off topic: e-drawings, eps files, frame and pdf

[Alison Craig]

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.craig at ultrasonix.com
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Tim Lewis
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 11:07 AM
To: framers at 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.writer at 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-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Jo Watkiss
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 2:28 AM
To: framers at 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

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