exporting question

[Jon]

Is there anyone out there that has experience with exporting drawings out of AutoCAD (either as a dxf or eps) and bringing them into Adobe Illustrator? I get garbage in Illustrator (version 8.0) when I bring in an eps and good graphics when bringing in a dxf. The problem with the dxf is Illustrator scrambles my dimensions and makes all my lines continuous. I am currently working on woodworking plans for a client and he wants the end product to be an eps file. I create it in CAD export it out as a dxf, clean it up in Illustrator and then save it as an Illustrator eps...this is a pain. I have ordered Illustrator 10 since it supposedly can bring in dwg files with all drawing info intact. Aside from that does anyone have any suggestions to make my life easier when going from AutoCAD to Illustrator?

Jon

[f700es]

Is there anyone out there that has experience with exporting drawings out of AutoCAD (either as a dxf or eps) and bringing them into Adobe Illustrator? I get garbage in Illustrator (version 8.0) when I bring in an eps and good graphics when bringing in a dxf. The problem with the dxf is Illustrator scrambles my dimensions and makes all my lines continuous. I am currently working on woodworking plans for a client and he wants the end product to be an eps file. I create it in CAD export it out as a dxf, clean it up in Illustrator and then save it as an Illustrator eps...this is a pain. I have ordered Illustrator 10 since it supposedly can bring in dwg files with all drawing info intact. Aside from that does anyone have any suggestions to make my life easier when going from AutoCAD to Illustrator?

Jon

Hello Jon and welcome :)
This should be no problem. I do this all the time. I have done it with v9 and now 10. But I have one question, why not export directly from AutoCAD as an .eps? Oh, I forgot v8 cannot open .dwg files. But still try to export straight from AutoCAD. Even LT98 can export to .eps. Try it and let me know how it works. Things to try/look at:
1. Explode all blocks
2. Text? You might have to redo any text in Illustrator (through .dxf, .eps and .wmf)
3. WMF - try a export as an .wmf file. Illustrator can handle these files as well and they are vector as well (usually a smaller file size than .eps too)

Good luck and again welcome :)

F7

[CADTutor]

For best quality, try plotting to EPS from AutoCAD. The export option often gives quite crude results. See here for details: http://www.cadtutor.net/acad/acad2ki/atop/atop.html#Plot

[f700es]

For best quality, try plotting to EPS from AutoCAD. The export option often gives quite crude results. See here for details: http://www.cadtutor.net/acad/acad2ki/atop/atop.html#Plot

Really!! Never compared to the two different options. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the tip :) Some times when there is no text involved I simply just plot as a .pdf with a border set to scale by the sheet I will be using and simply open that with Illustrator. This way my Illustrator drawing is very close to scale.
Thanks David. :)

[f700es]

For best quality, try plotting to EPS from AutoCAD. The export option often gives quite crude results. See here for details: http://www.cadtutor.net/acad/acad2ki/atop/atop.html#Plot

Ah now I see...I keeps your plot style and pen settings ;) Excellent once again David :)