Autodesk AutoCAD Raster Design is a raster-editing and raster-to-vector toolset embedded in AutoCAD that enables insertion and cleanup of scanned drawings and georeferenced imagery, raster entity manipulation (REM), OCR-to-editable-text conversion, and vectorization into DWG geometry.
Published May 19, 2026
| Starting Price | Bundled with AutoCAD subscription (Published subscription pricing available from the vendor) | Separate license (Published per-license pricing available from the vendor) | Separate license (Published per-license pricing available from the vendor) |
| Best For | Organizations already using AutoCAD that require integrated raster cleanup, REM, OCR, and basic vectorization | Teams focused on conversion pipelines, OCR, and format breadth | Organizations converting CAD-like PDFs to DWG/DXF; PDF-specific conversion workflows |
| Key Strength | Native integration into AutoCAD workflows; reduces context switching for CAD users | Purpose-built conversion functionality and format support; emphasis on conversion and OCR | Specialization in PDF to CAD conversion; can perform well when source PDFs contain vector data |
| Key Weakness | Vectorization output depends on scan quality and often requires manual cleanup; installation/discoverability can cause friction; value depends on AutoCAD subscription | Requires an additional tool outside the CAD environment; accuracy varies by source and may require validation | Not a raster editor; performance depends on PDF content type (scanned raster vs. embedded vector) |
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