I have exported an autocad drawing in PFD format to Photoshop for presentation purposes. Using the lasso and paint bucket i can easily color the drawing in. Because the drawing is vector based i've to try to do the same in Illustrator. For some reason, selecting an area and coloring it in, just doesn't work. Does anyone know how to do this?
Trick is to select with the white arrow (Direct Selection Tool). as opposed to the black arrow (Selection Tool)..........then use the squares on the bottom of your tool pallette otherwise known as Fill and/or Stroke options. Also try using the "Join" and "group" tools. It's kind of tricky specially if the items are not grouped properly due to the transition from ACAD. You almost want to group your elements properly in ACAD before exporting it. As brian frels explains....you can export as EPS.....but, you can also plot to file file using a PostScript driver. Good luck.
if your autocad drawing consists of closed polylines, then just open it in illustrator directly and fill it. if you haven't made your dwg with closed polylines, i would not recommend trying to join lines in illustrator, its really frustrating work. do it in autocad instead, and re-open it.
this, i've found, is the fastest way of colouring an autocad drawing. also, in my experience, illustrator is more convenient for these things than photoshop.
Problem with that is, if you select a closed polyline that needs to be colored in, all other closed polylines (especially in a urban plan) get colored too. It makes no difference if I use the selection or the direct selection tool. Is there away to either deselect the rest or an added tool to only color the selected area?
If its a drawing with alot of lines and/or information do the following:
Create a new layer or as many as necessary and use the layer of the ACAD drawing simply as a template. Use you square tool and your smart guides to color over the areas that you need coloring instead of hastling with polygons and groups. This helps tons. Good luck.
pete: perhaps try ungrouping or splitting or un-compound-pathing or whatever illustrator calls it. me? i'm a freehand man, but i recall having similar problems with illustrator in other projects. you can and need to break those parts down to a basic level and off you go.
btw: my experience has never been with acad files so if this is physically impossible for some reason, understand i'm sorta talking out of my ass here.
you can also select an item with the direct selection tool (white arrow) cut, the item and paste it. It will then becom a separate item. You can maintain the item's exact location by pasting to front or back (Ctrl/Cmd F, Ctrl/Cmd B).
There are also a variety of other selection possibilities under the Select>Same Menu.
Sep 28, 04 1:15 pm ·
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Need help with Illustrator
I have exported an autocad drawing in PFD format to Photoshop for presentation purposes. Using the lasso and paint bucket i can easily color the drawing in. Because the drawing is vector based i've to try to do the same in Illustrator. For some reason, selecting an area and coloring it in, just doesn't work. Does anyone know how to do this?
export from autocad into .EPS format
Trick is to select with the white arrow (Direct Selection Tool). as opposed to the black arrow (Selection Tool)..........then use the squares on the bottom of your tool pallette otherwise known as Fill and/or Stroke options. Also try using the "Join" and "group" tools. It's kind of tricky specially if the items are not grouped properly due to the transition from ACAD. You almost want to group your elements properly in ACAD before exporting it. As brian frels explains....you can export as EPS.....but, you can also plot to file file using a PostScript driver. Good luck.
if your autocad drawing consists of closed polylines, then just open it in illustrator directly and fill it. if you haven't made your dwg with closed polylines, i would not recommend trying to join lines in illustrator, its really frustrating work. do it in autocad instead, and re-open it.
this, i've found, is the fastest way of colouring an autocad drawing. also, in my experience, illustrator is more convenient for these things than photoshop.
Problem with that is, if you select a closed polyline that needs to be colored in, all other closed polylines (especially in a urban plan) get colored too. It makes no difference if I use the selection or the direct selection tool. Is there away to either deselect the rest or an added tool to only color the selected area?
Pete,
If its a drawing with alot of lines and/or information do the following:
Create a new layer or as many as necessary and use the layer of the ACAD drawing simply as a template. Use you square tool and your smart guides to color over the areas that you need coloring instead of hastling with polygons and groups. This helps tons. Good luck.
pete: perhaps try ungrouping or splitting or un-compound-pathing or whatever illustrator calls it. me? i'm a freehand man, but i recall having similar problems with illustrator in other projects. you can and need to break those parts down to a basic level and off you go.
btw: my experience has never been with acad files so if this is physically impossible for some reason, understand i'm sorta talking out of my ass here.
Pete,
you can also select an item with the direct selection tool (white arrow) cut, the item and paste it. It will then becom a separate item. You can maintain the item's exact location by pasting to front or back (Ctrl/Cmd F, Ctrl/Cmd B).
There are also a variety of other selection possibilities under the Select>Same Menu.
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