Using AutoCAD for illustrations

["Barnett, Eva" <Eva -dot- Barnett -at- aketontechnologies -dot- com>]

Hi All,

I'm trying to get a piece of an AutoCAD (2000 version) drawing into a
format that our graphics artist can use (bitmap or metafile seem like
good candidates), but I'm experiencing some trouble. I'm hoping one of
you may be able to help out.

An archive search revealed the following relevant information (snipped
down):
*Stephen Parkes: A great deal of our wiring diagrams are created in
AutoCad...as simple as it sounds, Word and a WMF file have worked for us
for years
*Tom Johnson: We have very good success using either of two methods.
Save the drawing (export) as either EPS or wmf format. The commands are
"epsout" and "wmfout." You may have to experiment with changing the line
weights and colors to get a good result.
*Mark Emerson: WMF are good. They let you take a CAD drawing apart line
by line... Alternatively, even in Word you can select all and change the
line widths,scale, recolour etc. EPS is good for accurate copies...
Dick Dimock: I have been using AutoCAD LT for Windows...imports to Word
6.0 with .wmf very easily

When I try the techniques suggested, I run into the following problems:
- lines are not smooth, especially in circles (OK, you math folks out
there, don't give me a hard time about the line of a circle; you know
what I mean :)
- I'm having a heck of a time trying to control the size of the image.
It appears to be related to how the page is set up to plot in AutoCAD,
but the changes I make in the AutoCAD print/plot settings don't give the
results I expect.

Following other suggestions in the archives about exporting to bitmap
results in similar problems.

Do any of you know of a way to get a vector image out of AutoCAD that's
editable in a graphics program? Or, less ideally, to get a raster image
out that looks as good printed as the original AutoCAD drawing did?

I would appreciate any suggestions you might offer. I'm on digest, so
please cc any replies to me directly too.

Thanks,

Eva


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