QUICK START - DXF TO ILLUSTRATOR 2.2

QUICK START - DXF to Illustrator 2.2-OS

THE CONVERSION IN 9 EASY STEPS
IMPORTING IN ILLUSTRATOR
IMPORTING IN FREEHAND
EXAMINING A DXF FILE
IMPORTANT NOTES
MORE INFORMATION & HELP

THE CONVERSION IN 9 EASY STEPS

1. Start the application DXF to Illustrator 2.2-OS

2. Choose "Setup" from the "File" menu.

A dialog box appears with settings for the conversion:

Figure 1 : Dialog box for Conversion Setup.

3. Change the following settings in this dialog box:

If the scale of the map is known, select the option "Custom scale". In other cases choose for scaling to A4 or A3.
Custom scale: click on the radio button and enter the number of mm on the map which equals to one DXF unit .The DXF unit is the mapping unit defined in the system you made the original map in. This could be anything, from meters to nautic miles. There is no way to find out what a DXF unit actually stands for by reading the DXF file, because the DXF format does not provide this information. You’ll have to find this out from the original application the map was made in.
- In many cases 1 DXF unit represents 1 meter. So given a scale 1 : 100 000 and a DXF unit of 1 meter one should enter: 0.01 mm.
- If one is not sure about the DXF unit then it is possible to examine a DXF file to determine this by means of trial and erro (ee description of examining a DXF file).
Set the other options in this dialog box as shown in figure 1. By moving the pointer over the various items, a short help text about that option is displayed.

4. Select the OK button to confirm the settings. You can also save and load settings in setting files.

5. Select "Convert" from the "File" menu.

A dialog box appears for selecting the DXF file.

6. Select the DXF file which has to be converted.

A dialog box appears for naming and locating the file Illustrator file.

7. Enter a name and define the location for the Illustrator file which will be created.

The conversion will now start. The elements that are converted will be displayed on the screen in a seperate window. Elements currently being converted are drawn in this window. For speed considerations, text is NOT drawn. Elements drawn in blue indicate that these elements belong to a DXF BLOCK and will be grouped in the Illustrator file. Elemenst drawn in green indicate that these are DXF POLYLINEs and their startwidths will be used to scale their linewidths accordingly (see the appropriate setting in the setup dialog).

You can cancel the conversion by pressing the Command and Period keys simultaniously.

8. Click on the OK button when the conversion is ready (if the conversion is ready you will hear a sound).

9. Quit the DXF to Illustrator application by selecting "Quit" from the "File" menu.

IMPORTING IN ILLUSTRATOR

Files converted with the "1.1 standard" or "1.1 for old Freehand" options can be opened by any Illustrator version. Files converted with the "1.1 with Layer Info" option can only be opened by Illustrator 5.0 or higher.

IMPORTING IN FREEHAND

Only files saved with the option "1.1 for Freehand" can be converted correctly by Freehand versions prior to 5.0. Freehand versions 5.x can import files converted with the "1.1 with Layer Info" option selected ONLY if all paths have less than 1000 vertices. Freehand version 7 and higher will import all file types.

1. Start FreeHand

2. Select "Open" from the "File" menu.

A dialog box for selecting the illustrator file will appear.

3. Select the file which you converted with DXF to Illustrator.

The file will now (again) be converted. The file is opened as an "untitled" document.

4. Use "Save" or "Save as" from the "File" menu to store the Freehand file with an appropriate name.

EXAMINING A DXF FILE

A DXF file can be examined with the "DXF File Info" option in the "File" menu.The main function of "DXF File Info" is to estimate the dimension of the document in mm AFTER conversion, without actually having to convert the document.

Select the "DXF File Info" option in the "File" menu.

The program will now read the DXF file. After examining the file the program will show the results in a dialog box (see figure 2).

Figure 2: result of the "DXF File Info" command

The most important information given in this dialog box is:

the Minimum X and Y and Maximum X and Y values in the DXF file.
the dimensions of the document/map in mm after conversion.

For the calculation of the dimensions in mm the program will take the current scale setting from the Conversion Setup dialog box!

Using "DXF File Info", you are able to find an appropriate custom scale by a trial and error process in which one successively selects the "Setup" command , changes the custom scale, checks the "DXF File Info" command for the resulting dimensions, etcetera. until useful dimensions are found.

IMPORTANT NOTES

When choosing "1.1 with Layer Info" the grouping options are dimmed, because otherwise an illegal "nesting" of layers would be possible.
Lineweights are not implemented in the DXF-format. Most DXF-out convertors "fake" lineweights by converting the elements to POLYLINEs, which support a 'startwidth' and 'endwidth'. DXF to Illustrator can convert these 'startwidths' to (scaled) Postscript lineweights. As Postscript doesn't support variable lineweights, the 'endwidth' of an element is ignored.
The only filled elements supported by the DXF format are SOLIDs (a rectangle or triangle). Most DXF-out convertors convert filled elements to closed POLYLINEs or ARCs.
DXF to Illustrator gives you the option to fill the SOLIDs, CIRCLES or closed POLYLINEs and ARCs in the DXF file. Fills will always have the current DXF line colour, as the DXF format doesn't allow separate line- and fill-colours. Note that most DXF-out convertors will convert ellipses to closed ARCs, not to CIRCLEs!
Grouping of DXF BLOCKs can be selected with a checkbox, regardless of the other grouping options chosen. BLOCKs with elements on various layers will become a group on the first layer encountered in the BLOCK definition record. Text within BLOCKs will be separated from the BLOCKs and converted as normal text.
WARNING: If BLOCK nesting is too complex, the conversion can stall or the converted file can be erroneous (error message such as "offending operator: U"). If this happens, the only solution is to turn grouping of BLOCKs of.
Note that "Cells" (as used for example in Microstation DGN-files) will be converted to BLOCKs by most DXF-out convertors, thus losing any "cell-family" information.

MORE INFORMATION & HELP

More information about DXF to Illustrator can be found at its official Home Page at: https://kartoweb.itc.nl/dxftoill

If you have questions or problems contact: dxftoill@itc.nl
DISCLAIMER: Since the program became Freeware (OpenSource) in July 2002, we do not provide official support.