How much has .ai import improved?

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Manu
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How much has .ai import improved?

Post by Manu »

In one of the demo video's, there's mention of improved .ai and.eps import. Unfortunately, the demo version has these imports disabled. I'm constantly having to import .ai files, so for me this is a big deal.

Can anybody shed any light on how much these features have changed?
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mkelley
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Post by mkelley »

One thing for sure -- it still doesn't import anything other than AI 8 (or below) version files.

I tried it with an AI 8 file (nothing too complicated, just a simple hard hat) and it ruined it -- flattened it out completely so it was just one line.

As a general rule, I would NOT rely upon AS to correctly import vector art from other applications (as always, simply redraw).
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Víctor Paredes
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Post by Víctor Paredes »

I imported some draws and this were transformed pretty good. It still being not perfect, but it's good, much better than in version 5. I get the sharp curves still sharp, for example, something I didn't see before. Anyway, you can't expect to have everything smooth and every point just where you want for rigging, in several cases it still being better re-draw on AS.
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uddhava
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Post by uddhava »

I can import Illustrator files version 8 and 7 and probably lower, but I cant import gradients (I get a squished shape).

Also I can import a shape with a think stroke width, but the line and the shape will be two different objects.

Also there will be more points than in the original ai. file.

Certainly they aren't fully compatible. So you will have to decide whether it is worth it to import or just redraw the shapes.

ASP 6 now has very nice gradient fill tools, by the way.

udd
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

Improvements to the AI import deal mostly with point placement. The points are placed in a "new way". I am sure it's a bunch of math I don't understand. The result is more "accurate" shapes. Not exact mind you but better.

Try the text tool. This apparently uses the same "code' for outlining text and gives better results on fonts.

As for AI version support... eh... well the file format keeps changing over there at Adobe so constantly having to update the format support in AS isn't practical. AS couldn't import or support any features in AI since 8. That is probably why it stopped at that version. Why recode that feature just to strip everything out of the file during import?

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Genete
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Post by Genete »

Those of you that have 5.6 and 6.0, why don't you paste here some examples of import AI files?. Only visually others can decide ;)
-G
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Víctor Paredes
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Post by Víctor Paredes »

Image
I'm hurry, so here is just a little example. Guess which is version 6 :roll:
Genete
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Post by Genete »

Great! Very good news because text was one of the less accurate thing achieved.
And what about an AI sample? ;)
-G
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Víctor Paredes
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Post by Víctor Paredes »

No problem, Genete, I'm back on home so I can post with calm.
Here you have a little AI example. at first it could seems identical, but look at the details, the softness of each curve.
Image
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