This paper introduces a new approach to extract and analyze vector data from technical drawings in PDF format. Our method involves converting PDF files into SVG format and creating a feature-rich graph representation, which captures the relationships between vector entities using geometrical information. We then apply a graph attention transformer with hierarchical label definition to achieve accurate line-level segmentation. Our approach is evaluated on two datasets, including the public FloorplanCAD dataset, which achieves state-of-the-art results on weighted F1 score, surpassing existing methods. The proposed vector-based method offers a more scalable solution for large-scale technical drawing analysis compared to vision-based approaches, while also requiring significantly less GPU power than current state-of-the-art vector-based techniques. Moreover, it demonstrates improved performance in terms of the weighted F1 (wF1) score on the semantic segmentation task. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in extracting meaningful information from technicaldrawings, enablingnewapplications, andimprovingexistingworkflowsintheAECindustry.
| Authors | Carrara, Andrea and Nousias, Stavros and Borrmann, André |
|---|---|
| Year | 2025 |
| Venue | Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering |
| DOI | 10.1061/jccee5.cpeng-6508 |
| Source Database | EBSCO (Academic Search Ultimate) |
| Bridge-to-GNN | Category A |
| GNN Architecture | GAT (heuristic — verify) |
| Graph Encoding | 2D Drawing Graph (inferred from title) |
| AEC Task | Not yet extracted from PDF |
| Cohort | Mature Applications (2024–2026) |
| Key Hyperparameters | 50 epochs (heuristic — verify) |
|---|---|
| Primary Metric | Accuracy (heuristic — verify) |
| Primary Value | 0.97 (heuristic — verify) |
| Key Finding | new approach to extract and analyze vector data from technical drawings in PDF format (heuristic — verify) |
| Quality Assessment | 3/6 · rigor: Medium · Code/Data: ✓Baseline: ✓Reproducible: ✓ (heuristic — verify) |
| GNN architectures detected | GAT (Graph Attention) · Graph Transformer / GraphGPS / SAN · Point Transformer · Knowledge Graph Embedding (TransE/RotatE/DistMult) |
|---|---|
| Hyperparameters (regex-detected) | layers=2 · epochs=50, 500 |
| Reported metrics + values | Accuracy: 0.97 · Accuracy: 0.89 · Precision: 19% · Recall: 18% |
| Quality (heuristic, 6-flag) | 2/6 · rigor: Low Code/Data: —Benchmark: —Baseline: ✓CV/Split: —Ablation: —Reproducible: ✓ |
Part of the GML/GNN in AEC Systematic Review (PRISMA 2020) — 112 papers, 2020–2026