What's Your Vector Victor?
October 7, 2011 8:21 PM Subscribe
How can I get these design documents into AutoCAD?
My boss has recently hired a graphic designer to make some style sheets for his business. He's an architect, and the designs are the templates for the prints he will be putting out, everything from A to E print sizes. The designer has made everything in Adobe InDesign and has sent me her output in PDF and EPS format. How do I get this into AutoCAD so I can make it our default print?
I was rather shocked to find out AutoCAD can't import a vector format like EPS or even a PDF. So, what do I do?
My current plan is to get the color, lineweight, font etc info and just import the EPS as a raster image and trace it. The designer is fine with this, but it's a lot more work for me. I'd rather not do it if there is a simple way to import, or convert and import the EPS.
My boss has recently hired a graphic designer to make some style sheets for his business. He's an architect, and the designs are the templates for the prints he will be putting out, everything from A to E print sizes. The designer has made everything in Adobe InDesign and has sent me her output in PDF and EPS format. How do I get this into AutoCAD so I can make it our default print?
I was rather shocked to find out AutoCAD can't import a vector format like EPS or even a PDF. So, what do I do?
My current plan is to get the color, lineweight, font etc info and just import the EPS as a raster image and trace it. The designer is fine with this, but it's a lot more work for me. I'd rather not do it if there is a simple way to import, or convert and import the EPS.
Response by poster: So Illustrator can export into DWG? I assume most graphic designers would have access to this. That combined with the provided lineweight, color and font info might just be enough to make this easy.
I'm still wondering if there's an easy way to import an EPS into AutoCAD. You'd think it would be simple since AutoCAD can export an EPS file.
posted by sanka at 8:48 PM on October 7, 2011
I'm still wondering if there's an easy way to import an EPS into AutoCAD. You'd think it would be simple since AutoCAD can export an EPS file.
posted by sanka at 8:48 PM on October 7, 2011
Yeah, EPS is export-only. There may be a plugin out there for it though.
posted by misterbrandt at 9:50 PM on October 7, 2011
posted by misterbrandt at 9:50 PM on October 7, 2011
Try using Rhino - Rhino definitely imports AI/PDF files, and I think can import EPS files as well. You can then save it as a DWG.
posted by suedehead at 11:15 PM on October 7, 2011
posted by suedehead at 11:15 PM on October 7, 2011
I don't know how well this will work, but Vectorworks can import EPS and export DWG.
Might be more likely to preserve your lineweights. Not sure; never tried it.
posted by Adridne at 7:36 AM on October 8, 2011
Might be more likely to preserve your lineweights. Not sure; never tried it.
posted by Adridne at 7:36 AM on October 8, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
The designer will be able to export (via Adobe Illustrator) to DWG. That will give you vector geometry, but you will lose lineweight and color information. You can ask the designer to group the elements by appearance (Select > Same..., then group), so you will get DWG layers by appearance at least - easier to set color and lineweight by layer.
You can get TTF fonts into DWGs now, but you might be better off having the designer expand the fonts to outlines so you can get any typographical customization (kerning etc) properly reflected.
Or you can save the PDF as a PNG or GIF, and link it in as an image. That will be less than ideal when he prints to PDF from AutoCAD, since it will be a weird mix of vector and raster information.
Feel free to memail me a link to a PDF template, and I give some more focused suggestions. (No AutoCAD on my home machine, but I can comment at least)
posted by misterbrandt at 8:39 PM on October 7, 2011