Rhino Tutorial: Exporting to Adobe Illustrator, Setting Line Weights in AI, and Exporting from AI to PDF

In this tutorial we will be going over how to Export from Rhino to Adobe Illustrator, set line weights and hatches in AI, and Export from AI to PDF.

Before we start, you will need a completed floor plan in Rhino.

First start by selecting the whole floor plan and selecting, File>Export Selected. Choose the Adobe Illustrator File type and select save.

The next window will ask you to choose a scale. For my floor plan I will use a 1" = 4' scale, since it will allow my drawing to fit neatly on a 24" by 36" ARCH D.

Open the newly created file in Adobe Illustrator, and you will find that the art board is too small and the drawing itself is not located on the art board.

Open the Art board menu in the window tab and then change the art board size by inputing 24 Inches and 36 Inches in the width and height areas respectivly. It will automatically convert inches to pt. After highlight the entire drawing, and drag it onto the art board.

When selecting a line in AI, have the propoerties tab open on the right side in order to be able to change the line whight and color. If you have previously set line colors, you can select all lines of the same color by using Select>Select Similar Stroke Width. Note that your line weights and layers set in Rhino will be different due to the conversion of the file. Change the line wights by simply changing the stroke size in the properties menu after selecting a line.

To create hatches, first create a new layer, and copy the existing drawing. Select the new layer, and then select edit>paste in place. Your pasted drawing should be in the exact same place as your original. With the new drawing selected, use Object>live paint>make. This will turn your drawing into boundary lines. Press K on the keyboard to activate the live paint bucket, and you can now select any inclosed space in the drawing and fill it with the selected color.

Once you are finished, export the document using File>print. Change the destination to Adobe PDF and the media size to ARCH D or 24" by 36". When you press prin, the file should automatically open.

Check your line weights and make sure enhance thin lines is off.

I hope this tutorial was helpful!