CAD-to-Illustrator line segmentation mess

I am getting CAD-generated pdfs of engineering part drawings, then opening in Illustrator to tweak, apply fills etc. The pdf vector art is actually a complicated pile of segmented lines-- no continuous, joined lines to define objects-- and I am spending way too much time endlessly selecting/joining endpoints so that fills can be applied. Is there an easier way to do this? (Has this been discussed before?)

Concatenate is the name of a plugin by Rick Johnson (Google Graffix). A must in this situation.

My solution is to clean up in FreeHand. It has simple join and simplify commands. Imagine if you could select 100 line segments, press command J, then use the simplify command, and you end up with a smoothed path. I hope Adobe incorporates FreeHand's excellent path tools when they take over the program.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode test 33Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

2 1st July 02:37 larry_g._schneider External User Posts: 1	CAD-to-Illustrator line segmentation mess Concatenate is the name of a plugin by Rick Johnson (Google Graffix). A must in this situation.

3 1st July 11:41 bruce_kieffer External User Posts: 1	CAD-to-Illustrator line segmentation mess My solution is to clean up in FreeHand. It has simple join and simplify commands. Imagine if you could select 100 line segments, press command J, then use the simplify command, and you end up with a smoothed path. I hope Adobe incorporates FreeHand's excellent path tools when they take over the program.