Who makes the BEST Illustrator import/export plug-in for AutoCAD?

Dean Fritzel

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Sep 23, 2003, 12:35:56 PM9/23/03

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Our company wants to purchase a third party plug-in for Illustrator that does a great job importing and exporting CAD files.

I know there are a good amount of these plug-ins out there. (So you don't have to list them all for me) What I do need to know, is which is the best one? If you use one, and know good and bad points about it, please let me know. ...or even if you have heard things about a product.

Thanks,

Dean Fritzel

Steve Coates

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Sep 23, 2003, 1:03:33 PM9/23/03

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I use AI 10 and import & export AutoCad DWG and DXF files all the time. I do not use a plug-in at all. But there can be problems with elements/objects within both programs.

If you need to do CAD with-in AI you might consider something like
Hot Door CADtools from <http://www.hotdoor.com>

Steve

Dean Fritzel

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Sep 23, 2003, 1:33:19 PM9/23/03

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Thanks Steve,

That is one of the plug-ins that we've been looking at. In case anyone is wondering why you would need a plug-in...when we open dwg's or dxf's, they don't come into Illustrator at 1:1. They always come in a little larger than the original.

Dean

Steve Coates

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Sep 23, 2003, 2:59:28 PM9/23/03

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Dean:

I've never had a scaling problem. Remember AutoCad is unitless, while AI uses real units.

Steve

Roger Haley

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Sep 23, 2003, 2:43:51 PM9/23/03

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Try Cadmover by <http://www.kandusoftware.com/>. I don't use that particular program but I use a program called Bezarc by the same company that works like a charm.

Michael Powell

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Sep 24, 2003, 1:00:56 AM9/24/03

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Dean:
Don't know what you do with the files once you get them into Illustrator, but a product called Cad Publisher from an Australian company is worth looking at. A trial version is available. Go to
<http://www.gasmain.com>
Mike

Dean Fritzel

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Sep 24, 2003, 3:19:05 PM9/24/03

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Steve,

I understand that CAD is unitless. But lets say I draw a 1" x 1" box in cad. I save it in two different formats...dxf and pdf. The dxf, when brought into Illustrator will (dimentioned with Cadtools)will dimention larger than 1"x1". When the PDF is brought into Illustrator, it is dimentioned at 1"x1".

I am looking for a way to bypass the creation of a lot of extra pdf's. (and make my life easier)

Michael,

Thanks for the site...I'll check it out. Is this a product that you have used in the past?

Dean

Steve Coates

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Sep 24, 2003, 7:01:22 PM9/24/03

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Dean:

I've never experienced a rescale when I open dwg or import dxf into AI 10. I don't know why it would occur.

By the way why are you moving so many CAD files to AI?

Steve

Ben Salisbury

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Sep 25, 2003, 11:05:41 AM9/25/03

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I see scaling problems about 50-60% of the time, but when they are there it is always the same amount. To recover, all I do is type "*25.4112" without the quotes after the Width dimension in the transform pallet. Hold down the CTRL key and hit enter.
(it would look like this before hitting enter "1.000 in*25.4112" if it was a 1" square box)

This isn't perfect though A 1" square box will sometimes resize to 1" x .9999"

If you have control over the DXF's before they are brought into Illustrator, then just draw a box of a known size around your illustration, then when you bring it into Illustrator you know what the width and height should be.

-Ben

Dean Fritzel

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Sep 26, 2003, 2:50:05 PM9/26/03

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Steve,

My company screen prints control panels for customers. We get the dimensioned art work as a CAD drawing. We can output screens from cad, but we are switching over to AI...thus the need to convert cad to ai.

Dean

Derric...@adobeforums.com

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Oct 2, 2003, 5:15:09 PM10/2/03

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Just saw this note in the Illustrator CS pdf:
"Choose a custom scale size for DXF and DWG files on import."

Maybe it's just me but I find the feature list for Illustrator CS a lot more
compelling than Photoshop CS, can't wait.

--

Rick Moore
Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
(512) 476 7133
(512) 478 2624 FAX
www.bgkarchitects.com

John_...@adobeforums.com

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Oct 23, 2003, 7:37:57 PM10/23/03

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If you want the best CAD (DXF) to Illustrator conversions then you should look at our Cad Publisher software:
<http://www.gasmain.com>

Regards
John Walker

peter...@adobeforums.com

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Jan 21, 2004, 10:02:30 AM1/21/04

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My company has been struggling with how to create cad drawings of our labels that go on our product. We use Pro-e and my goal would be to bring in the entire graphics for a label so we can dimension, annotate, point to and otherwise call out information about the label.
Currently we create label blanks in pro-e which is for dimensioning size and calling out material. Then we get the graphics from our label supplier and using windows imaging program, we create a separate file that becomes page two for the cad drawing.
Pro-e will not let you import a graphics file that is smart. One that you can dimension. We can bring in OLE objects but they are just dumb files and cannot be dimensioned, pointed too or anything else. Hopefully everyone gets the jist of what we would like to do and can suggest something that would work.

peter...@adobeforums.com

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Jan 21, 2004, 10:03:05 AM1/21/04

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I posted this so I can subscribe to my posting.