How do I get a PDF illustration as a high-resolution image in Word?

Question

I'm trying to insert a schematic sectional drawing in PDF format, that I created in Autodesk Inventor (see attached), as a high-resolution image into a Word document. However, this apparently simple task seems to be ridiculously cumbersome. I tried some different file formats and conversion tools but couldn't achieve satisfactory results so far. Here are my attempts:

Creating a screeshot of the PDF and inserting it into the Word document/ Problem: Poor resolution when zooming
Converting the PDF file with the Adobe tool to a Word file and and insert it into the Word document / Problem: Display errors in the hatching and partial conversion of the central dash-dot line into a dashed line
Converting the PDF file with Illustrator to SVG, insert it into the Word document and save as PDF / Problem: Line width becomes much too thick and hatchings become color-filling
Converting the PDF file with Illustrator to SVG, insert it into the Word document and save as Adobe PDF / Problem: Hatchings get an offset (shown here in a different color setting), sometimes the offset is smaller, but always present

Can anybody help?

gary_sc · Accepted Answer

Hi, @bruce_4536, when I dragged this into a Word document, I did not observe any of the issues you mentioned. This was after decreasing and increasing the size of the image.

However, I saw a large artboard around the image. This prevents any of the Word content from getting close to the image. To get rid of this you'll need Adobe Illustrator (You might be able to do the following in Autodesk, but I do not have a clue as to how to do that.

After opening this in Illustrator and trying to select the image, you'll see a blue line box a considerable distance from the drawing. You can see the top part of the box in the image below with the red arrow pointing at it. Right-click on that and select "Release Clipping Mask."

(continued below)

Now, you can marquee around the entire drawing, and it will be selected. But to reduce the Artboard, you need to go back to the Object menu, drag down toward the bottom, and select Artboards —> Fit to Selected Art. Now, you can save the drawing back as a PDF, and then drag that into the Word document.

Let me know if this solves the problem. If you do not have Illustrator, see if it's possible to do this in Autodesk.

Good luck.

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