Autocad Lt Logo

[Alayna Rother]

SoI've recently started working for a new company and I'm working on the last 10 percent of our drawings, which is basically finishing. We have a logo we'd like to keep in color, but print the remainder of the drawing in gray scale.

If it's an color image and you've inserted it into your drawing and the above is true it should be in color. Are you inserting it as an image using and seeing it in your xref list? Can you print a pdf and see if is color there?

One way to do that [I wouldn't claim there aren't others] is to use color-based .ctb pen assignments, not asking it to print in gray-scale, but for all the colors you typically use for drawn elements, assigning them to print in Black or Gray shades in the Plot Style Table [any on-screen color can be told to print in any color you like]. Then, whether the logo is a .bmp or any other kind of color image, or even if it's a Block or Xref of AutoCAD elements as long as they're in colors that are not assigned to be Black/Gray in plotting, the colors will come through in the plot.

The primary logo is the core element of the Autodesk identity. It is distinctive, scalable, and accessible, easily recognizable in large and small sizes. It should appear frequently and be applied consistently on external communications. It is custom drawn and should never be recreated with typesetting.

There are some special cases where the symbol on its own can be applied: When the application requires a logo that is smaller than the minimum size for the primary and alternate logo, and in certain applications where it is in context of the Autodesk brand.

To preserve legibility, the Autodesk primary logo should not be scaled smaller than 1 inch wide, the Autodesk alternate logo should not be scaled smaller than 3/4 inch wide, and the Autodesk symbol should not be scaled smaller than 1/4 inch wide.

My first preference is always for a CAD object. If the client hasn't provided one, I get the project lead to poke the client to see if they have one available (they don't always provide it up front). Failing that, I look at building one using the client logo image. If the logo is complex, then I go with that. As for managing a referenced image, well... most clients are savvy enough to handle such things, as the drawings came off their system in the first place.

Many do, but almost all drawings go back and forth through a document control department at the behest of engineers - none of which are typically very CAD savvy. So if you get a stack of drawings (particularly older files) its not uncommon for things like logos, plot styles, and other important stuff (to us, anyways) to get skipped because they only think of DWG files.

The project manager talks to their equivalent in the client company who goes directly to their CAD department. That ensures we get what we need if it exists. It also sets up a chain of comminication, such that for clients we've had for a while include us on distribution lists when they do any logo updates.

I suspect you may already realize this, but you don't necessarily have to use Paint, as any method for getting a "clipboard copy" of the image to "paste special" will work. For example, you can just zoom in on the image (the larger the better) in whatever application allows you to view it and use the Windows Snipping tool to make the copy.

I have created my own template with my company logo inserted and every time I start a new project it does not appear in the template. In the external references, the section shows that the logo is not found? The file path is currently set in a previous project on Dropbox. Any ideas on a permanent fix? thanks

You need to put the logo somewhere that will be seen all the time, a network drive if you plan on sharing it with other user or your computer if it just for you. Reopen the template dwg and reinsert the logo. It should be seen by autocad then.

But, I would avoid attaching the logo as an XREF at all. When other people open that drawing file, they won't see the logo either...unless they have the exact same paths on their computer as you do. Instead, embed the logo in the title block file, or attach it as an XREF and then bind it so it's no longer an attachment.

If the reason you're referencing the logo is that you need to be able to swap out one company logo for another, I would recommend that you just create a separate title block on a per-logo basis, with the logo embedded inside.

I'm sure this is an easy one just been along time. I've been ask to create a new set of drawing templates for a customer. On the layouts what i'm hoping to do is be able to print the title block in colour so the their logo is displayed in colour but the the viewports still need to be printed monochrome.

I'm looking to import a vector logo created in illustrator CS6 into inventor. I export as a dwg from illustrator which is fine but when this is inserted (or copied from autocad) All the lines are broken down into segments rather than being a continuous line from which I can extrude.. If I run sketch doctor on the imported file it complains of missing coincident constraint's even though I have the constrain end points checkbox ticked..

If you open the dwg up in autocad it seems to recognise that the lines are continuous but not in inventor.. I've read many articles some suggesting to create a true type font of the logo but this doesn;t seem to work..

can anyone tell me how this is done practically. I see that solidworks has a native adobe illustrator import and if necessary I will move to their platform as this shouldn't be as taxing as it's becoming..

This is actually not a common action to perform. In almost 9 years of professional services around Inventor involving training, implementation, and other consulting services, this is the first time I have heard this exact question. Normally companies are just fine taking the image into Inventor and using it as a label or in this case a Decal command to add vibrant logo to a design. You should also remember that Adobe doesn't own the DWG code and therefore cannot be relied on for perfect translation to Vector graphics just as Autodesk and other companies interpret PDF differently.

Hi Mark. Thanks for your comments but this is a very common action to perform. How many times do you see a company logo embossed on a plastic part.. it's everywhere.. If I want to create a Decal I would do this in illustrator and then print it on my Roland BN-20. I want a logo embedded into the side of a plastic part as part of a mould. There are loads of article on this.. just two examples below..

Vector Logos are always created in corel or illustrator for use on vinyl cutters for sign writing etc.. I think Autodesk should be the ones supporting these formats not the other way around. Solidworks has been supporting illustrator files since CS3 from what I've read.. This is a pretty basic thing to support.

From the other articles I've read creating the logo as a true type font used to work. I've finally managed to get something in using this method by creating a corel draw document at 750 x 750 pts. Shrinking my logo to fit this size then exporting the document as a true type symbol font. In inventor though you have to make the size ridiculously large to even see the font (4000mm) in my case but when I try and extrude I get a self intersecting error..

Sure here is an example of the dwg.. No designer will be producing logos in autocad but many people will want logos embossed on their products. I really cant believe autodesk has not thought of this and there doesn't even appear to be a viable work around..

I exploded the block, removed the hatch, removed the extra boundaries created by the exploded hatch. From here everything worked fine except the upper right area of the logo which had too many complex splines for Inventor to interpret in the sketcher. So I went back to AutoCAD and used SPLINEDIT with a default precision of 10 (higher would be smoother but more segments) I also ensure there were no other overlap geometry (OVERKILL is good for this, but also a manual inspection).

Truth be told if I spent an hour on this I could probably come up with a smoother profile and better geometric outputs from AutoCAD to Inventor. I also would look at my export options in the Adobe tool to see if I can get an export without splines to begin with. I would also not have the fill inside the logo either to help reduce work on this. I did my work in Inventor 2016 so I don't think I can give you the file.

I did attach the AutoCAD file that worked for me though. I also don't see this as something that would be that hard to redraw in AutoCAD if you are going to use it a lot. I could easily get rid of the facets in the upper right if I took another 20 minutes or so.

Thanks I followed your suggestions and removed the hatches in autocad and converted the lines to polylines and removed the duplicates.. I now get something useable in inventor.. Still it takes an age to move or rotate.. soooo slow,,

There is tools in AutoCAD to group the data together, but that doesn't change the fact Inventor wants to select individual closed loops for profiles. I used to have a Macro that would pick them all, but you would be better off creating this as an iFeature so you wouldn't have to pick them all the time.

Thanks Mark... Tried the IFeature but same result.. I selected the sketch and then chose extract ifeature from the manage>author>extract ifeature then reimport but still only selects the individual loops rather than everything on the sketch..

ok..so I created new part an imported the dwg file. Extruded each segment individually and extruded it. saved as ipart then imported with ifeature to my part. never mind all the pre-cleanup work in autocad removing hatching and the like. It still doesn't really do what I want (needed emboss rather than extrude but cant as you can only create rather than cut in new part) but as I reached the point where I no longer want to live this will have to do.,. .. really Autodesk,, 3 days learning how to import a vector logo.? And the amount of ram to compute each move / rotate/ is insane.. auto dimension came up with something like 28,000 missing dimensions.. unless I'm missing something obvious? I'm by no means an expert..

3a8082e126