Spline Import

[kettch]

I scanned in a sketch and traced over it in Illustrator, then I exported to DXF, however solidworks won't import it. The import wizard runs, and gives a preview of the sketch but it throws an error. Sorry, I'm writing this a day later and from a computer that has internet access, but the error says something about splines and has a list like this:
handle: 2c
handle: 3b

and it doesn't do the import.

Any thoughts? Is there a better way to go from Illustrator to solidworks, or maybe somewhere I can get a checklist for the best way to make a drawing in illustrator that will be most compatible?

-Thanks

 

[Theophilus]

Why not trace the scan in SolidWorks? Import your scan to a sketch and make the spline directly--will save a lot of hassle and keep things as native as possible.

Open a new sketch, then, Tools > Sketch Tools > Sketch Picture. Select your scan (JPEG or whatever), select the size you want it to appear (scaled) and it's part of your sketch. You can then start a new sketch over the scan and use splines or whatever you like to get perfect data. Works with photos, too.

Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[kettch]

Yeah, that's probably what I think I'll do. Thanks!

 

[bmxman98]

This sounds like an OK solution if you need to do a logo one time but there has to be faster way if one frequently needs to work with designers handing over .ai drawings.

 

[TheTick]

I've been able to solve some DXF import issues by deleting the header from the DXF file. This is done by opening the DXF file in a text editor (Notepad or Wordpad) and deleting the header information there.

"When everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking very much." --Eckhard Schwarz (1930--2004)

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

 

[bmxman98]

When I had access to several pieces of software, I would read in a DXF from Adobe Illustrator into CADKey, use "Interpret splines as polylines" and then export it back out and into SW. Then it was just a series of short straight lines. If SW would work on the import code to read splines, this would be great. I am sure that Solidworks is becoming more and more commonly used and many engineers have to incorporate data from Adobe Illustrator into their files.