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November 24, 2016
Question

Exporting DXF files?

  • November 24, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 970 views

Hello! I have a an old Mac iBook G4 (OSX 10.4.11) which has Ai (11.0.0) installed, working fine. I now want to use it to export Ai paths to a laser engraving machine, via a PC. Artwork needs to be exported as Autocad dxf file R13/LT95 but that version of Ai is unable to offer a PNG export option and I wonder if this is significant: only BMP/JPEG available. Simple menu-created 2D shapes (e.g. a square) export OK but any other created paths do not show when exported! The iBook is the machine I want to use with the laser cutter - making adjustments to artwork on the spot. However, the actual artwork is done elsewhere on a MacBook Pro and everything exports perfectly from that machine (Ai CS6 16.0.0) but not from the iBook. I have tried various options to remedy this but have failed. Do I have to update the software? If so, can I do it using my current CS6? Thank you!

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    2 replies

    November 26, 2016

    Thank you Jacob. I will try your suggestion.

    Jacob Bugge
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    November 26, 2016

    You are welcome, Graham.

    I forgot to include the update link:

    http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=27&platform=Macintosh

    I hope you will share your findings.

    December 4, 2016

    I have followed the instructions to upgrade to 11.0.2. However, the ‘About Illustrator’ pane still shows 11.0.0. Is this inevitable or should it show the new version? If it should, the upgrade has not worked. Should I try a bigger upgrade to, CS2 12?

    Jacob Bugge
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    November 24, 2016

    Graham,

    You should update to 11.0.1 and 11.0.2.

    If it is still failing, you may try the list (you may ignore 5)):

    If things that should work simply refuse to (all possibilities exhausted (and carefully making sure you are performing (all) the needed things)), you may try the list below.

    Sometimes, (certain) things may fail or stop working for no apparent reason. When the (other) possible reasons/cures fail to work, it may be some kind of (temporay or permanent) corruption, or even some inconvenient preference setting(s), which may be cured with something on the following list set up in an attempt to provide a catchall solution for otherwise unsolvable cases. It starts with a few easy and harmless suggestions 1) and 2) for milder cases, and goes on with two alternative ways 3) and 4) of resetting preferences to the defaults (easily but irreversibly and more laboriously but more thoroughly and also reversibly), then follows a list 5) of various other possibilities, and it ends with a full reinstallation 6). If no other suggestions work, or if no other suggestions appear, you may start on the list and decide how far to go and/or which may be relevant.

    The following is a general list of things you may try when

    A) The issue is not in a specific file,

    B) You have a printer correctly installed, connected, and turned on if it is physical printer (you may use Adobe PDF/Acrobat Distiller as the default printer with no need to have a printer turned on, obviously you will need to specify when you actually need to print on paper), and

    C) It is not caused by issues with opening a file from external media (see at the bottom).

    You may have tried/done some of them already; 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt/inconvenient preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.

    If possible/applicable, you should save current artwork first, of course.

    1) Close down Illy and open again;

    2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to at least 5 times);

    3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);

    4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible), for CS3 - CC you may find the folder here:

    https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/preference-file-location-illustrator.html

    5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);

    Even more seriously (this may be serious because you may need to restore plugins and whatnot afterwards if you have customized things), you may:

    6) A) Uninstall (ticking the box to delete the preferences if applicable), B) run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and C) reinstall. You may try without step B), but sometimes it is needed, because otherwise things may linger.

    To uninstall:

    https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/search/index.cfm?loc=en_us&term=uninstall&cat=support&product=illustrator&self=1

    Cleaner Tool:

    http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html