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Adobe Illustrator and SolidWorks

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serspec

serspec

Mechanical
May 23, 2008
41
I have been tyring to get files from SolidWorks into Adobe Illy for a while now and am having issues with it. Everything I try is either not full scale, all messed up, or comes into Illy as nothing. Does anyone use this feature or have any input for me? SolidWorks has a function under edit to "copy to Adobe illustrator". And as far as I can tell it does absolutely nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am using SolidWorks 2009 sp5.1 and Illy CS4

Thanks!
 
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Most of the stuff I've attempted between the two haven't worked for me, either--at least not as expected.

Is this for line-work (2D drawings)? If so, did you know you can save a drawing view from your model/assembly in perspective? And that the drawing will show the same view in perspective, as long as it's a "saved view" within your part/assembly (nice to have for patent drawing output instead of mere isometric). Anyway, I think line drawings are the only thing that will convert to a useful format within Illustrator.

I don't use Illustrator, since "illustrating" is quite difficult when one cannot even specify a dimension for a radius without an expensive-for-no-reason add-on to the program. [tongue]



Jeff Mowry
A people governed by fear cannot value freedom.
 
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I set up my Adobe PDF for my printer to print Adobe files - then go File->Print - and select the Adobe printer. It works - more or less. If I scrutinize the drawing I'll find a little hiccup or two, but never when I print it again.
 
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I have tried saving the drawing as a .dwg and it comes in as a bunch of straight lines instead of curves. Unfortunately that is not an option. I will try the pdf method right now and see if it works. Thanks for the input guys and if you have any other ideas I'd love to hear them. I just dont understand the whole, "copy to adobe illustrator" feature that seems to do nothing at all.
 
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Theo,
I have not tried it that way but I definitely am going to. And yes it is for line-work. It is very frustrating that the two programs act like they would work great together when nothing actually works out. Thanks again for the input guys
 
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Chris,
I actually know and have discussed this situation with the author of that article you posted. And I dont have any issues bringing an ai into solidworks... I can't export from SolidWorks into Illy.
 
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Yeah... I have definitely tried save as .ai. I have spent quite some time trying to get this to work. That method works but again, any spline turns into a bunch of straight lines. For what I am doing I need to have smooth corners on everything. I'm starting to assume I am out of luck.
 
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I have CS4 as well. Are you on SolidWorks 2010? I'm still using 2009. The part opens fine in Illustrator except for the fact that and splines turn into a bunch of straight lines. I'll try to attach a screen shot of the two parts in SolidWorks and Illustrator to show what I'm talking about.


 
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That Could be. I have absolutely everything maxed out on my settings though. I dont know what else I could adjust to make it come out cleaner. And as far as I have found there is no options when saving as an .ai. Possibly something SP5.1 did differently than 4.1?
 
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Make a drawing and save to PDF. AI can import PDF.
 
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Tick,

The parts are going to be made from my .ai file. Saving as a pdf gives a raster image. I need vectors.
 
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I've had some success going from AI to Pro/E and back via DXF.

I've gone SW to AI via PDF and gotten vector. Specifically, a SW drawing with no shaded views to PDF then to AI.
 
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