Illustrator to SketchUp

I seem to have resolved my problem with taking shapes from Illustrator to SketchUp. For the life of me, I wasn't able to get anything with curves into SU. So after some experimentation and putting some tid bits of info from you all together I came up with a simple working solution (so far it has worked):

1. Make your shape in Illustrator (in my case I did a molding profile)

2. Go to Object>Path>Add Anchor Points. (by default when you click this id adds an anchor point in the middle of every other anchor point you have) The smoother you want your curves the more Anchor Points you will want to add.

3. Then go to Object>Path>Simplify and check the "Straight Lines" box. Bring your "Angle Threshold" down to 0. You can check the preview box and see how it looks.

4. Export as a .dxf file and insert into SU.

5. Redraw one line so SU will recognize the shape and fill.

Badda-Boom, Badda-Bing!

I'm having more fun than ever now extruding molding and other fun shapes.

Hope this helps. If anyone sees some flaws in this formula please feel free to correct me.

One more thing: Make SURE your object has a stroke value in Illustrator. Best I can tell it doesn't need to have a fill, but SU won't import it if it doesn't have a stroke.

Thanks, Shannon. I'm going to check it out right now!

IT WORKS BEAUTIFULLY!!

I nominate this for tip of the month, not just week.

Thanks much.

wow. This is great. Thanks thanks.

Home Run Shannon.

Best regards

Jim Holman

@Last Software

Shannon,

I do not use Illustrator..but rather CorelDRAW (no jabs please...) and I have a simpe question. Since I am much more familiar and comfortble drawing profiles in AutoCAD an importing them to SU...in native DWG format, is there any reason I would want to use a vector illustration package such as Corel or Illustrator to create intial shapes and profiles? I assume you could only answer this if you had cad experiences as well. So if you can not answer this, will someone else comment, please.

Thanks,

Kevin

Kevin,

I have had autocad files that for some reason import into SU but cannot for some unknown reason be seen ( I cannot find the file in the SU file). This doesn't always happen but every now and then it's a real pain. In Illustrator, it is very easy to "eyeball and design" complex curves with the pen tool. Illustrator also has a very short learning curve as opposed to Autocad (which I also use). Also, Illustrator is much less costly than Autocad. Not everyone has access to Autocad, or can afford it. Illustrator also works seamlessly with Photoshop which is another benefit. Kevin for you it probably would not make sense to use Illustrator but for folks that are not schooled in cad it may be a work around.

As for CorelDRAW..................oh well

Russ B

Hi Shannon,

Still having troubles...

I don't see SIMPLIFY as an option in tool dropbox OBJECT>PATH> simplify????

I'm using Illustrator 8.0.

What do I do now?

Jennie,

Attached is a screen shot, but it's from Illustrator CS. To be honest I'm not sure if 8.0 has this feature. I have since moved on to version 10 and now CS. It's possible that 8.0 is limited, but I would be surprised. Maybe click on Help in the menu bar within Illustrator and do a search for "simplify".

Let me know if this helps.