Exporting vector graphic for editing in AutoCAD 2018

[claireplane]

I've been developing an Illustrator file for a 15' map of a county in Georgia. The design will eventually be sent to a fabricator to be sandblasted into granite, and laid into the pavement of a public park. I need to create an AutoCAD file from my vector graphics, so that the sand-blasting machine can "read" the file.

My Illustrator file is relatively complex; it involves text in a couple fonts, many layers, compound paths and clipping masks, and pattern brushes, to name a few things. I have tried exporting as a .DXF and opening in CAD, but the text and paths are distorted, and my pattern brushes aren't coming through. Any clue on how to get what I want into CAD?

I have attached the distortion I'm experiencing right now in CAD, and a PDF exported straight from Illustrator displaying what things should be looking like.

[Peter Villevoye · Accepted solution]

First of all: verify how much detail will be seen in the end result. Depending on the size of that stone, I doubt whether certain elements will at all be visible or even feasible. And did you communicate about the depth of the image (shown as a grayscale I presume) ?

Then it's crucial to know what kind of data this machine requires or is capable of understanding. Does it really understand vector based imagery ? Or do most clients simply slap a b/w or grayscale bitmap image in a CAD file and call it a day ?

If it accepts vector data, then you probably need to safely convert all kinds of complexity like brushes, patterns, and formatted text into proper outlines. You can use Expand to do that. Even a plain line width can turn out to be a troublemaker ! Expand, expand, expand, until all that's left are plain shapes with (grey) fills – no lines (widths).

Depending on the version of DXF the machine understands, it might be necessary to unclip Masks and release Compounds, in order to create final artwork by using the PathFinder on their respective parts. Most CAD applications support boolean operators (that's what they are), but I'd better be safe than sorry !

If the process is content with a bitmap file, I'd just export a TIFF or PNG file at an estimated maximum resolution. No need for tweaks or conversions in the artwork – what you see is what you'll get.

So that's a lot to enquire, but a good job to do 🙂

[Warren Heaton]

Save a duplicate of the Illustrator document and expand all text and brushes such that they're just the vector paths.  Compound paths will probably be fine as is.  Use Pathfinder with your Clipping Masks to cut out the vectors so that you have what you want to see as just vectors with no masking.  Of course, keep the original document around so that you have something that is fully editable.  If any changes are needed at the last minute, you can make the edits and then copy and paste to the duplicate and reduce to just the vectors again.