PhotoCAD Guides
A house front, a storefront, a row of houses, a historic facade. Photograph it, have it squared up and redrawn as linework, set the scale, and open the elevation in CAD.
The existing elevation for a permit set or a planning application, a storefront or sign permit, an extension.
A historic building, a church, a stone front recorded stone by stone, from your photo or a rectified photograph.
Attach the photo in AutoCAD, correct the perspective as best you can, and draw over it. As good as your eye and your patience.
Follows the pixels, so every shadow and reflection becomes a line, and the perspective stays in. Built for scans, not photos.
A surveyor measures the front and draws it. The answer when the dimensions carry legal or construction weight.
PhotoCADSquared up, redrawn as linework, scaled from one dimension, dimensioned and sheeted, opened in CAD.
Stand square to the facade, as far back as the street allows, and take the photo at about the height of the middle of the building. Even light, no strong shadows across the front, one facade per photo.
Real conversions from PhotoCAD. Drag the slider to compare the photograph with the elevation.
Every existing building has elevations, and almost none of them have drawings. The permit set for an extension needs the existing front; the sign company needs a scaled elevation for the sign permit; the storefront designer needs the fascia and the openings; the preservation officer wants the stone front recorded before the scaffold comes down. The building is standing there, and the drawing does not exist.
A photograph is nearly a drawing, except for two things. It has perspective: a front photographed from the sidewalk narrows towards the top. And it has everything the camera saw, the brick texture, the shadows, the downspout, the sky, when the drawing wants only the lines. Tracing over a photo in CAD means correcting the first by eye and ignoring the second for an afternoon.
PhotoCAD does both. It recognizes a building front and squares it up, so the facade is a flat elevation before a line is drawn. Then it redraws it: the openings, the courses, the roofline, the joints, as clean linework with nothing for the shadows. Set the scale from one dimension you know, and the elevation opens in CAD at real size.
The further back and the more level you stand, the less perspective there is to remove. Avoid the widest setting on a phone camera; the edges of the frame bend.
Upload a photo of a building front and see it squared up and redrawn as an elevation.
Your first 3 conversions are free — no card required.
A run of buildings for a streetscape study or a context elevation.
A phone photo from across the street is enough, and sharper than any screenshot.
Drop the JPG or HEIC straight from your phone. PhotoCAD recognizes a building front and offers to square it up.
The perspective the camera added, the keystone shape of a front photographed from below, is removed. The facade becomes a flat, true elevation before anything is drawn.
PhotoCAD reads the facade and redraws it as linework: window and door openings, string courses, the roofline, the joints in the stonework, without the brick texture, the shadows, or the sky.
Click the two ends of something you know: a door height, a window width, a brick course you have measured. Type it, and the whole elevation scales to match.
Add dimensions and notes, place it on a titled sheet if you need to issue it, and download DWG, DXF, SVG, or PDF. The elevation opens at real size in model space.
3 free conversions. No card required.
A corner building is two elevations. Photograph each front square-on and convert them separately.
A door is usually about 2.1 m or 7 feet tall; a brick course is 75 mm. Measure one thing on site if you can, and the scale step is exact.
The more of the photo the front takes up, the more detail comes back. Crop to the building before you upload; for the finest joints on a big front, crop to a bay.
