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[Q] My 25 year battle with export to Illustrator. Why can't this be fixed?


Pobo

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In my 25 years with FormZ, if there's one consistent frustration, it must be export to Illustrator. It has changed many times but it never seems to get better.

 

It requires so much manual tidying up, it drives me completely up the wall.

 

Could you please, please, please at least do something about the scaling? I'm not asking for magical auto-join, circle/bezier output, superfluous hidden line removal or anything fancy: just 1:1 output. Yes, I know I can scale proportionally in Illustrator but by the time I prepare my 27th file for the lasercutter I don't want to.

 

This is what I do:

- I draw a 100x100mm square in FormZ in Modeller

- I switch off grid and axes

- I'm happy with this: I don't want to go to Layout. That's an unnecessary extra step. This square is perfect as it is.

- I use Export Image -> DWG

- I import in Illustrator, 1 unit = 1 mm

- I end up with 353.503x353.503mm square.

- Why? I don't see any metric to imperial conversion in there.

 

// Tom

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I believe it does.  .dwg image export suffers the same fate.

 

Suggestion to export images at Full Size.  Layout would option to export World Full Size so frames would export at scale or Actual Full Size exporting the active frame.

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Pobo, 

 

Export Image does not include scale (this is where Layout comes in).  However, if you are drawing in 2D and are in wireframe or hidden line viewing modes, go to File > Export > DWG.

 

Import the DWG in Illustrator and choose "Original Size" and no conversions will take place.  We tested this with a 4" square and it worked for us.

 

Note that this process will only work properly if you are drawing in 2D.  The Export DWG function will include 3D data if it is available. 

 

Does that help?

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Could this be a similar problem to printing to pdf. There is the option to print to scale. Most useful as you can change a hidden line render to objects once it is exported and overlay this onto a rendered pdf image. However, the pdfs are consistently a few percent out of scale. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Pobo, 

 

Export Image does not include scale (this is where Layout comes in).  However, if you are drawing in 2D and are in wireframe or hidden line viewing modes, go to File > Export > DWG.

 

Import the DWG in Illustrator and choose "Original Size" and no conversions will take place.  We tested this with a 4" square and it worked for us.

 

Note that this process will only work properly if you are drawing in 2D.  The Export DWG function will include 3D data if it is available. 

 

Does that help?

 

Many thanks, Tech. I tried and it works fine, also in metric.

 

From my perspective as an end user, the UI is totally counterintuitive: "this process will only work properly if you are drawing in 2D", yet when I choose the 'Export Image > DWG' it doesn't work as expected and when I choose the 'Export > DWG' - which supposedly is for handling 3D output - it does. Why can't the same scaling behaviour be applied to 'Export Image > DWG'?

 

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Pobo, 

 

Export Image is essentially exporting a screenshot of your model that is being displayed.  If you were in a RenderZone view and chose Export Image, a scale is not applied here, same with Hidden Line, Doodle, or Sketch, and of course Wireframe.  The standard export option is for 3D data, which includes model size/scale information.  

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  • 6 months later...

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