Illustrator to Vinyl Signs...how to?

[Kayle_Simon@adobeforums.com]

After creating some complex black and white art for a television show, I was asked to send a file to a signmaker who would create it in vinyl to put on a glass door. However, they needed the artwork to be "welded." When I queried them about what they meant, they said my art opens in layers, even though I flattened it. Turns out their cutter wants to cut the way I drew, and the way I drew is not the way you would if you were cutting this design out with scissors. Lines intersected, shapes intersected...this was not just about making various paths into compound shapes, this was going to mean recreating the entire thing. I wished I could take complex artwork and change it to "outline" making paths around all of the black areas that touch one another. Is there a plug in that can do this?
My solution was to save as .eps, open in photoshop, select all black areas, create paths, and export the resulting paths to illustrator. Took me 2 hours to then simplify and clean up those paths, which had far more anchors then necessary, but it was better than anything else I could think of. I bet there's an easier way and I'm just not aware of it. I'm going to do this often, though, so if you can guide me...that would be great. Is there such a thing as a "weld" tool out there?

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

Path Finder Unite.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

And expand.

[Just_A_Mac_Guy@adobeforums.com]

Vinyl cutters cut along the path. not the visible shapes. Think about it as the art is not Black line with white fill but Black line with no fill.

Sign makers are generally not graphics people so even though they could fix the eps themselves, it is probably better that they don't.

Most of the few I still deal with, won't do it themselves. They don't even have Illustrator. The software that runs the cutter only reads eps's for the path.

[Big Giant Head]

If you want complex art stuck on a glass door it should be printed onto self adhesive vinyl and applied not individually cut out of vinyl for every colour.

A good sign company should know when to cut a design out of vinyl and when to just print and stick on.

[allenatl@adobeforums.com]

The weld tool is the sign program's version of Pathfinder's Unite feature.
As long as you know in advance that your art is going to be used for both print and vinyl, then you can create it using only filled paths, no strokes, and using Pathfinder tools to eliminate intersections. View in Outline mode to see exactly what the signmaker's plotter will cut.
When dealing with already existing art, use Object>Path>Outline Stroke and Pathfinder tools to change the art to something the sign program can use.

[Kayle_Simon@adobeforums.com]

My art was black and white and features masks and lots of complex images...a state emap behind a crest shape, a lighthouse in front, a statue on top of that. To go through and use the object, path, outline stroke, unite, etc., tools would have taken, and did take, hours. To create it that way to begin with would not have been impossible.

There MUST be a plug in that does this, I thought. And indeed, there are many programs that do something like this...costing thousands, created for sign makers. However, there is one that I found that is much less expensive and works beautifully: sillouette. They have a plug in for Illustrator (up to 10 right now) on both mac and pc platforms, as well as a stand alone application. I downloaded a trial version and it worked beautifullly, took minutes, and gave me paths that were not only much simpler than any other method I tried, but also editable within the program. Beautiful. Even works on jpgs and bitmapped images. I don't think anyone's suggestions came close with complex artwork, so I thought I'd pass on this solution.

[rogrerogre@adobeforums.com]

MagicSign is the plugin for vinyl cutters. There is a free version for OS9. But you are not use to this software and don't really know what they need. These guys you are dealing with are lazy jerks. Most sign makers do these AI to cutter translations all the time. The usual file they get is a really bad MS Word file needing to go from 2 inches to 14 feet. An AI file should be a treat.

I have several sign companies that pay me to train them on these conversions. If it is really hard they pay me to do it.

Tell the folk you did the art for that these guys a jerking you around and you need to find a sign maker that knows what he is doing. Call different sign shops and ask them if they can do ai files.

I am sorry I didn't see your post sooner.

Roger

[rogrerogre@adobeforums.com]

If you haven't been able to get you file cutter ready let me know.

[email]roger@rogerdharris.com[/email]

roger

[Unregistered]

It's easy and I learned it on my own when I bought my vinyl cutter. Alls you do is select your object with the selection tool. then go to object then expand both fill and stroke. open pathfinder. then trim. select another object and do the same. if the two or more objects are over lapping select one then hold shift down as you select the others in order to select them all. then at pathfinder hit merge. you have to expand them first so dont skip that step. after you merge them hit trim again to take out un needed lines. then hit ctrl y to check your work. what you see after you hit ctrl y is what the cutter will cut. then get you direct selection tool and click on a line. hit delete 2 times. if the object disappears then it does not have double lines then you can hit ctrl z 2 times to get it back. If you select the object and hit delete twice and it doesn't disappear then it had double lines and you want to leave it like that. you can then hit ctrl y to view your original artwork.

Cipriano P.