Import logo from Adobe Illustrator

Frank,

I had interesting results doing this.

Before, there were 17 splines that wouldn't import which made up approx.

70-80% of the geometry. So I only got around 20-30% actual good geometry.

After exploding as you suggested, there were 72 splines that didn't import. But since there was a LOT more splines to start with, that still left about

80-90% of the geometry that DID import. I think I may be able to fudge the last 10-20% by tracing over a sketch picture.

To trace the whole image would have taken days. This at least reduces that time to a somewhat tolerable level.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to remember that...

You might try saving to an older version of dxf that doesn't support spline entities. You may need to use the dwgEditor to do this. IIRC, R10 or 11 should do. The spline should then be saved as lines and arcs.

I could easily be completely worng though. That was a long time ago.

Any chance of extruding it in ACAD and exporting the bodies into SW via ACIS?

Here's the trick to make it work Seth. Open the version 12 drawing in AutoCAD. Once open type PEDIT at the command line. Type "M" ENTER to select multiple entities. Window select the entire drawing. When asked to convert to poly lines say YES and Enter. Next Hit "J" and ENTER to join all the lines. Input a "fuzz distance". I usually use .06 but you may need something different. Hit Enter and let it do it's thing. When done save the drawing. What you just did was turn everything in to poly lines, closed

99% of the gaps and connected all the poly lines together.

Now open this drawing into a part file in SW. When doing this set the merge points option to a low number like .01. It should open with out problems and you should have closed contours for extruding. If not you can use the sketch tools to show you where the holes are. There should only be a couple if any. I regularly do this with dwg files that have thousands of line entities with no problems. Let me know if you need more help.

Rob

I did try this. It processed for around 40 minutes and never finished. I needed my machine back so I had to end the task before completing. I will try this again today just before I leave work so that I can let it process.

By the way, I assume the "fuzz distance" of .06 is metric. I entered .002 for inches (should be about the same).

FYI - There are about 58000 lines in this logo drawing after exploding everything.

Seth,

Download a demo of rhino and use it's arcfit command (under edit menu - I forget exactly what it's called) it will 'trace' the splined version of your dxf with a series of tangent arcs. Or just use rhino to extrude/model whatever 3d features you want for the logo and import these into sw to use as toolbodies.

Or as Dale suggested - extrude the closed shapes in autocad to primitive solids then import these into solidworks, you can use these solids as toolbodies or just create sketches from the faces.

Save out the logo as a tif or bitmap and use a raster to vector program (flexisign has a good one) to convert in 100% closed splines. (Helps simplify the geometry without losing the shape, also works great for clipart which is always got overlapping sections)

Also, a vastly overlooked autocad tool: part of the express tools is called 'overkill' at the command line, I think the menu item is called 'find duplicates' or something, it is similiar to multi pedit but does a lot more and works very well.

Also, if you have access to mdt (mechanical desktop) it has a spline to pline command on the surfacing toolbar.

Zander

"Seth Renigar" wrote in message news:oJsdd.30980$n% snipped-for-privacy@twister.southeast.rr.com...

As my I.D. days get further and further behind me, it gets harder to remember these things.

If you have access to Adobe Illustrator, then you may be able to do some editing to prepare for the export. Crosshatches? There is no need for filled blocks. Create outlines and remove block shapes. Make sure there are no entities on hidden layers. Convert text to shapes and keep only outlines.

Also, there may be a way in Illustrator to change splines to simething more friendly. That, or just brute-force redraw in Illustrator.

Worst case scenario: Ghostscript can c> I am doing a project now for a customer that wants his logo embossed on the

create the

Illustrator.

Ok, from acad, save it as an R12 DXF

Now open the DXF in *Notepad* Search down from the top of the file for the word "ENTITIES" , without the quotation marks.

There will be 3 lines before it: 0 SECTION 2

erase every line ABOVE THAT ZERO to the beginning of the file (starting with "ENDSEC" in the line above the sero.)

Save and retry reading in with your fav cad or cam app.

What I do is,.. open the *.ai or *.pdf in Rhino3D (you can download the free version, 25 saves) and export it as a DXF, IGES or STEP (depending on the need). (and, while I'm in Rhino3D I usually position/orient/scale and clean up the sketch if need before export)

..

Man!!! All these possible solutions, and I have since gotten temporarily pulled off this project to work on a different hot, hot project. I will give some of these a try in the next day or two.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.

Just to let everyone know,

Brian Mears helped me out with this problem by taking the Adobe Illustrator (.ai) file and running it through a program called Bezarc. It produced perfect CAD data without a single spline in the geometry. Instead, the sketch consists of lines and arcs only which simplifies the data a LOT and still looks just like the logo.

From what I have seen, I am going to purchase a seat of Bezarc. If you also have a need to get data from an Illustrator document, I highly recommend it for you as well.

I would like to thank everyone again for your input and ideas. I am sure that several of these solutions would have worked to some degree or another. But I doubt any of them would have produced better quality than Brian did with the Bezarc program.

This group is great!