totally new to Cad, would love some help

[kdubato]

Hello, I want to thank anyone in advanced for any help they can offer. I've tried looking some of these up, but I just couldn't find an answer.

I create show programs for Trade Shows, which usually includes a floor plan of where it's being held, with all the booth names, booth #s, etc.

I receive a floor plan from someone as an AutoCad file and I need to bring it into Illustrator so that I can change the entire look of it. Bascially make it more "cartoony" (for a lack of better words) white booths with black strokes, a condensed font for the booth #s and extra condensed font for the booth names.

What I am finding VERY frustrating is when I bring the .dwg file into Illustrator, each booth name that takes up two lines, gets chopped up, so, say for example: in AutoCad

JOE SHMOE
ENTERPRISES

is all in one text box, but when I bring it into Illustrator, JOE SHMOE is one text box and Enterprises is in another.

Am I importing it wrong? Why do my text boxes keep getting chopped up? Does anyone know how to prevent this?

Of course, I would very much prefer to format every booth name at one time in AutoCad, does anyone know how I can select all Mtext on one layer, so that I may format everything at once?

Do I have to change the color of the layer to change the color of the text?

How do I change the Units from FEET/INCHES to points like in normal programs...

Does MText/polymorph lines make a difference for commercial CMYK printing? If it does, how can I convert it to Mtext to text and polymorph lines to normal lines?

Sorry for the long post and again, very much appreciate any assistance,

Kdubbie

[Comach]

Couple of options for you to consider:

May be worthwhile changing the text in Autocad to use TTF fonts.

If you can create a PDF this would be useable within Illustartor and retain the actual look of the Autocad file.

[rkmcswain]

What I am finding VERY frustrating is when I bring the .dwg file into Illustrator, each booth name that takes up two lines, gets chopped up, so, say for example: in AutoCad

JOE SHMOE
ENTERPRISES

is all in one text box, but when I bring it into Illustrator, JOE SHMOE is one text box and Enterprises is in another.

I'm guessing whatever intermediate format it's using to make the translation (maybe R12 DXF?) doesn't support MTEXT?

BTW: Have you looked at possibly using Autodesk Impression for your task? Of course I don't know exactly what your output requirements are, but it sounds like Impression may fit the task.

http://www.autodesk.com/impression

The advantage being that Impression knows DWG files so it shouldn't have the problems you mentioned.

[kdubato]

Couple of options for you to consider:

May be worthwhile changing the text in Autocad to use TTF fonts.


How do I do that? Can I convert Mtext to regular text?

Thanks again.

[rkmcswain]

How do I do that?Change the properties of the textstyle, or if the MTEXT has hardcoded fonts applied, change it there.
Can I convert Mtext to regular text?
._EXPLODE command.

[jaberwok]

I receive a floor plan from someone as an AutoCad file and I need to bring it into Illustrator so that I can change the entire look of it. Bascially make it more "cartoony" (for a lack of better words) white booths with black strokes, a condensed font for the booth #s and extra condensed font for the booth names.
Answered above.


What I am finding VERY frustrating is when I bring the .dwg file into Illustrator, each booth name that takes up two lines, gets chopped up,
Am I importing it wrong? Why do my text boxes keep getting chopped up? Does anyone know how to prevent this?
Answered above.


Of course, I would very much prefer to format every booth name at one time in AutoCad, does anyone know how I can select all Mtext on one layer, so that I may format everything at once?
Make the text layer the current layer. Use the layer command to Freeze all layers; the current layer cannot be frozen so all layers except the text layer will disappear and all the text objects can be selected by windowing them. Thaw all layers when you've finished or use LayerP(revious).

Do I have to change the color of the layer to change the color of the text?
Having selected all the text objects you can change their colour but it's generally accepted practice to change the layer colour and keep objects' colour as "bylayer".


How do I change the Units from FEET/INCHES to points like in normal programs...
Feet/inches are normal for real-world measurement; points, as measurement, are used for print work so AutoCAD doesn't support using them.


Does MText/polymorph lines make a difference for commercial CMYK printing? If it does, how can I convert it to Mtext to text and polymorph lines to normal lines?
No idea.
Mtext can be Xploded to Text. Splines (polymorph lines ?) can be converted to polylines by saving the file as R12DXF (separate the splines into their own file file first). Polylines can be Xploded to lines and arcs.

[ccowgill]

Splines (polymorph lines ?) can be converted to polylines by saving the file as R12DXF (separate the splines into their own file file first). Polylines can be Xploded to lines and arcs.
splines can be converted to polylines with Bonus Pack 1 of 2009, or you can use the express tool flatten on the spline and it will convert it to a polyline