Help - Converting Illustrator Artwork into Editable Spline

[thickly]

I'm trying to get a logo from Illustrator into 3DS max so that I can extrude it into an object. My main problem is dealing with the compound paths in the logo (for example, the letter "O" comes in as a solid circle without the middle cutout). The imported spline is also very jagged compared to the illustrator path. Here is the process I have tried.

 

1. .jpeg logo is placed into illustrator,

2. use "Live Trace" to trace paths of the logo

3. Export paths as a .dwg file

4. Open 3dsMax -- import the .dwg file

 

The file opens as an editable spline, but the curves are not very smooth and all of the interior "cut-outs" of letters (A, D, O, etc...) are filled in.

Any ideas?

[Brian Smith]

It's been a long time since I've done this, but can you not increase the steps of the editable spline to make the curves smoother? Also, are the interior splines not attached to the exterior ones. If they are, I don't know why the letters wouldn't be hollow when extruded (assuming the splines endpoints were properly welded).

[Bugga_Guy]

if you are tracing the logo in illustrator,why not do that in 3ds max? Or you can just use the snap tool and the pointer will snap to the vertex for easy tracing.

[thickly]

ok, found a solution thanks to this tutorial

http://www.maxhelp.com/content/tutorials/illus/illustrator.htm (am I allowed to past links here?)

In a nutshell:

1. down-Save Illustrator file as Version 8

2. Import into 3ds Max (File->Import->Filetype .ai) as "Multiple Objects"

3. The scale of the initial import is miniscule, so apply X-Form modifier and scale up uniformly

4. Convert all paths to Editable Splines

5. Attach all the necessary splines

6. Extrude the spline

thats it -- pretty easy after spending the better part of my day trying to import as a .dwg. Who would have thought it was easier going Adobe-to-Autodesk rather than Autodesk-to-Autodesk.