Tim: What if you need to add "stuff" to the drawings, like I do? Can you do that in the format you're describing?
The AI files I get from the Mechanical engineers do not contain Part Numbers or tool descriptions (for Service personnel). I also change the colour of some items so they stand out from the B&W line drawings as well as add arrows to ensure the correct part is identified with its part name and number. FYI: I got an e-mail from R&D yesterday. They were just at a SolidWorks demo where they saw "3D Via Composer". I haven't done my homework yet, but apparently it would allow me to grab a view and do things to it then pull it directly into FrameMaker. It also allows for HTML conversion and video creation: http://www.hawkridgesys.com/products/3dvia-composer/. The drawback is that a single-seat server edition is $6,000. Alison Alison Craig, Technical Writer Ultrasonix Medical Corporation Tel: (604) 279-8550, ext 127 E-mail: alison.cr...@ultrasonix.com -----Original Message----- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Tim Lewis Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 11:07 AM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: RE: off topic: e-drawings, eps files, frame and pdf I like using the SolidWorks eDrawings and often prefer it because too many times the engineers are either too busy to give me the drawings or the views I need. It has been far easier to ask for .easm files that have been saved for eDrawings. Then I open the file, rotate it to show what I need and hide those elements that I do not need. Then I print the result to a PDF, which I can import into Illustrator if needed. Tim Lewis Lewis Technical Communications, Inc. ltc.wri...@comcast.net > -----Original Message----- Jo: According to my mechanical designer (Alex has been great - teaching me about what I can do via AI with his SolidWorks stuff) there is pretty much *zero* work involved for the engineers to Save As an AI file (or a DWG file if your SoildWorks is older than the 2009 version) when they Save As to an EASM file. Is there a company protocol that forbids saving as an AI or DWG? If not, I highly suggest you try to get the engineer to spend an extra few seconds getting you what the user/customer needs - maybe bribe him with some doughnuts or muffins ;-)). In the past, I've had to use non-vector SolidWorks images and *no one* has been happy with the results. Alison From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Jo Watkiss Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 2:28 AM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: RE: off topic: e-drawings, eps files, frame and pdf Thanks everybody for lots of advice and suggestions. We don't have access to Solidworks itself, only the 3D e-drawing (.easm) that is supplied by the project engineer. We use the Solidworks eDrawings Viewer to manipulate the model to get the illustration that we need. Unfortunately, if we want to export a vector, its 'all or nothing' - which is probably why the resulting image renders so slowly on screen. I agree that in a perfect world the engineer would create all the illustrations we need as 2D PDFs directly from Solidworks; or we would have another Solidworks licence so that we could do it ourselves. In our imperfect world, we have to make do with the eDrawing. I've concluded its best to use a bitmap wherever possible, and a vector only when absolutely necessary. Cheers, Jo _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to framers as alison.cr...@ultrasonix.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/alison.craig%40ultrasonix.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.