 3D and extrude the closed profiles from the PDF into a solid for STL or STEP.
The PDF never leaves your device
Parsing, decompression and DXF writing run in the page. With the Network panel open you will see this page’s own files load and then silence — no request carries the PDF or the DXF. The production build is tested to make zero external requests through an open, convert and download.
PDF to DXF questions
Why is my DXF empty?
Almost always because the PDF is a scan or an embedded image rather than vector paths. Zoom in on the PDF: if the lines pixelate, there is nothing to convert. Text-only PDFs also produce nothing, since text is not converted.
Does it convert dimensions and labels?
The dimension lines and arrowheads do, since they are paths. The numbers do not, unless the text was outlined before the PDF was exported.
Can I pick a page other than the first?
Not yet — split the PDF with any PDF tool and drop the page you need.
Is the output AutoCAD-compatible?
Yes. AC1015 is AutoCAD 2000 and opens in every AutoCAD, BricsCAD, LibreCAD, QCAD and Fusion 360 release since.