Apologies for wingeing on about this software, is it only me that has issues with it ?
Because of the (hopefully temporary) adobe illustrator import problems, I am using DXF as a last resort.
I have managed to get it down to a process that 'works' - I use the term 'works' loosely
Here's what I have (bear in mind I'm using Mac with it's CR line endings, but it is set up as PC CRLF endings) - none of my Mac or PC CAD apps have any problem reading the files.
All of my graphic apps/CAD apps are the same here, so it's definitely a LaserCAD thing - get it wrong and it just crashes - not a gracious 'Sorry, I can't do that Dave' and return to the app - it just shuts down with some option to tell Bill Gate$ about the issue.
I digress, here is the process ...
1 Select all
2 Release any compound paths
3 Repeat 1 & 2 until you can't release any further compound paths.
4 Select All
5 Ungroup
6 Repeat 4 & 5 until there is nothing left to ungroup (this leaves your primary file in a god-awfull mess of course, so don't save it !)
7 Export to DXF in the following manner ...
Autocad v2000/LT2000 (or 2004, it doesn't seem to matter).
Scale 1:1 millimetres (in my case)
256 Colours (although 16 also works)
JPEG for any bitmaps
Preserve Appearance
Outline text (although I would have done that as a matter of course).
8 Import the DXF file to LaserCAD.
Now, I use various colours to determine what I want to do and LaserCAD does similarly - it allows the end user to attach various parameters to each colour (layer if you like). They're the basic RGB colour set, but I only use about three or four. All works well until you import anything that is blue (RGB 0,0,255) - it seems to assume that this is to be rastered (engraved) as it 'fills' any objects in solid blue ! Whatever happened to user preferences ??? Now I have to go back and change my work practice again
However, without the blue issue, it does seem to work. As an aside, I tried just a standard DXF without any ungrouping etc in LaserWorks (Shenhui) - worked just fine - and didn't raster the blue layer either.
Anyone else have these problems, I don't see any comments in the forums?
Cheers
Neil