Cad & illustrator

hi guys ive just recently imported a drawing from autoCAD into adobe illustrator, all the lines in autoCAD are poly lines (which means the shapes are one continues line), now usually this means they are a single path in illustrator when imported in (and they fill with colors etc), but for some reason when i place this file in illustrator the polylines are broken up into thier segments, and thus cant be filled with color.
does anyone know a solution
cheers nmx
ive tried saving the cad drawing with the 'cad 2000 lite option but still to no avail im using AutoCAD 2005

Save the drawing as ACAD 14 DXF.
Later versions may have some "peculiarities" that Illustrator just does not understand.
(well, even ealier versions of acad do not)

Similar Messages

  • Is there or will there be a way to draw accurate measured lines and curves in Line?

    I am very excited about the new Line app and Ink & Slider; however it would be far more useful for me and many others to be able to measure line length, angles, curves, radii, etc.  Will this function be introduced in the future? This functionality would be a great addition for technical drawing on iPad to Illustrator.

    Thanks, davidmacy .  Natedogchc and tmhenton have made some of the suggestions I had in mind and very well - thank you both for your well thought out responses.
    I primarily draft custom garments & sewing patterns where, the need for accuracy down to at the very least 1/16th inch or .25 mm is critical, and also textile & interior design. Within all of these disciplines, Line & Slider looks like it has the potential to be THE mobile application we've been waiting for, enabling accurate drafting on the go and making fine adjustments when back at Illustrator.  Given the restrictions of the iPad, it would be feasible to work in both imperial and metric scales from ¼:1 to 1:1 at a minimum.  Accurate line length and measuring distance between straight/angled lines, the ability to measure the length of curves drawn with the french curves or freehand are also desirable for accurate drafting.
    The ability to import/export files in order of priority: .ai; .psd, .pdf, .eps, .svg would make workflow between desktop and iPad ideal.  Most of us work in layers, so their portability is a must.  It would be great if Adobe CC desktop and mobile apps plans to take advantage of the "Hand-Off" feature announced for the upcoming release of iOS 8. 
    I realize there are limitations and that we are not going to get a full fledged CAD/illustrator iPad version, but without being able to draft accurately the app as it stands now is useful only for conceptual drawings - but the potential is there for it to be so much more.
    Exporting to Dropbox and other cloud-based services in addition to CC would be a great addition as well.
    As Tracey mentioned, if any of these features already exist and I've missed them please let me know.
    Thanks very much.
    Jill

  • InDesign line-work exporting

    Hello,
    I'm currently working on my student architecture portfolio through InDesign CC. Several sheets contain line-work PDFs from CAD/Illustrator file links. When exported, the lines become thick and muddy. Any advise on how to keep line weights thin through exporting an interactive PDF from InDesing?
    Thank you,

    Hi,
    I think you'll have better luck in the InDesign Forum
    Julia

  • Vector graphics import, labelling dilema

    I'm using Framemaker 10, Autodesk Illustrator Publisher, Inkscape, Windows Vista.
    I have imported some CAD illustrations from Autodesk Illustrator into Illustrator Publisher.  There I have labelled them.
    I have then saved/published them as .svg files.
    If I import them directly in to Framemaker, they open with the callouts at a strange angle and 3/4 of the picture missing. Therefore I have to open them in Inkscape, bring the whole picture in to frame and line up the callouts.
    Now I import them into Framemaker.  The trouble is, the numbering is difficult to predict.  The labelling/callouts/numbering always turns what looks to be bold.  But the real problem is resizing the illustrations.  Because there is no way of predicting the size of the output from Publisher, the illustrations have to be resized in Framemaker.  This would be no problem usually as the illustrations are svg (vector graphics) but of course it resizes the labelling/callouts/numbering which makes it look really daft when I have 10 illustrations all with different sized fonts.
    What do people in here do?  Does anyone else use Vector graphics in their manuals.
    I would really appreciate some response on this as I feel I've hit a brick wall here.
    Thanks

    > I'm using Framemaker 10, Autodesk Illustrator Publisher, Inkscape, Windows Vista.
    Is Adobe Illustrator available?
    > I have imported some CAD illustrations from Autodesk Illustrator into Illustrator Publisher.  There I have labelled them.
    Why not label them in Frame? We do, and it has advantages beyond avoiding text rendering and scaling issues, such as being able to re-use the same illustration for multiple purposes with different callouts. We use embedded callouts in our service manuals (the XML engine requires it), and depopulate the callouts (usually just switching off one layer) for re-use of that art in the Frame manuals.
    > I have then saved/published them as .svg files.
    Let me admit that I have no experience with SVG, due to lack of SVG support across all of our workflow, but we use vector EPS extensively.
    > If  I import them directly in to Framemaker, they open with the callouts at  a strange angle and 3/4 of the picture missing. Therefore I have to  open them in Inkscape, bring the whole picture in to frame and line up  the callouts.
    If SVG has preview/thumbnail embedded images, is there a chance that this is just a preview problem? What happens at print or render to PDF?
    > Now I import them into Framemaker.  The  trouble is, the numbering is difficult to predict.  The  labelling/callouts/numbering always turns what looks to be bold.  But  the real problem is resizing the illustrations.
    This is one of the downsides of embedded callouts. If the images cannot be pre-sized, either the text will scale arbitrarily, which is ugly, or it won't scale, which is a disaster. More bad news - your stroke weights are scaling too.
    > Because there is no way  of predicting the size of the output from ...
    I would junk any image editor, vector or raster, that didn't provide that basic level of output control.
    > Does anyone else use Vector graphics in their manuals?
    Yes, sourced from Pro-E, AutoCAD, Adobe Illustrator, Frame and extractions from supplier PDFs of unknown origination. We clean them up in Adobe Illustrator, using specific dimensional extents, and a stroke weight that's acceptable for a limited range of up and down scalings. Callouts are added in Frame, using a self-masking arrow, and a self-masking bubble with a grouped text frame and a paragraph format specific to callout use.

  • Exporting DXF with Coordinates Illustrator to CAD program

    Hi,
    I often have to export graphics from Illustrator CS5 for use in Catia or Pro Engineer.
    Usually, if it's a graphic I have made myself, all I do is drag the 0,0 on my rulers to the position on the artwork where I require the coordinate system to be placed in the DXF file and that's fine.
    However, recently I have received files from other sources which need to be converted from a PDF to a DXF for use in my CAD programs and I am having difficulty relocating the coordinate system to the desired location.
    For instance, if I convert the PDF to DXF without moving my 0,0 location on my rulers, sometimes the coordinate system is top left or bottom left of the artboard the PDF has been imported into Illy on. (It varies file to file). So I figured that if I move the 0,0 location of my rulers to where I want the coordinate system to appear, that should work because it usually does so in artwork I create. But it always gets overwritten. The only way I can counter this is to assume that the coordinate system is bang-on the corner of the artboard and move all my artwork to the corner and then convert the file to DXF.
    I guess my question is, for those of you who have a similar task to do, is this the only way I can relocate the coordinate system (by moving the artwork to the corner, which seems a bit dodgy cos it's all on assumption) or is there a more accurate way to do so.
    Thanks in advance.
    Sonya

    I o not know if that is the only way but I will point out the reason you might be seeing 0,0 either at the to left or lower left is that in Cs 5 it has been change to the top left i CS 4 and earlier it was the  bottom left, so depending on what version it was created from it might change this for you as well a way of changing this for you is to ask from them to save the file as an ai fie first in a version that is CS or earlier than make that a pdf.
    Or what might be easier is to live with it until everyone changes to CS 5 or later?
    Or make it a symbol and use the orientation proxy in the symbols options to select the orientation you desire.

  • Why does Illustrator CC screw up my DXF CAD layers?

    I have all the lines, polygons, etc. on their desired layers in the CAD file; then when I import the dxf into Illustrator, it disorganizes it but putting all the objects into random layers. Why does this happen? I'm using Auto CAD 2014 LT.

    This won't help, but Illustrator's origins as a Postscript vector application have never meshed well with drafting packages, in my experience. The constructs and conventions of the two platforms don't match up well, and Illustrator's interpretation of CAD-originated data has always been somewhere south of reliable, even at the single-layer level, let alone all structural aspects.
    Perhaps someone else will come along with a more positive lesson which produces a result closer to your need, but as far as I'm concerned, a workflow built around bringing CAD into Illustrator is ill-advised.

  • Vectors in Illustrator, versus CAD and GIS programs

    I like that Illustrator can handle .dwg files, so I don't have to restart to windows as often. However, I've found that Illustrator's ability to handle large files, especially imported .dwg files is really, really, ridiculously slow. Compared to AutoCAD and ArcGIS, drawing and manipulating the same number of lines and symbols on the screen, even though Illustrator is not dealing with the Z-coordinates, is probably 80-100 times slower. I want to know why this is so. Also, it seems to be even slower on the Mac version of CS4 than the PC version on the same machine.

    Because CAD sees the files as arthimazic and Illustrator seesit as something that has to be drawn or if you wish rendered before output but I think that should be changed my6self as that one change would give Illustrator the real advantage users have been looking for smaller files size, better rendering and super fast working speed.

  • Illustrator conversion to DXF (CAD)

    Howdy,
    At my work, we are producing DXF(CAD) files from Illustrator and having a couple of issues.
    1) Vector objects are joined in Illustrator, but becoming unjoined/unconnected in the converted DXF.
         For sure these vector objects are "joined" in the Illustrator file and even "compound" Illustrator objects become unjoined
    We need connected CAD objects to run CNC machines. Right now, people have to go into the DXF and manually rejoin the CAD data.
    Does anyone have any new ideas on how to fix this? I know we can try some DXF converters.  (Cadmover, Curvefit, CimLite)
    Is there something better than anchor points in Illustrator for force joined geometry?
    Is this just an Illustrator converting issue with no real good fix. If so, how do I put a request into Adobe to fix this.
    2) Converting Illustrator curves/splines into arcs, is this possible.
         Again the answer is to probably use a DXF converter, but is there any other ideas on how to get good clean arcs out of illustrator from splines/curves with Bezier handles.
         I know there is a program called Bezarc but it is unsupported now.
    Can Illustrator convert splines into arcs before the conversion? Or, can Illustrator convert all the polylines(lines with massive points) to arcs.
    Thanks everyone,
    Peter

    Hello Mylenium. I managed to get it sorted by adding points to the curve. Attached are 3 screen shots. 1 - showing the nice clean Illustrator curve. 2 - showing the angular result and 3 - showing the result when I added lots of point to the curve.
    You would think Illustrator would automatically generate the correct curve when outputting to dxf! I found a plugin that I might try called EXDXF-Pro3-mac-en-3011

  • Using Adobe Illustrator and Cad

    I'm working on a project. I designed a section view of my house in Cad 2013 and I want to add color and people to it in Illustrator CS6. How do I go about doing this. I've tried opening a pdf and adding color, but I can never select and anything to add color to my drawing. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

    PDF's output from drafting packages and other "foreign" sources, when opened for editing in Illustrator, quite often contain clipping masks and compound paths based on component associations that Illustrator (and its users) wouldn't typically make or recognize. Your drawing will come into Illustrator behaving like one big group that won't ungroup. That's because it isn't a group; it's a clipping mask based on the extents of the drawing. The first thing I do is select all, (Ctrl+A), then release clipping mask, (Ctrl+Alt+7). Pressing (Ctrl+Alt+7) repeatedly often reveals that there are other clipping masks nested within the large outer one. Most of the time, you can release all the masks this way without changing the appearance of anything. Each released mask usually leaves behind an invisible frame. (no stroke or fill), that you can delete or leave, dpending on how intensive your editing will be. The release of nested masks may also result in groups and sub-groups that I also like to release similarly by pressing Ctrl+A then Ctrl+Shift+G repeatedly. Once you've done this, you should be able to select and treat any of the individual components on the artboard as desired, although you may still run into some compound path items that will hinder your selection process. These can also be released, but you'll want to be more cautious with respect to how it might alter appearances, especially if there are filled paths involved.

  • Wish to move auto cad drawing to adobe illustrator. Wish to take blue print and layer it for viewing.

    We have our drawings in auto cad and need to move them to adobe illustrator  and layer the drawing  for viewing on a web site.

    You can import certain versions of DXF/DXW files into Illustrator and also edit them.
    If this can be done efficiently depends on the nature of the files (number of paths etc.)
    You could download a trial version and try it on your files.

  • Illustrator is crashing when using Cad Tools on a Symbol.

    Illustrator is crashing when using Cad Tools on a Symbol.  Is it possible to prevent this?  I'm using Illustrator CC and the latest version of Cad Tools.  Any Suggestions?

    You might want to ask the CADtools support. They answer quickly usually.

  • CAD drawings in Illustrator

    Does anyone regularly use Illustrator to produce CAD-like mechanical drawings of items such as bottles? These would be fully dimensioned drawings with hatching and such.
    Our Engineering department wishes to push their CAD work onto the Design Team, and can't understand why Illustrator isn't a good choice of software for these very detailed line drawings.
    Your opinions please? We feel doing something like this in Illustrator would be quite slow, and of a lesser quality than doing it properly in CAD.
    Any examples you may have and/or other places to check on the Net would be a bonus!
    Thanks,
    Gayle

    > We feel doing something like this in Illustrator would be quite slow, and of a lesser quality than doing it properly in CAD.
    There is nothing particularly "exotic" or taxing about 2D technical drawings. They can be done in a mainstream vector drawing program just fine. I mean, 2D orthographics and axonometrics can be done on a drawing board with vellum and pencil; so it can certainly be done programs in Illustrator's genre.
    But of the bunch, Illustrator's standard feature set is probably the worst choice, because it is missing so many features conducive to technical drawing. No user-defined ruler scales. No dimension tools. No callout tools. No proper fillet/chamfer commands (a fairly useless arc tool), etc., etc.
    Your Design Team would probably feel more at home in an Illustrator-ish program than a 2D CAD program. I would recommend your taking a serious look at either Deneba Canvas or Corel Designer 12, rather than painting yourself into the corner of mission-critical dependency upon an elaborate set of Illustrator plug-ins from a third-party vendor. The plug-in route comes with its own learning curve; it costs about as much as a competitive side-grade; it complicates your software updates and maintenance chores. And in the end you have a less elegant solution than you would have with a program that has the needed features properly integrated into the program's standard features and interface.
    > Our Engineering department wishes to push their CAD work onto the Design Team, and can't understand why Illustrator isn't a good choice of software for these very detailed line drawings.
    This is the part that wonders my mind. Why would your Engineering department want to offload CAD work (if that's really what it is) to a commercial design group? Nowadays, most Engineering applications model in 3D solids and surfaces and the 2D orthos are generated rather automatically. That's where "CAD" (more properly "CAE") becomes more exotic / precise / capable than general-purpose 2D drawing programs. Even if your Engineering department is only using 2D CAD applications they are still *engineering* (and therefore documenting) your products, aren't they?
    Or is this really a case where the Design Group wants the Engineering group to be responsible for commercial marketing artwork?
    JET

  • Separating cad in illustrator

    i am being asked to assist in separating cads in illustrator at my work. i know AI pretty well. I have never worked with cad, but have a general knowledge of what it is.
    what would separating cads entail? and could i catch onto it coming from a production/design background?
    i realize this is a very general question, but it was put this generally to me.

    What do you mean by "separating cads?"? Are you talking about color-separating color artwork generated by a CAD software? Separating individual parts in a vector drawing exported from a CAD software? What?
    JET

  • Desperate - converting .sti CAD files into CS4 illustrator MAC

    I need to convert/ import CAD .STI files into MAC illustrator CS4.
    Does anyone know a plug-in and/or program that could help me?
    Thanks.

    CAD-COMPO 2 Mac (2) is a plug-in software includes "BPT-Pro2" and "EXDXF-Pro2". "BPT-Pro2" is a software to add a highly functional 2D-CAD program into Illustrator. "EXDXF-Pro2" provides that to import CAD standard DXF files to Illustrator, and to export AI files to CAD. This Product is Plug-in Software...
    u can download for free trail or by cost by using this link below..
    http://search.wareseeker.com/compo-2-2.0/mac-os/

  • Importing CAD files into Illustrator CS3 - does'nt scale dashed lines

    In CS2 you could import a CAD file and it would scale dashed lines.
    In CS3, Illustrator no longer does this. It scales the stroke weight, but does not recognize the dashed line information.
    Is there a solution to this?
    Thank you

    You can expand dashed lines first and then scale them.
    Then you will get a whole bunch of vector objects, one for each dash.
    I am not very familiar with CAD, but I know that imported CAD files are sometimes fiendishly difficult to edit because vector lines are often in small pieces that don't join up properly.
    So I reckon Expand on all lines and then judicious Unite in Pathfinder would probably be the best way of going about things. Unite makes Compounds of closed paths so you have to be careful, otherwise you might get a huge file that won't print without splitting.
    But remember that once you've expanded the lines you won't be able to edit their weight.
    Does this help?

Maybe you are looking for