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Importing
AutoCAD files into Illustrator
AutoCAD
files can be successfully opened in Illustrator,
but two types of important information will be
lost or corrupted:
1.
Hatched areas will disappear entirely.
2.
Line widths can be imported, but often become
altered or lost altogether.
Both
of these problems can be overcome.
1.
Hatched areas can be re-created in Illustrator
as long as they are surrounded by one, continuous,
unbroken polyline. This outline will import into
Illustrator and can be quickly re-filled. If the
outline of a hatched area consists of more than
one line and/or polyline they can be joined using
the "edit polyline" command. Ideally all outlines
of hatched areas of a specific colour should be
on one, clearly labelled, layer together.
2.
To re-create line widths all of the lines in the
artwork are set to a width of zero in AutoCAD.
They will then successfully import into Illustrator.
It must be clear what width the lines should be,
so that they can be widened back out to the correct
width once the file has been opened in Illustrator.
Ideally all lines of a specific width and colour
should be on one, clearly labelled, layer together.
To
avoid having to deal with each individual component
of an artwork separately in Illustrator it is
very important that the AutoCAD file is organised
so that components can be dealt with in groups.
Examples:
The boundaries of every red hatched area in the
artwork should be on one layer together.
Every
blue line with a width of 0.4mm in the artwork
should be on a single layer.
These
layers must not contain any objects other than
the one type of object that they are intended
for. If they do, when the objects in the layer
are re-created in Illustrator the same process
will be applied to the extra objects in the layer.
This will result in unwanted objects appearing
in the final artwork.
Examples:
If construction lines with an intended width
of zero, which are not intended to show up on
the finished artwork, are left on a layer with
lines that are intended to be 0.5mm they will
be widened to 0.5mm along with the lines that
should be that width. This will result in unwanted
0.5mm lines appearing in the final artwork.
If
a partial outline of a hatched area or even a
single line is left underneath, or on top of,
a full outline, Illustrator will attempt to fill
the partial outline as well as any full outlines
on the layer. This will result in unwanted partial
objects obscuring all or part of the intended
objects in the finished artwork.
If
construction/guide lines, which are not intended
to show up in the final artwork, are created in
the drawing process, they should be confined to
their own separate layers so that they can easily
be turned off or deleted.
Complex
Objects
Although filled objects with holes in can be created
in Illustrator it is time consuming if there are
more than a very few objects, as each object must
be individually created. It is much quicker and
easier to create the effect of a complex object
by putting solid objects of different colours
on top of each other.
Example:
(see illustration)
To create a black door, with grey panel-edge detail
and black panels a solid black oblong is first
created for the door. A smaller grey oblong is
put on top of this to provide the panel-edge detail.
Four, still smaller, black oblongs are finally
put on top of this to provide the panels.
The
different levels of fill required to create a
complex object must be separated out into different
layers as shown, even if they are of the same
colour, so that they can be arranged into the
correct order to accurately re-create the entire
object in Illustrator.
If
an AutoCAD drawing is carefully organised, in
the way described here, it takes little time,
even for large and complex images, to re-create
the entire artwork in Illustrator.
We are happy to include this process in the basic
cost of producing a transfer.
If the drawing is not produced in this way it
can take several hours of computer time to make
the artwork suitable.
We charge for this time at a rate of £42.00+V.A.T.
per hour (minimum charge 1 hour), effective from
25th January 2008.
If
you are unable to produce artwork in the recommended
manner and are unwilling to pay for it to be converted,
we can produce negatives using a repro-camera.
This does not require importing the file into
Illustrator. We accept no responsibility for any
loss of quality or accuracy that results.
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