Placing an AutoCAD file in Illustrator

I'm trying to place an AutoCAD file into Illustrator and it's telling me it's a format which cannot be placed. What version of AutoCAD IS supported? I've got AutoCAD 2014 and the current subscription for Illustrator, do I really have to save it down to a 2010 version save to get my "place" to work?

Yes. AI only supports Open Exchange DWG/ DWF/ DXF because that's when Autodesk stopped documenting their internals. Nobody but Autodesk understand their proprietary newer formats.
Mylenium

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"Placing" linked PDF File in Illustrator for Markup Edits?

When I highlight text in a PDF file that is linked to an Illustrator file (PDF is "Placed" in the Illustrator file as a linked object), text highlights in the PDF file do not show up in Illustrator when I update the link. Does anybody know why, or is there some setting or workaround to force the PDF markups to show up in Illustrator?
Reason for Question
I often use Illustrator as a PDF editor because it is much more flexible than Acrobat's clunky editing tools. There are some significant problems however. If you open a PDF page in Illustrator, you lose some stuff like paragraph formatting, which Illustrator wants to left justify (same problem when opening an AutoCAD file in Illustrator). You can also have trouble with missing fonts like Helvetica, which isn't a default system font because it is licensed and expensive. Illustrator will swap the missing font out with a substitute so it can edit the text. (Acrobat will do the same thing if you try to edit a font that isn't loaded in your system).
A workaround to maintain exact registration if I just want to mark up a PDF file (rather than changing the text) is to "Place" the PDF file in Illustrator. When Placed, the file behaves like an object the isn't editable in Illustrator (you can edit a Placed object from Illustrator, but Illustrator will use the authoring application to do the edits, in this case, Acrobat). I you are interested doing the same thing,... when I use Illustrator to mark up another file like PSD, JPG or PDF, I initially open the file in Illustrator to capture the dimensions, and then delete everything, and then "Place" the file back into Illustrator. You can optionally link or embed the Placed object. After Placing, I use the transform tool to move the Placed Object's upper left corner to 0,0 (XY Coordinates) to acquire registration, lock the layer, and do my markups on separate layers.
This procedure is a bit clunky and requires multiple construction files but Illustrator's vector tools are much better than the most of the markup tools (but not all) in Photoshop or Acrobat. A Photoshop file will link to Illustrator, and you can export it back to Photoshop, but the Illustrator construction file will not be "linked" into Photoshop, so if you need to make changes with Illustrator you have a couple of options. You can open the Illustrator smart object from Photoshop (Photoshop will launch Illustrator to do the edits), or you can delete the smart object and work on the Illustrator construction file directly and re-import.
Since you can't select the text of a Placed PDF file object in Illustrator to highlight text, I'd like to do some of the text highlighting in the linked Acrobat file upstream of Illustrator. I should be able to bounce back and forth with both files open, the Illustrator construction file and the linked PDF file. Problem is that when I add a highlight to the PDF file, it does not show up in the Illustrator placed object that is linked to the PDF file.
So back to my original question. Does anybody know why PDF text highlights do not show up in Illustrator when the PDF file is placed as an object in Illustrator? Is there a workaround to force the PDF text highlights to display in Illustrator?
FYI, I working on a business presentation and need to mark up a few pages of IRS publication 463, which is a 58 page PDF document with a bunch of "destination" links (10 to 20 links per page). I can extract a page, do my markup edits, and then "replace" the page back into the original Acrobat file and all the links and bookmarks will still work, but registration is critical.
I'm using CS6
Thanks in advance for your insight.

Mylenium, Thank you for your on-point explanation of why the markups don't import into Illustrator. Based on your input, I did some digging and discovered:
I can export the Acrobat "Comments" (text highlights, but not markups?) to a FDF file
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/pro/using/WS40A4853E-0D48-46a6-8AB6-6B9A27A22D83.html
and then optionally re-import them to another PDF, including a blank document (with the same dimensions to maintain registration) or the final output file. I can then open the PDF (that contains the comments only) using Photoshop and save as a PSD file. Photoshop captures the text highlight color graphic without the white background or text so I am able to achieve transparency. I can then "Place" the Photoshop file as an object on its own layer in the Illustrator construction file as either an embed object or a linked object, but I tend to link for a number of workflow reasons.
Quite clunky, but it seems to maintain exact registration (although for some reason, whenever I place an object in either Illustrator or Photoshop I need to move (transform) the object corner to 0,0 because it is typically off by a pixel or 2). Not sure if there is a way to also export PDF "Markups", but my objective was to use Acrobat's highlighting tools combined with Illustrator's vector graphic tools for markups, so even if I can only export the Acrobat text highlights and not the "Markups", I can still achieve my objective.
From a work flow perspective, I may optionally choose to use the text highlights only as a reference in the Illustrator construction file and turn them off when saving back to PDF. I would then import the text highlights (FDF file) into the final PDF so they are actual Acrobat highlights rather than raster objects, but I do have the option.
I have also noted that I can print an Acrobat file to PDF to capture the text highlights, but that method introduces problems with registration and transparency (the white paper background). I'll often print my final output to PDF rather than saving to achieve a small flat file that will render consistently on different computers, but in this case registration is important so it is better to save to PDF and live with the larger files size.
Why all the fuss? Acrobat is good at highlighting text and Illustrator is good at drawing stuff like curvy paths with variable strokes. Illustrator also has layers and stacking order control. (Acrobat has clunky wannabe layers that are good for limited stuff like multiple versions, but not much help with graphic composition or stacking order). I need workflows that can merge tools from multiple programs (Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Autocad, and Solidworks). I could do my vector markups in Illustrator, then save to PDF and do the highlights in the final Acrobat file, but if I need to change the vector graphics later I would lose the highlights. Doing the highlights in a separate PDF file and then exporting to a FDF file lets me make changes in Illustrator without having to recreate the highlights from scratch.
Thank you for your assistance. If you have any additional suggestions I am always striving to improve my workflows. btw, I've experimented with some of the 3rd party PDF editor's, but not the expensive ones (less than a few hundred dollars). Most of them do a few things better than Acrobat, but they all have their shortcomings and I'm leery of investing my time in applications that might be obsolete in few years. Perhaps this discussion is better suited to the Acrobat Forum, but I do a lot of PDF editing with Illustrator despite its limitations.

How I prevent the batting linestyle from being lost when opening an Autocad file in Illustrator?

I have worked out how to open Autocad files in Illustrator, but Illustrator does not obviously recognise the batting linestyle I have used for insulation and it only appears as a straight line. Is there any where to preserve the batting line when opening the file in Illustrator?

If a linestyle is not coming over, I would assign a unique color in CAD. This way you can select similar color in Illustrator, and change them easily in Illustrator.

Is there a way to work with AutoCAD files in Illustrator without saving the autoCAD file back to a 2

Is there a way to work with AutoCAD files in Illustrator without saving the autoCAD file back to a 2007 .dxf file format?

Different versions of Illustrator can import different versions of DXF.
Maybe there's a plugin by hotdoor that might enable you to import the latest version of the file format.

Autocad files and Illustrator

I currently open Autocad files into Illustrator to prepare floor plans for publications. I use Illustrator CS and the drafting department uses the current AutoCad program. Inorder for me to open the Cad files the need to be saved back to the 2000 version. Is there a plugin I need to download to open the current version of Cad? I also can not open .dxf files only .dwg.
Thanks,
Emily

First, you have posted your question in the forum dedicated to the operation of these Apple Discussions. You must have missed the announcement on the front page of this forum that this is not the place for technical questions.
Since you question doesn't involve Apple software, the best place to start would be the web site for the software company. Perhaps the Adobe forums are a good starting point for your question.

Opening AutoCAD files in Illustrator CS3 - Jagged Curves

When I open my 2004 format AutoCAD files, all the smooth polylines from CAD are made into jagged edges (a bunch of straight segments) in Illustrator. Does anyone know how to fix this to smooth them back out? Thanks,
Matt

Brandon one of the problems is that you guys spend time complaining about it but you don't file a bug report if a few of you did it would get adobe's attention and they probably would do something about it.
If one person like myself does it it means that there is very little going on with this issue and it is probably user error. but if a group files then hey let's look at it.
So file a report.

Editing a PDF file on Illustrator to maintain custom font from another computer

Hello,
I am trying to edit a PDF file on Adobe Illustrator and the file has a custom font in it that I do not have saved on my computer/Adobe does not recognize. Is there a way to save the file so that I can edit it, but so that Adobe does not replace the font with a basic font?
I have tried:
-Opening it in AcrobatPro vs. Illustrator
-Saving the PDF (2 pages) as 2 separate JPEG files and placing them into Illustrator... That just lowers the resolution of the images and they are much lower quality/more pixelated
-Placing the PDF file in Illustrator rather than opening it in Illustrator
None of those worked, and now I am not sure what to do.
Please advice ASAP- Your help is much appreciated as I am on a time crunch!
Thank you!

You can do it with Acrobat. Not Acrobat reader.
It is also possible with Preview.
Open the file in Preview and export it say to the Desktop.
Than open the second pdf and import the file.
Than you can delete tha parts you so not need and leave only one page.
It can be used if the pages are not too many or it will take a long time and I am not sure if it will work with big files.

How do I transfer a .psd file to illustrator that can then be placed in Muse as a .svg with transparent background?

I just wrote all this up in another thread. I did not realize at the time that the last post was in 2014, so I'm giving it a go here.
I am currently trying to create an .svg using Photoshop .psd file (with layers in tact). I'm new to these products so it may be obvious to others that the above intention was to eventually place the .svg in some sort of website creation software such as Muse. Which is precisely what I am attempting. However, I am getting a white background once I place or copy and paste into Muse. My starting .psd has a transparent background without any hidden layers causing this problem. To test this I placed the .psd file into Muse and it still has a transparent background. However when opening or placing this file into illustrator, it picks up a white background. If I do exactly as described above, I still get the same result. So far I have tried:
1) Simple copy and paste from Photoshop .svg to illustrator to Muse. Result - white background.
2) Placing the .psd in illustrator, then placing the .svg file in muse. Result - white background.
4) I have also tried the every combination of 1 and 2. - Result - white background.
3) I have now created a path in Photoshop from the text layer to yet again attempt the above methods. Result - white background.
I'm including an image of the object I am trying to place with transparent background, but I have both a flattened rasterized version, a version complete with layers and a third (.svg) with the corresponding objects. I am completely new to Illustrator as of today so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Link to .psd file "Welcome text"

I was having some difficulties getting the correct dimensions of one of my objects, I eventually solved this problem without using svg. It was pretty simple when I stopped trying to over complicate things. I just linked the object to a near by object in photoshop, merged and placed it all as one. It looks great now. Thanks for your reply. You are correct, SVG was not the answer.

Problem placing PSD file in Illustrator

G'day,
My problem is when i place PSD file into illustrator, it opens up "Photoshop Import Option" menu,
which lets me choose either:
(1) convert photoshop layers to objects (or)
(2) Flatten photoshop layers to a single image
all other options are greyed out (meaning i cannot select them)
The above 2 options will embed the image into illustrator, thus when i update in photoshop, they will not auto update.
I dont have this problem in the past (which means i dont get this menu when i use the place function) but it just poped up the last week.
But when i open OLD illustrator files which have PSD images not embeded, i am able to edit the PSD and illustrator will auto update.
Please help it is really frustrating to keep placing PSD files everytime when i have changes.
Thanks!

Hi Steve,
May i know what is the place dialogue box are you referring to?
The Place dialogue box that i get (when i press file>place) is the image below:
As you can see i dont have any "link" button to check or uncheck. I can either flatten the psd or convert to object.
My Problem is I would really like to link back the psd file for easy updates but i am not able to.
Pls help thx!~

Placing Photoshop file in Illustrator CS5 - why doesn't it work?

I frequently place Photoshop files into Illustrator CS3 without issue.... the PS file places right into the file with transparent surroundings.
I just upgraded to CS5 and for some reason, I "Place" the Photoshop file, but nothing shows up in Illustrator. I must not have a preference set correctly.
Can you help?
Thanks.

Hi Matthew - thanks for taking the time to check this issue out for me.
I have just uninstalled Illustrator CS5, because I need to get things done - and reverted back to CS3..... however, I did duplicate a file to demonstrate what I'm doing.
I created a sample file with a very simple, non-descript green vector shape.... then, In Photoshop, I created a yellow image that says Photoshop Placed File. I gave it a dropshadow...
I then went back to Illustrator and selected 'File/place'..... and selected the photoshop file described above. I then placed it on top of the green vector image in Illustrator CS3 and it layed on top fine - with NO white box around it as a jpg would do. PLUS, the black dropshadow fades nicely over whatever image color you place it upon.... it 'gradually' lets the vector color below it show through as the fade diminishes to 0%.
NOW - I tried to 'place' a file into Illustrator CS5 in this same manner.... and I get absolutely nothing! The Raster photoshop image doesn't even show up in Illustrator CS5. This is where I was at when I started the topic.
Any ideas??

Placed .tiff files in illustrator have box around them.

I am wondering how to properly place .tiff files in illustrator, so that they can easily be set up for commercial printing. I have created a simple sell sheet for a product that has 3 placed tiff images in it. The images are circular and appear fine on screen. However, when printed, the images have a slightly darker box around them. The images were created in photoshop, and i'm wondering if i needed to use a clipping mask or perhaps another format for the images to maintain the transparency. Should i rasterize the images, embed, or keep linked? Any help would be great!

I am getting a dark line around psd images (they have clipping paths) which I place into illustrator. Everything looks fine in illustrator, but when I save the AI file with pdf compatibility and open it in photoshop, there is a dark line around the images. My solution was to save the bubble as a tiff file (there is an option to save with transparency), and then place the new file into AI. It seems to work soo-far. After I placed the attachments into this forum, I realized that they are too small to see the black lines around the bubbles.)
See post number 25 for more recent findings...

Placing Photoshop files in Illustrator CS5 results in wrong percentages of spot colors?

When placing a native PSD file into Illustrator CS5 that includes different percentages of spot colors they will be different than what was specified in Photoshop. The spot colors are overlaying CMYK to create a see thru look.
For example if the spot color is 40% it will end up being 16%. 100% will stay at 100%, but any other percentage will be different than what is entered in Photoshop.
We are able to see the difference when creating a PDF or when the file is output to our high end printer. It can also be visually seen when putting an Illustrator CS4 and and Illustrator CS5 side by side.
I can take the same PSD file and place it into Illustrator CS4 and it retains the percentage that is entered in Photoshop. All percentages match the percentages that are entered in Photoshop when a PDF is created or printed to our printer.
I have tried saving the PSD file out as a Tiff file and a DCS2.0 file and get the same results in Illustrator CS5.
Is there a bug in Illustrator CS5 or should we handle our Spot Color Scans a different way? We never had this issue with any previous version of Illustrator.
Any suggestions or solutions would be appreciated.
Thanks

Hi Mike,
I understand what your saying but I should have mentioned that the Spot Colors are actually overlaying the CMYK in Photoshop not in Illustrator CS5. When this scan gets placed in Illustrator the Spot Colors values are different. There is no art below the scan in Illustrator. Hope this makes it a little clearer on what were trying to do.
Also remember that it works just fine in any version of Illustrator before CS5.
Thanks

Colour shift when placing PSD files into illustrator

Hi there
I have tested this issue on CS 3,4 and 5.
bascially if I create a CMYK document with a colour image and save this down as a psd file with the coated Fogra 39 embedded in it. If I create a new file within Illustrator with the same colur management and place the psd file into the document and check the link option (so it is a linked file), the colour shifts when using the colour picker. If I print the document from each APP they visually look different as well.
If I place the psd into illustrator without selecting the link option the colour has the same CMYK values as the psd within Photoshop and also prints correctly.
i can only assume that there is an option somewhere in regards to the "link" option and how this changes tha colour values somewhere? If not is there anyway I can get around this issue so I can use linked files without the CMYK values changing?
Thanks in advance
Paul

Hi guys
Thanks for the responses.
I use bridge to blanket the colour settings so this i feel this is not the issue here. If you have a moment and would kindly create a colour tint within PS of what ever colour, save this down as any format and place this into illustrator with the link checkbox checked you will see the colour data has physically changed for the CMYK values. This results in the prints looking different as well. If you deselct the link check box when placing the file the CMYK values are the same.
I tried the overprint preview option. This changes the viewable colour on screen but not the CMYK data of the file.
There seems to be a fundamental floor with this link option for some reason.
I might have phone Adobe direct for this iisue as I cannot find a fix for this.
Many thanks
Paul

Placing photoshop eps's into Illustrator - file size

I used to place very large/high res photoshop eps files into Illustrator (as low res proxy) and it would allow my Illustrator file size to stay very small, however, once I switched to CS5 I noticed the way I was saving the eps's wouldn't show up in Illustrator, it would show as an empty box until I resaved the eps with tiff preview and jpg encoding. But this makes my Illustrator file huge which is not what I want. Does anyone that creates large scale graphics know what I'm talking about? Thanks

feddersfollies wrote:
This setup has been working for years…
Does that mean that you don't even plan to update Photoshop CS to CS6 13.0,6? That would be a grave mistake. There were many substantial bug fixes along the way.
Updating to CS 13.0.6 is completely, totally free. No expense at all.
If your issue appeared "suddenly", delete and recreate your Photoshop and your Illustrator's preferences.
But update to 13.0.6 ASAP. There's absolutely no excuse and no valid reason for staying with known buggy versions. That's just plain nonsense.
If you insist on staying with your "setup" for the reason you state, please don't bother addressing any replies to me.

Text Import Options when Placing a .DXF File

I am trying to place or even open an AutoCad .DXF file in Illustrator and keep getting a window asking for text import options. I have read several forums and files about importing .DXF files in Illustrator and it seems that it shouldn't be that hard. What am I missing?
Thanks,
SionnanC

If you want to, email me one of your sample DXF files, and I will take a look at it. I have a a lot of experience with DXF files.
[email protected]
or
[email protected]
Ralph

Placing an AutoCAD file in Illustrator

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