Need Help Ai scaling help

[Pippin Decals]

I have read a few posts about scaling but due to all the posts were about The issues with Ai not having a large enough design board and how scaling numbers vary on size etc got me all flustered.. I do have Corel but struggling to learn it and i learned Ai much faster and felt easier.And prefer Ai now.

The reason for this is i use real photos from my customers i take with my camera and upload them into ai and apply a preview of the artwork i will be doing so they can see it before cutting is done, And sometimes the photo will fall off past the art-board limitations.Especially if im doing a large store front design.

Im hoping someone can provide an easy explanation of how to take a design im working on that is longer than the Artboard in ai .shrink it down like 1:10 etc and when i goto take that design to my cutting software how to bring my cut images back to proper size from the scaled down version. For some reason i cant grab the concept.And im no dummy lol just trying to learn the correct way on this.

So for an example working on a semi trailer. Lets say the box trailer is 10 feet high and its 35 feet long {just so i have numbers to give} that we can use for reference and i USE INCHES for all my designing in my art-board settings and not points etc.

Thank you very much

 

[Solventinkjet]

Make a box that is 1 foot by 3.5 feet long and design within those bounds. When you bring it back into the cut software, scale by 1000%. This gives you a 1:10 ratio as you described.I prefer 1:10 because all you have to do is move the decimal point.

 

[jfiscus]

Think of everything in inches, that keeps it simple; so a 35' x 10' job is 420 x 120 inches.
Just move the decimal point one place over so the 420.00 inches becomes 42.00 inches and you have a 1/10 scale piece of artwork.
In your RIP/printer tell it to print at 1000%. I do a lot of murals, box trucks, and semi trucks this way.

 

[AKwrapguy]

I have read a few posts about scaling but due to all the posts were about The issues with Ai not having a large enough design board and how scaling numbers vary on size etc got me all flustered.. I do have Corel but struggling to learn it and i learned Ai much faster and felt easier.And prefer Ai now.

The reason for this is i use real photos from my customers i take with my camera and upload them into ai and apply a preview of the artwork i will be doing so they can see it before cutting is done, And sometimes the photo will fall off past the art-board limitations.Especially if im doing a large store front design.

Im hoping someone can provide an easy explanation of how to take a design im working on that is longer than the Artboard in ai .shrink it down like 1:10 etc and when i goto take that design to my cutting software how to bring my cut images back to proper size from the scaled down version. For some reason i cant grab the concept.And im no dummy lol just trying to learn the correct way on this.

So for an example working on a semi trailer. Lets say the box trailer is 10 feet high and its 35 feet long {just so i have numbers to give} that we can use for reference and i USE INCHES for all my designing in my art-board settings and not points etc.

Thank you very much

Why not just have two files? One for your print file and than export as a jpeg and decrease the size as your proof? Also if your working with raster images why not look at using Photoshop?

 

[myront]

Ditch ai and use coreldraw. No scaling necessary. No need for an artboard and either.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Why not just have two files? One for your print file and than export as a jpeg and decrease the size as your proof? Also if your working with raster images why not look at using Photoshop?

He uses the raster images as templates to design the layout for cut graphics and then discards the raster image.

 

[shoresigns]

FYI you can type percentages into any Width/Height box in Illustrator. You can select artwork that's in 1:10 scale and make it 1:1 scale by simply typing 1000%, and vice versa (1:1 to 1:10 by entering 10%).

This method is more reliable than literally moving the decimal, because Illustrator uses more decimal places than what it shows you in the Width/Height boxes.

Also, on the same subject, you can convert units on the fly using the same method, i.e. if your document is in inches, you can type "cm" for centimetres in a box and it'll instantly convert to inches.

 

[clarizeyale]

100.00" x 100.00" scaled down 10% is 10.000"x10.000" (the decimal just moves over 1 point).

On illustrator, there is the scale tool on most left hand sides of illy.. I select my object, double click the scale button, and scale up 1000% or scale down 10%.

Using your example of 10 feet high and its 35 feet long
that's 120.00"t x 420.00"w .. too long . so scaled down 10% is 12.000" x 42.000"

When I bring this into flexi (since I don't use corel), I just select everything -> resize -> 1000%.. DONEEZOOOOESSSS

I hope this helps