Apparatus and methods for converting network drawings from raster format to vector format

Apparatus and methods for converting a network drawing from raster format to vector format. The method involves recognizing text within a raster image by using optical character recognition and a character set associated with the raster image. The recognized text is extracted from the raster image to produce a text-only raster image and a text-stripped raster image. The method further includes recognizing graphic objects within the text-stripped raster image by using pattern recognition with image-specific parameters to identify graphic objects. Recognized graphic objects are represented with vector graphical primitives to produce a text-stripped vector image. Vector text elements corresponding to the extracted text are added into the text-stripped vector image to produce a vector image that is substantially identical in appearance to the raster image.