Illustrator files in AutoCad for plasma

[Anonymous]

Hello AutoCad Community,

First post, somewhat new to Autocad, and i have been trying to figure out something that has been driving me up the wall; please help if you can.

I work for a steel fabricator, here we have a MultiMax plasma from Controlled Automation, with their SICAM software. Lately customers have been asking us to make ornamental pieces on the plasma. When i program these in autocad then import them into our plasma software (SICAM), there is usually little no problems, nothing that can't be fixed. I have found that autocad is great for making patterns, and in most instances i can do what the customer wants within autocad, however, autocad is very limiting as a design software.

Ilustrator is great for design, i can export as dxf or dwg into AutoCad and AutoCad can read the files with no problems. I convert all my lines to polylines, close any open toolpaths, etc., but when i import that file from autocad into my plasma software, it rejects it. Error after error. I have accepted that my software does not like Ilustrator at all, and this leads me to my question.

Since my plasma software hates Ilustrator, i was wondering if there is a way to use the illustrator file as a template for AutoCad to make its own file that will be exactly, or very close to, the original illustrator file. SICAM seems to be able to smell any hint of Illustrator, so if i can have AutoCad use the illustrator file to generate its own file without having to imoport it into AutoCad, or have any illustrator "residue" in it, that might work for me. I hope you all understand what im trying to get at, and i hope even more you all can help me.

Thanks in advance for any help

[M_Hensley · Accepted solution]

If Illustrator can print to PDF you could print out a PDF and attach it as an underlay in AutoCAD. You can then trace over the PDF since AutoCAD can snap to PDF objects, then detach the PDF leaving only AutoCAD geometry behind.

[Anonymous]

Thank you M_Hensley,

Just tried this with a simple star and it worked perfectly. This is what i was looking for.

I may be getting greedy but i have to ask, is there a command that will automatically outline the PDF? I am willing to outline by hand since i have been waiting for a way to burn illustrator files for a while now, but i do not want to spend so much time doing this if there is an easier way.

Thnaks Again

[R.Gerritsen4967]

Maybe you can try the -EXPORTTOAUTOCAD command with the dxf from Illustrator. This cleans the drawing of entities that are not compatible with AutoCAD.

And offcourse you will need to purge the drawing before saving it.

One other thing I have noticed with exporting from Illustrator to dxf, is that the polylines usually have a linewidth. Maybe you have to set this to zero (in AutoCAD) before using in your other software.

And still another thing I have noticed is that Illustrator sometimes makes a different textstyle for every single text in the drawing. I usually make a new textstyle and then quickselect all the (m)texts in the drawing and change the style to the newly created one. After that you can purge all the other styles from the drawing.

Hope this helps.