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scott_rockwell10-Marble
10-Marble
April 2, 2014
Question

Silkscreen Artworks Best Practices

  • April 2, 2014
  • 6 replies
  • 2218 views

Pro-gurus,


Runnig Creo Parametric 2.0 m070.


From time to time we have sheet metal designs that require silk screened graphics.


The vendor requires the artwork in Adobe Illustrator (.ai) file format. I'm not an AI expert.


I do have access to Adobe Illustrator and can see that there are many possible file formats; jpeg, dxf, dwg, bmp, png - the list goes on and on. I also see that Illustrator is a file format option during an import into CREO (no success going this route to date).


I have looked at decals but they disappear in unshaded drawing views and line-art used for our service documentation.


We generally start with solid geometry and add cosmetic features to represent the graphics (sometimes hard than it sounds depending on the graphic). This is then added to a single view in a blank drawing which is <save a=" copy="> in DXF format. This file is used to seed the our Adobe Illustrator exprerts. They add the "offical" graphics, hide our initial dxf imported data and save off the .ai file.


This is where the loop ends.


I would like to add the "offical" graphics back into the 3d model. It should maintain fonts, line weights and fill areas from the artwork file. Often line weights and fill areas turn into outlines which don't actually fill.


Please, can someone outline the full circle best practice approach to this process.



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6 replies

K
kimndave91-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 2, 2014

The best is to output DXF or IGES from AI and then use that as the basis for datum curve from file**. You'll need a csys of the correct location and orientation to match the XY offsets in the DXF to position it.


This will get line work for the manuals. The rest you must doctor in yourself, creating sketched datum curves and hatching them to simulate fill and so forth.


Font matching is unlikely to happen, and particularly any kerning that is applied in AI.


**I usually use IGES so I know that works for Import, but DXF might also. If DXF is not an option, open the DXF in a drawing and then export the IGES from there.

M
mpeterson1-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 3, 2014
Scott,



I am certainly interested in hearing if there are any clean and quick ways
of doing this. In my experiences if needed or highly desired to include
artwork in the part I have imported DXF or DWG files into a part and used
the line work as a template and then recreated fonts and line art which can
obviously take lots of time and be very tedious. I have not been successful
at importing an AI file so that could be the key and usually the DXF or DWG
has many problems making them impossible to use directly. These imported
files also tend to be made up of hundreds of small segments. The alternative
for service documentation is to import the CAD image and artwork and size
accordingly in that program. To get close on general text you can load the
font file into your Pro/E font folder and then access it in your sketcher
text tool. When doing this you need to restart Pro/E to see the font as an
option in the sketcher tool.



Good Luck.



Mark A. Peterson

Design Engineer

Varel International

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B
bokm96061-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 3, 2014
I have had some success importing artwork into 3d space as a dxf. You need
to make sure your dxf is scaled 1:1 and it's origin matches an available
Csys in your 3d model for import
V
vmcdaniel1-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 3, 2014
We import back into Creo the .ai file and/or apply a decal with jpeg
AI does need a few settings tweaked to do this. I think using export as an early AI version and RGB, not CMYK.

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slapha15-Moonstone
15-Moonstone
April 3, 2014

We've had a variety of attempts at this. The majority is importing DXF files as curve from file. It's not ideal when you have many line segements and it begins to affect the performance of an otherwise simple part. A few users have gone a step further and created a very thin protrusion part if the geometry was simple enough.So far thebest casewas to actually create sketches and annotations on the part itself. That comes with it's own set of difficulties with line weights, making everything match up model to drawing, and have filled in areas.


I'd be interested in finding a better way to accomplish this as well.

M
mpeterson1-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 3, 2014
One other thing to consider. If you do need to import the AI file in and recreate the artwork I would consider doing it in a separate part for a few reasons. This way you can import the geometry as a sketch into the sketcher and thus just one feature in your actual part or my preferred method is to copy geometry (Publish Geom from the artwork part) as a finished surface filled as needed and then this helps keep your regeneration time and file size down. You do have to remember this artwork part file has a relationship with your end part file. If this is something used often it can be copied in and not need to be recreated every time. If it is the same art but different size it can be scaled in the sketch or you can make save as copies to different sizes using the scaling feature.

Food for though.

Mark P.




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