topic .AI to .DWG conversion in AutoCAD Forum

.AI to .DWG conversion

jenniferEGXRS — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 14:35:05 GMT

Hiya,

I want to get a logo lasercut and etched into acrylic and mdf.

The file has been created in Illustrator, it's black and white simple shapes and differnt line thicknesses, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to import it over to AutoCad. Does anyone know of a good tutorial or have any advice?

Thanks!

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

imadHabash — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 14:52:26 GMT

Hi and Welcome to AutoCAD Forum,

i suggest to export your file from illustrator with any other supporting file format that autocad can deal with like (dwg,pdf,png,bmp.jpg,wmf and tif) files .

Regards,

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 15:03:20 GMT

Hi Jennifer,

You should be able to export to a .DWG format straight from Adobe Illustrator.

This may help with exporting into different formats:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/exporting-artwork.html

Cheers,

Joe

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

jenniferEGXRS — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 15:08:21 GMT

Hiya,

Many thanks for the reply.

I tried importing it into AutoCad after exporting from illustrator in several different ways; jped, pdf, dwg, etc. But the file just comes through garbled each time. I've attached a snippet of a before after imported from a .pdf, do you know how I get it to recognise the outlines of the piece?

Thanks!

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

imadHabash — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 15:16:05 GMT

maybe this AKN article will help you more . >> Click <<

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 15:40:33 GMT

Have you ticked the 'outline text' box?

Cheers,

Joe

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

jenniferEGXRS — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 16:03:58 GMT

Yes, and it imports part of the letter but not all of it, for instance it
imports a curve of the 'g' but not the top horizontal bar. Which is strange
as I haven't edited the text other than to give it a stroke weight. Do you
know of any good video resources about importing files?

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

john.vellek — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 17:44:49 GMT

Hi @jenniferEGXRS,

I usually export it to dwg right out of Illustrator. If this is giving you problems however, You are welcome to attach your file and let me take a stab at it.

If it needs to be kept private send me a PM and I will give you a secure way to send me the file.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

john.vellek — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 17:31:25 GMT

Hi @jenniferEGXRS,

Thanks for sending me your AI file. I am finding that a good portion of this translated quite well into AutoCAD DWG format. That parts that are not coming in the way you want it displayed are the paths in Illustrator that provide a centerline path. For instance, the top large Egg shape has a path with a 20pt stroke. I am not sure how I can correct this in AutoCAD. I could certainly "eyeball" this but it would take quite a bit of work.

Is it possible in your Illustrator to rebuild these paths so that there is a true outline (inside and outside) even if you don't have a fill applied? Pperhaps a Live Trace would work?

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

jenniferEGXRS — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 07:55:25 GMT

Hi John,

Ah is that where the fault lies, I assumed AutoCad could import line thicknesses.

I will edit the .ai file and I'll let you know if that fixes it.

Thanks again John

-Jennifer

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

john.vellek — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 22:24:20 GMT

Hi Jennifer,

I am checking back to see if you have had the chance to rework the outlines in AI. I hoping that improves the output to AutoCAD.

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

jenniferEGXRS — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 07:46:58 GMT

Hi John,

Sorry I had to change priorities yesterday, but I should get back to it
either today or tomorrow.

-Jennifer

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

jenniferEGXRS — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 11:41:00 GMT

Hi John,

Sorry for the time it took me to get back to you, but I tried out your live trace suggestion and it's worked wonders! It's much improved though some of the hatched text isn't showing up, do you know what I might be able to do to resolve that?

Thanks again,

Jennifer

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

john.vellek — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 13:42:11 GMT

Hi Jennifer, Is it possible to share your current version of the file? I am happy to take a look at why the text might go missing.

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

john.vellek — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 16:21:42 GMT

HI Jennifer, The original Illustrator file used centerlines with widths for many of the curves and they did not come into AutoCAD with the widths intact. You used a LiveTrace to get the outlines recreated. Then the resulting file exported to DWG but the text was pretty funky. I removed the fills from the letters and discovered all the text outlines to be splines that used Control Vertices. I changed the method to Fit and everything (to me) looks clean. Letters and other objects might need to receive new hatches to achieve the appearance you are looking for but I believe everything should behave properly for you now.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

jenniferEGXRS — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 08:06:42 GMT

John you are an absolute genius! The file looks perfect now, thank you ever so much for your help on this project.

So I know for future reference, fills are a no no when importing into autocad - or was it just the way they were created that caused the problems in this instance?

...Again, thank you for going beyond on this one 🙂

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

john.vellek — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 13:44:35 GMT

Hi Jennifer, The problem was not actually the fills but the way the font outlines get converted. They are splines that are filled. The fill follows the new distorted outlines so they had to be removed. Once I did that and changed the method of the splines from Control Vertices to Fit then everything was clean. I suppose if you do this again, removing the fills in AI might be a bit faster. BTW, one of the job titles had a typo and I corrected that (I hope anyways).

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

jenniferEGXRS — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 13:53:21 GMT

Hi John,

That's good to know for the future. And you're an absolute gem for correcting the spelling, you really did go above and beyond what help I could have hoped for 🙂

I'll be sure to tag you in the future should I need any other solutions!

-Jennifer

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 20:26:06 GMT

None of the comments worked for me. This the solution I found:

(in AI) convert everything to lines, remove fills: outline text then change from fill to stroke, make stroke small for visual purposes (like .1 pt)
(in AI) File --> Save As --> PDF/X-1a:2001
(in AutoCAD) Create blank file --> insert pdf select the pdf created in step 2
Select all and do the join command. this should join all the lines that create the text and graphics. as long as there is no overlapping shapes / lines you can do the select all method, otherwise select individual letters / components.
Optional: fill the text / objects with a solid hatch

Re: .AI to .DWG conversion

sergenel — Thu, 02 May 2019 23:22:08 GMT

Hello,

I somehow cannot turn my ai file into a dwg file directly. I do not know what I am missing, could you please help me out?

Best regards