Working with vectors

[Anthony Hyatali]

Hi,

I am currently working with customers files for spot coating. Currently they are sending us PDF files, and I am exporting the PDF to .DXF for use in Enroute. however, I have noticed that the text exports perfectly fine from Adobe Illustrator, however boxes or knockouts export with hundreds of extra lines surrounding the image, some of them outside of the actual image. If i delete the extra lines, it alters the image I need to cut. My customers are sending the same files they would send to a die company, so what am I doing wrong? Is there a step that I am missing? These extra lines show up in Illustrator as well, but only when I select Preview outline.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance,

Anthony

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Designing clean artwork for die lines must look clean in outline. It is a skill that is loosing ground as designers get sloppy.
I usually add a new layer and copy just the relevant paths to it. All artwork must be in it's expanded form and limited to line art for DXF to work well.

 

[Anthony Hyatali]

Hi,

Thanks for the info, I tried that, didn't really work.

I have attached a picture of the screen shot. It better illustrates what I am trying to convert.

any input is helpful.

Thanks

Anthony

 

[CHM]

It seems to be a flattend pdf file, can you check the pdf version is it 1.3 or lower?
Can't you get the original data?

 

[Anthony Hyatali]

Hi,

The version is 1.6. I checked the file again and it's on Layer 1 but there are 64 Groups. If i select and delete the extra lines, it changed the layout of the image. It increases the size of the boxes.

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

It's an imposed PDF with all the bounding boxes. I've cleaned up a few of those in my time.
Possible just as dissarming a nuke is…*just needs a highly skilled agent with a steady hand.

Is it imposed in preps or similar? Most of the lines are multiple level clipping paths. Some are even the clippingpaths of the crop marks. I don't know of any automatic way of cleaning it. You will have to do alot of ungrouping, unmasking, and releasing compound paths. You could also try selecting all and making it into a live paint object (provided it is a die line or partial varnish film that you are hoping to get out of it. The file you attatched is a help to understand where you are (and I been there) but I'm still unclear of where you want to be.

 

[Anthony Hyatali]

Hi,

Yeah, it's an imposed pdf that was sent to me. What I am looking for is a clean vector, just with the lines required to make a spot coating plate. This file wasn't that bad as I was able to manually trace around the boxes on Layer 2 and delete the first layer. However, if I get a file that is slightly more detailed, i don't think that method will work, or be very time efficient. SO...since there isn't an automatic function available, and the manual way requires a lot of skill, should I be asking for a different file type? Or should the customer be doing something different? perhaps an extra step OR different setting that will output a clean vector?

Thanks Again,

Anthony

 

[Tracy]

it does look like an impo pdf
like the one guy said select the strokes and marks you need to keep,
put on a new layer and delete the other layer.
I do this quite often