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Architects should start out as signguys...

visual800

visual800

Active Member
and contractors for that fact.

Large firm has designed wall murals for a university we bid on. There are about 5 that are roughly 20' tall and 45' long, partials murals with long flowing designs. I bid on it for another sign compnay out of town and won it. I then asked for VECTOR ART. Yeah, they sent over a file with 500 fills and 16000 layers, you get the picture.

I then explained I needed vector art, no masks, no layers, no fills no strokes. He sent it again but instead of doing as I asked he just "hid" all those layers. Shot it back and responded with try again with a screenshot of what his crap looked like when I unmasked it all.

They also are wanting a mural digitally printed on trasparency on the pool windows....facing south...on the OUTSIDE! I told them that is something they would not want to do here in bama in the summertime, they will be replacing it in 2 years. They responded with "Thats why we designed an overhang on the roof to protect it" The building on the back is two story tall and the overhang is approx 4' sticking out over the windows thats leaves 80% of the print getting all day sun.

I do not understand why these folks do not listen to people who do this for a living. i dont care if your a sheetrock hanger or apoolboy they need to listen. i have never met a more arrogant group of folks in my life. they must attend "You now know it all" classes before they graduate:banghead:
 
Letterbox Mike

Letterbox Mike

New Member
Rasterize the file you got in Photoshop, that'll solve all of your mask and transparency issues... We run across files like this all the time, if you don't need to modify them, just plop them into Photoshop and be done, much easier.

And yeah, architects can be interesting to work with sometimes. Most (not all) of the ones I've encountered don't like being told they don't know what they're doing when it comes to signage...
 
Si Allen

Si Allen

New Member
Shame on the three of you!

Don't you realize that architects are some sort of Demi Gods and need not listen to oafish sign makers?

Just bow your head respectfully and say "Yes Sir!" ... and all will be well!


:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
insignia said:
Rasterize the file you got in Photoshop, that'll solve all of your mask and transparency issues... We run across files like this all the time, if you don't need to modify them, just plop them into Photoshop and be done, much easier.

And yeah, architects can be interesting to work with sometimes. Most (not all) of the ones I've encountered don't like being told they don't know what they're doing when it comes to signage...
Click to expand...

Thing is I need to pull it into flexi and make line art patterns with it, this wont help. although i appreciate the suggestion.
 
showcase 66

showcase 66

New Member
As and engineer I can say that I did not get along with a lot of Architects but we had a saying.
Architects draw pictures, Engineers make them work.

Same could go for sign guys. A lot of them only care about the aesthetics of their designs not caring about the ability for it to be made or what it takes for you to make it that way.
 
xxaxx

xxaxx

New Member
visual800 said:
Thing is I need to pull it into flexi and make line art patterns with it, this wont help. although i appreciate the suggestion.
Click to expand...

Depending on how intricate you need the line art to be, it is still a good suggestion to go the pshop route, then import it in to Illustrator and hand trace the the line art portions so flexi can read just the vector portions for cutting ... otherwise charge design time and recreate it clean in Illustrator if possible. :D
 
Ghost Prophet

Ghost Prophet

New Member
visual800 said:
Thing is I need to pull it into flexi and make line art patterns with it, this wont help. although i appreciate the suggestion.
Click to expand...

That's funny, I use Flexi too and when people give me Illustrator files with layers and masks I just import it into Flexi anyway, unmask it, then delete the mask from the layers and it's usually pretty easy to work with.

Just because it has "16000 layers" doesn't mean that it's not "vector art". All vector art is is graphic art that can be resized to any dimension without loss of quality due to the fact that it's made up of vectors (also known as strokes or paths) which lead through control points that have a defined position on an X and Y axes.

I agree architects don't know everything... But neither do sign people. :p
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
Ghost Prophet said:
That's funny, I use Flexi too and when people give me Illustrator files with layers and masks I just import it into Flexi anyway, unmask it, then delete the mask from the layers and it's usually pretty easy to work with.
Click to expand...

The files I have flexi will not touch it. there are so many lines and layers you dont know what to delete and what to keep

Just because it has "16000 layers" doesn't mean that it's not "vector art".
Click to expand...

Sir do you know what vector art is? I think you and I have different meanings of vector art
 
GAC05

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
Visual,
what do you mean by "line art patterns" by way of Flexi?
Interesting problem you have - an interesting solution might help a lot of us here.
Got a pic of what you have and need to do?
I get some ai files out of Japan that have way too many layers and the Japanese text still in font form. AI has a fit trying to render them out.

wayne k
guam usa
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
lets see if this helps

this is what i need to make a paper pattern with
 

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GAC05

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
OK think I got it,
you need line art so you can set up a pounce pattern or masks and do this with paint?
What are they sending you? Illustrator files?
If their end is not smart enough to send the simple outline, then you need their source files and open them in the same app they used. Export and import is hit and miss with miss being the likely result.
I'm a Corel guy and don't care for AI but I picked up CS5 to edit other peoples AI layouts, Flexi won't cut it & neither will Corel.
If those are AI files you can convert all the strokes and pull the effects & layers without drama in Illy.
No other silver bullet that I know of.

wayne k
guam usa
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
you got it! dude i opened his files and not only is the orginal there but he has just copies and copies just scattered on top on bottom on the side. all diff sizes all text was not turned into outlines and he didnt know how to do that but hedid say when i opened art I could do that LOLOLOL. I actually sent the file to pat, after i tried to delete some of his crap, he couldnt do nothing with it along with 4 other artists at other sign company.
 
Pat Whatley

Pat Whatley

New Member
That's not the actual art. I've seen the actual art. In 22 years of dealing with vector art the file Bruce was sent is hands down the most jumbled up pile of garbage I've ever seen.
 
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