I am working in ArcGIS, I need to import the shapefiles with all layers, to adobe illustrator.
Can anyone suggest the steps doing this?
[GIS] Importing shapefile (.shp) in Adobe Illustrator
arcgis-10.1arcgis-desktopillustratorshapefile
Related Solutions
Convert Adobe Illustrator to Shapefiles:
Assumes you have a copy of Adobe Illustrator (or trial version) you must export as DWG file.
1) If necessary, sort the linework to layers based on the attributes you want the GIS data to have. The layer names will end up in a field "Layer" in the converted data, so be as descriptive as possible.
2) Curves in Illustrator must be converted to lines before export. Use Object>Path> "Add Anchor Points" command to add nodes to the curves (may need to invoke several times), and Object>Path> "Simplify" command to convert to lines.
3) Export to older version of DWG or DXF (R14 works).
4) View in ArcGIS, and export the data to a shapefile then use the Spatial Adjustment tool (does not work with a personal/file geodatabases)
5) Use the Spatial Adjustment toolbar in an edit session to match the linework to points on a known projection (the ArcGIS Help has quite a bit about this). You can match as many points as you wish, and you can choose the method ArcMap uses to align the data.
6) Export your data to a geodatabase feature class and set the projection.
I had a similar task to do a while ago using Illustrator CS2. Names and menus etc. may have changed in the newer versions, but I'm sure you can still do the same thing. My workflow went something like this:
Add the image to be traced. Scale, rotate it etc. until it's approximately the right size and shape.
Trace the various geological contacts using the
Pentool. With each click you add a node, and by clicking and dragging you can create smooth segments. This allows you to create smooth lines with sharp discontinuities. An alternative is to use thePentool to click roughly along the desired line, then use theDirect Selectiontool to select some or all of the line's nodes. You can then useObject > Path > Simplifyto smooth just the selected part of the line. Again, this allows you to create smooth lines with sharp breaks for faults etc.Apply any distortion tools to create your wavy lines as necessary.
Once your contacts have been traced, select them all and copy them to a new layer positioned below your original lines layer (ctrl+f will paste them into the same location as the originals). Add some additional lines to mark the boundary of your tracing (i.e. lines for the left, right and bottom edges of your section), then select all the lines in the new layer and create a
Live Paintgroup. This is a bit like theFeature to Polygontool in ArcGIS: it automatically identifies the polygons defined by your lines and lets you fill them using theLive Painttool (a bucket symbol).Once you've finished adding colours etc. you can
Expandthe Live Paint group. You should end up with two layers: one on top which has your contact lines and another below it which has coloured polygons representing your stratigraphic units.
Apologies if the above is a little vague - I don't have Illustrator on this computer, so I can't check the details at the moment.
It may also be worth looking at Illustrator's Live Trace function. If your hand-drawn sections are reasonably neat, then you might be able to use this to digitize the lines for you. However, if most of the sections are rough pencil sketches like in your example, it probably won't work very well.
Best Answer
Probably the easiest way to get your data into Adobe Illustrator is to go to the file menu and select Export Map.
From there, Save as Type: AI (*.ai)
Note the options in the Format Tab.
Alternatively, there is also a paid plugin called MAPublisher. It allows you to import the shapefiles directly into Illustrator. Effectively turning Illustrator into a basic GIS program. I haven't played around with MAPublisher for several years, but it looks like you can import MXDs directly into Illustrator.