Autocad to corel

[CanuckSigns]

I have a number of clients who send me files for engraved plates that they design in a CAD type program (solid works, Autocad etc) and I can never get them to import into coreldraw, all the text and lines come in as line segments, and no amount of welding, combining etc can make them a solid object.
I don't know enough about CAD to know if this is on my end or theirs. Does anyone know a way to fix this, or a setting my client can use when they save from Solidworks?

 

[unclebun]

This is how it always works. Those programs work in polylines rather than bezier vectors. At least that's the default for exports. If they are using a more current version of the software and they know how to adjust the export filter as they export the file they can get curved vectors by selecting splined export or some similar terminology (Solidworks). In AutoCAD it's more complicated.

 

[netsol]

aspire can clean that up. dxf always ends up with 500 nodes

 

[Bill Wilson]

Corel has a join open points function that you can set to within a few pixels distance between points to join. I have had occasional success with doing a select all function followed up with a join open points/curves function. Best results come from doing these functions on individual letters/shapes for more control.

 

[Ronny Axelsson]

The Join curves function (docker) in CorelDRAW fixes it.
You can probably use any settings you like but I suggest Extend with a low Gap tolerance (0.0 should work fine in this case).

Simply select the objects with the Pick tool and click Apply in the docker. Done. *

If you want to "clean up" the objects afterwards, switch to the Shape tool, select all nodes and click Reduce Nodes in Property Bar.
Keep an eye on the curves to make sure the don't change, but normally Draw is doing a very good job getting rid of unnecessary nodes.

* Note: If the line/curve order for some reason is wrong and nodes from different objects are exactly on top of each other, Draw could at least theoretically connect nodes incorrectly.
But I assume that If lines/curves are coming from the same object in the CAD program, the order should then also be correct.

 

[myront]

I have a number of clients who send me files for engraved plates that they design in a CAD type program (solid works, Autocad etc) and I can never get them to import into coreldraw, all the text and lines come in as line segments, and no amount of welding, combining etc can make them a solid object.
I don't know enough about CAD to know if this is on my end or theirs. Does anyone know a way to fix this, or a setting my client can use when they save from Solidworks?

You can use macros to fix most of the problems. The below could be made into a 1 sweep macro! Wouldn't mind having a problematic CAD file for testing other possibilities.

 

[CanuckSigns]

The Join curves function (docker) in CorelDRAW fixes it.
You can probably use any settings you like but I suggest Extend with a low Gap tolerance (0.0 should work fine in this case).

Simply select the objects with the Pick tool and click Apply in the docker. Done. *

If you want to "clean up" the objects afterwards, switch to the Shape tool, select all nodes and click Reduce Nodes in Property Bar.
Keep an eye on the curves to make sure the don't change, but normally Draw is doing a very good job getting rid of unnecessary nodes.

* Note: If the line/curve order for some reason is wrong and nodes from different objects are exactly on top of each other, Draw could at least theoretically connect nodes incorrectly.
But I assume that If lines/curves are coming from the same object in the CAD program, the order should then also be correct.

Whale Oil Beef Hooked, this works a treat! For anyone else running into this issue, use the join Curves function with the Bezier Curves option set to 0.0, then just combine the result and the text is perfect!