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Hidden line + Illustrator precision? (#533)
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bmeissner  
#1 Posted : Thursday, October 18, 2007 6:22:38 AM(UTC)
bmeissner

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Tim,

the advanced options for precise Illustrator export have been one of the main reasons for me to buy CU after I bought ViaCad. But as promising as my quick tests with the demo have been, I find some current 'real work' results being almost unusable. Please compare the images as shown below:

On the left there is the original appearance of the CU sheet. In the middle, you see the Illustrator file as exported from CU. Looks like the exporter must have been completely drunk. On the right side there is a DWG file I exported from CU and opened in Illustrator. This one keeps the correct curve shapes, but has all the disadvantages of segmented renderings.

Is there something that can be done to improve the quality of the Illustrator export?

Regards,
Bernd
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dexter  
#2 Posted : Thursday, October 18, 2007 8:32:36 AM(UTC)
dexter

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Although it isn't ideal, there is the Live Paint feature in Illustrator CS2+ for use with the DWG import.

As I understand it, the Punch! importer/exporter uses PostScript and Adobe dropped PostScript in favour of their PDF flavour around release 10.
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bmeissner  
#3 Posted : Thursday, October 18, 2007 8:53:36 AM(UTC)
bmeissner

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dexter wrote:
Although it isn't ideal, there is the Live Paint feature in Illustrator CS2+ for use with the DWG import.


Dexter,

there are better choices than tracing or the Live Paint feature. Since (facetted) curves in a DWG (or EPS) are at least connected, I could use the "simplify curve" command in Illustrator... but this leaves me doing work manually, what I try to avoid as far as possible.

dexter wrote:
As I understand it, the Punch! importer/exporter uses PostScript and Adobe dropped PostScript in favour of their PDF flavour around release 10.


This has nothing to do with PostScript. Adobe still supports PostScript, and the language lives on in the PDF format, the successor of PS.

No, the "drunken" curves are the result of something similar to the "simplify curve" command in Illustrator. An algorithm tries to convert a multi-point curve to an "as-few-as-possible-points" curve. I could easily simulate this in Illustrator. The problem here: in illustrator I can selectively EXclude points from being processed, which can result in *very* precise bezier curves made from segmented curves, for the price of just one point more. But if nobody tells the software, which point(s) to exclude, it has to decide by itself/an algorithm/whatever. And, as my examples show, even at highest precision levels this may result in unusable results.

Bernd
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Tim Olson  
#4 Posted : Saturday, October 20, 2007 12:28:31 AM(UTC)
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>>Is there something that can be done to improve the quality of the Illustrator export?

I think so. There must be a precision error in converting the spline from 3d to 2D Bezier for AI. Can you private email me this file?
Tim Olson
IMSI Design/Encore
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Tim Olson  
#5 Posted : Saturday, October 20, 2007 1:41:27 PM(UTC)
Tim Olson

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I've updated the way precision is calculated for bezier curves exported to AI. This is in the next beta upload.
Tim Olson
IMSI Design/Encore
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jol  
#6 Posted : Sunday, October 21, 2007 3:17:12 AM(UTC)
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This is good news .. Looking forward to trying this out !
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Tim Olson  
#7 Posted : Sunday, October 21, 2007 1:45:41 PM(UTC)
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>>Looking forward to trying this out !

FYI, the build number for this fix is 726.
Tim Olson
IMSI Design/Encore
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bmeissner  
#8 Posted : Monday, October 22, 2007 3:09:32 AM(UTC)
bmeissner

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Tim Olson wrote:
FYI, the build number for this fix is 726.


Tim,

will this fix be only available for the v5 beta? Or will it go into v4 sp4 as well? I currently don't have access to any beta versions...

Edit: disregard the last sentence… I just applied for beta access :-)

Regards,
Bernd
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jol  
#9 Posted : Monday, October 22, 2007 4:25:46 AM(UTC)
jol

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Bernd

For comparison .. and my curiosity, perhaps you could post the same example exported from Shark V
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bmeissner  
#10 Posted : Monday, October 22, 2007 7:43:21 AM(UTC)
bmeissner

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jol wrote:
For comparison .. and my curiosity, perhaps you could post the same example exported from Shark V



Jol,

here we go a direct comparison of a CU4 eps, ai and a Shark FX ai. Looks *way* better :-)

Bernd
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jol  
#11 Posted : Monday, October 22, 2007 7:46:48 AM(UTC)
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Awesome .. Gold medals to you and Tim !
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