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Participant
February 27, 2025
Question

Import problem DWG to Illustrator

  • February 27, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 218 views

Hello everyone,

 

I have the following problem:
I want to open a DWG exported from Inventor in Illustrator. Normally this works without any problems. But with some DWGs only the drawing area appears and nothing can be seen even when zooming out. When I select everything with Ctrl+A, the x/y coordinates show me that there is something at the value -5000. I enter the coordinates 0/0 and the drawing appears totally distorted and tiny in the corner.

 

I export and import the DWG with the same settings as usual. Of course, I have already tested all export and import options, always with the same result.

 

When I open the DWG in Inventor, it appears as normal. It is also displayed correctly in the preview in Explorer. I have the feeling that it is an import problem with Illustrator. At first I thought it might be due to the file size. However, Illustrator shows an imported file with 1416 KB and not one with 1330 KB.

 

Can anyone help me? Has anyone else had a problem like this?

 

1 reply

Anubhav M
Community Manager
Community Manager
February 27, 2025

Hello @MirjaVDS,

Would you mind sharing more details, like the version of Illustrator/OS installed, the export/import settings used, and a sample DWG file after uploading it to a file-sharing service, so I can check it on my end?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

MirjaVDSAuthor
Participant
March 3, 2025

Hey Anubhav,

 

thanks for your interest.

In the meantime I have found out the following:
The problem is on the Autodesk side and not with Illustrator. The export file apparently wants to access a linked SHX file. SHX files, so-called symbol files, are used as text or symbol fonts. The missing SHX files were either not transferred with the drawing or they were moved, renamed or deleted.
I found the following on the Autodesk website:
https://www.autodesk.com/de/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/DEU/AutoCAD-cannot-find-SHX-font.html

 

Best regards,

Mirja