Exporting Drawings as Illustrator files (AI.)

[eapittore]

Hello,

Recently, I have been working on an instruction manual for a model that I made in Fusion 360. In order to make it look nice I had to use vector images to ensure that my pictures would not be fuzzy or pixelated. PDFs are the only vector image that can be exported from Fusion and do not work well in programs like Illustrator because the lines of the image are too choppy. After a bit of research I have found that SolidWorks is often the prefered program to export images since it can convert drawings to the Illustrator format AI. I believe that this would be an important feature for graphic artists and product designers as Fusion 360 continues to improve and is introduced into diverse working environments!

Thanks

[IanMantula]

The PDF and AI formats are very closely related, if not the same. That's why you can edit PDF files in Illustrator. So just saving as AI wouldn't necessarily improve the output quality. It would require a higher resolution/ better quality  drawing to be saved from Fusion 360. Once that is possible then the PDF format would be just fine.

Regards

Ian

[eapittore]

 I see what you mean, I would seem that SolidWorks does have a better ability to format vector images. Based off of my online search, SW seems to be the most widely accepted program to render line images for graphic artists to use. Adding this improved feature to Fusion360 would be great!

Thanks for the insight Ian!

[cekuhnen]

PDF is actually pretty good. If the PDF import in AI is bad then that is because Fusion seems incompetent to export it well.

[eapittore]

Right, maybe the better approach would be to enhance the export function of Fusion to ensure that the vectors are not choppy.

Thanks!

[cekuhnen]

Yeah the export from design is plain pointless. it is utterly garbage in some cases.

what I do in Fusion I cannot use for CNC work.

[IanMantula]

The best way to get usable results is to let the user have access to the drawing quality parameters. I use Lattice3D for technical illustrations which by defaut produces output similar in quality to what we get from F360. However, when you figure out the correct parrameters it's possible to get trully excellent results. Even better than SolidWorks...

The quality problem is probably due to the fact that one size dosn't fit all. It depends on the level of detail in the model and the scale of the drawing. Suitable line weights are of paramount importance. Drawing lines that I see from F360 are always too thick and often a poor aproximation of the design's true geometry.

Ian

[eapittore]

Maybe the idea that I had in mind was not completely understood. When you an export an image from Fusion in a PDF (vector format), the image is made up of a hundred or so individual vectors. This makes it hard for an artist to edit the image by manipulating the lines or adding colors. The actual image looks fine but there are too many vetors to work with.

The ideal situation would be that the entire image was made up of a single continuous vector that could be manipulated or broken up from there. When SolidWorks formats a vector image whether it be PDF or AI, the number of vectors are greatly reduced to one or two. If Fusion360 was able to match this formatting ability, I think it could be an industry standard for the creation of line art or instruction manuals.

Thanks!

[cekuhnen]

I did some tests with the PDF export from drawings and came to the conclusion that currently the result is utterly garbage.

Take a look below the rounded profile looks like a moon surface.

CAD to AI for technical illustration is not a click and done job.

Sofar I always use Rhino. Our Solidworks results were a disaster as well to be honest because it had duplicates and such.

The problem is the following: The industry specifically the CNC folks are pretty lazy when it comes to moving with technology.

So most CNC still use arcs or lines for the path and not NURBS curves. Welcome to 2015. 😉

But that is easy to solve. In Rhino when you create a 2D drawing Rhino creates it by using curves and not arc and lines.

This is ideal to create technical outlines so in AI you can stitch the stuff together for your graphical needs.

If you need to send this however to a CNC you can convert the Rhino 2D drawing into line or acrs or mixed and save as DWG.

So if you want to make technical drawings from Fusion work currently forget honestly the drawing module.

Export as STEP and create the 2D drawings somewhere else.

[schneik-adsk]

Based on the idea. PDF can accomplish this workflow with illustrator. A separate idea for 2D quality of export might be in order based on later comments.

[cekuhnen]

Ah solution provided? The PDF export is a joke. This stuff is non functional.

[cekuhnen]

Ah solution provided? The PDF export is non functional as well as eps.

[cekuhnen]

@schneik-adsk I did a test with Autocad and also from there the bezier paths in the PDFs suffer under sever ADSD.

DXF seems to be the only thing that remotely works from an Autodesk software when trying to get stuff into Illustrator with a spot on shape represenation.

[odolyte]

I agree with @cekuhnen.

If you think that using Rhino instead of F360 is a provided solution, i don't.

+

"PDF export is a joke" > +1