Cut a part straight from a PDF drawing: extract the vector geometry, calibrate it to real scale, and export GRBL .nc with true cutter compensation. Runs in a browser tab — the PDF is never uploaded.
A PDF records how big something was on paper. Your router cuts how big something is in the world. Nothing in the file connects those two facts, and a drawing plotted to fit a different sheet size looks entirely normal while being completely the wrong scale. Two clicks across a dimension the drawing states settles it — and checking a second known dimension afterwards costs ten seconds and has saved a lot of expensive stock.
Open app.caddillo.com and choose the file. It is read locally by a browser PDF engine, so the drawing never leaves your machine. Multi-page documents show thumbnails so you can pick the right sheet.
This is not optional if you intend to cut. Click two points spanning a dimension the drawing states — a hole spacing, an overall length, a stated edge — and type the real value. Everything rescales so that measurement is exactly right.
Click the shape you want to cut. Extracted geometry sometimes has small gaps where the plot broke a path; join and trim close them so the contour selects cleanly.
Set tool diameter, cut depth, stepdown, cutter side, feed rate and safe Z. Check the offset toolpath and time estimate on the canvas, then download the .nc.
Lines stay sharp at high zoom and text selects. The drawing operations survive in the file, so extraction yields genuine paths a toolpath can be offset around. This is the case where cutting straight from a PDF makes sense.
Pixels, not geometry. Imported as a locked, scaled underlay so you trace it with real tools and cut what you drew. Tracing software would hand you thousands of jagged segments and a rough edge to match.
Keep the extracted geometry as a reusable CAD file.
Starting from CAD geometry that already has real units.
Cutting vector artwork rather than a plotted drawing.
If the drawing arrived as photos, combine them into one PDF first at imageinseconds.com — free, in the browser, no upload.
Open app.caddillo.com, choose File ▸ Import PDF, calibrate the scale against a dimension you know, select the closed contour, then choose File ▸ Export G-code (CAM). Extraction and G-code generation both run in your browser, so nothing is uploaded and there is no CAM software to install.
Not as cuttable geometry. A scan is pixels — there are no paths in the file to offset a toolpath around, and image tracing produces jagged approximate segments that cut badly and leave a visibly rough edge. CADdillo imports a scan as a locked, correctly scaled underlay instead, so you can trace the outline with real drafting tools and cut from geometry you actually drew. That is more work than a one-click promise, and it is the only version that produces a good part.
Because a PDF stores paper dimensions and a machine cuts real ones, and nothing in the file connects the two. A drawing plotted at half size looks completely normal on screen and will produce a part at half size if you cut it as imported. Worse, PDFs are frequently re-printed to fit different paper, which quietly invalidates any scale note in the title block. Two clicks across a stated dimension establishes the truth independently of what the sheet claims — and it is worth verifying a second known dimension elsewhere on the drawing before you commit material.
For a vector PDF it is good, because coordinates come from the file’s own drawing operations rather than from measuring an image. Two things to watch: curves arrive as tight-tolerance polylines rather than splines, which cuts fine but means very smooth organic shapes carry more points than a native CAD contour would; and plotted output sometimes breaks a single logical outline into several separate paths, so a shape may need joining before it selects as one closed contour.
Yes, computed in the geometry rather than left to the controller. You choose outside, inside or on-line and the path is offset by exactly half the tool diameter. A 100 mm outline cut on the outside with a 3.175 mm endmill produces a toolpath spanning 103.175 mm, so the finished part measures 100 mm. Since the offset is in the coordinates, your machine does not need G41/G42 support.
Only if you want a CAD file as a deliverable, since it is the same import either way. If the drawing needs real cleanup — closing gaps, removing title-block linework, fixing broken outlines — doing that work in the editor and exporting DXF gives you something reusable for the next run. If it is a one-off cut, going straight to G-code from the calibrated import is fewer steps and the same result.
