Use Case: Creating an EngView project out of a multi-page pdf file with applied artwork

This use case focuses on how to create a 3D model of a multi-part product from an imported multi-page pdf file.

Examples of such structures are displays.

Goals of the procedure

The procedure presents how you can use the EngView-Illustrator integration to:

Structure of the procedure

The procedure consists of three steps:

  1. In Illustrator, you open the multi-page pdf file and create an EngView structural layer. In EngView, (1) you assign the correct production styles (most often Cutting and Creasing) to the product' structural objects, (2) check the structures for drafting errors, (3) create individual 3D drawings for each part and then (4) create a final 3D model assembled from all the individual 3D drawings.
  2. Finally, in Adobe Illustrator, you view the assembled 3D model with its artwork (graphical design).
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I. Creating the EngView structural layer

The critical factor here is that the integration does not recognize the lines that are meant for the structure (i.e. cutting, creasing, perforation). Making them recognizable by EngView is essential for the creation of a 3D model. This step tells you how to extract the structural objects from the original design in order to create an EngView structural layer.

  1. Open the file in Adobe Illustrator.

IMPORTANT: The critical requirement for this workflow is that each Illustrator artboard must contain only one part. This means that if all the parts happen to be in a single artboard, you must move them to their own artboards.

  1. Next we select the structural objects. Select all objects related to the structure of the product in all artboards simultaneously.
  2. Select all the structural objects in a single artboard.
  3. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for each artboard.

TIP: To reduce visual clutter during selection of structural objects, you may find it more convenient to hide the artwork (graphical design).

The artwork is now not visible; only structural objects are visible.

  1. In the EngView Articles panel, click the menu icon, and then click Copy Selected.

An EVDrawing layer has been created. It contains all the structural objects. Notice also that articles that carry the artwork (graphical designs) for each artboard have been created in the EngView Articles panel.

  1. From the artwork-related layers, delete (or hide) the original structural objects (those selected in Step 2). These objects are not meant for printing.
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II. Moving to EngView to assign styles to objects and create an assembly 3D model

We now move to EngView, where we will: (1) assign the correct styles to the structural objects, (2) check the structures for drafting errors, (3) create 3D drawing for each 1up drawing, and (4) create the assembled 3D model of the final product.

  1. In the EngView Articles panel, click the menu icon, and then click Edit in Package & Display Designer.

EngView opens. We see a project with as many 1ups (2D drawings) as the Illustrator artboards. In most cases, the drawn objects are copied in styles for EngView as they come from external software.

To create 3D drawings out of the 1up drawings, EngView needs to recognize the styles as productional (most often Cutting and Creasing). To achieve this, we will assign EngView styles to the 1ups' objects.

  1. For each 1up drawing repeat Steps 5–7:
  2. In the graphical area, select the objects that will be cut, and assign them to the Cutting style. Then select the objects that will be creased, and assign them to the Creasing style.

    TIP: В styles list view you can see styles that correspond to the objects' original colors. When you select the style, all the objects in this color are selected, and then you can assign to them the proper production style — Creasing, Cutting.

Selecting the original objects which EngView refers to as Unrecognized1.

  1. Check for drafting errors with Fix Assistant. For the 3D representation, it is especially important that the panels in the drawing have closed contours. To ensure you have closed contours, use the Fix Assistant tool.
  1. When you have associated the cut and crease objects with their styles and the 1up drawing has no critical drafting errors, in the 3D tab, create a 3D drawing for each 1up drawing.

    NOTE: Creating 3D models from each drawing and their eventual assembly into a final model is not part of this procedure.

  2. Assemble the 3D model for the final product.
  1. When the 3D model is ready, save the file and close it. The integration takes us back to Adobe Illustrator.
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III. Moving Back to Adobe Illustrator

In the EngView 3D panel in Illustrator, you now see the 3D model that you created in EngView.

In the Layers panel, enable the layers that carry the artworks to see how they sit on the product's surfaces.

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