My workflow entails exporting ArcGIS Layers into Adobe Illustrator for cartographic output purposes. One problem I have at the moment is that I cannot replace my points with an Illustrator symbol. For example, points from ArcGIS are imported into Adobe Illustrator as circles. I cannot replace a circle with an Illustrator-symbol. What I can do however, is replace a single anchor point with a symbol. Is there a way to convert a circle to a single anchor point? or are there other ways in which I can replace GIS objects with Symbols?
So my question is somewhat illustrator based, but I thought as this is such a common GIS workflow, is may be answered here.
Best Answer
You might want to look into Nathaniel Kelso's excellent "Find and Replace Graphics" Illustrator script, which you can download here. This script allows you to uniformly replace GIS-generated symbols (or shapes, as the case may be) with Illustrator-defined symbols. It also allows you to scale the transformations, as necessary.
Mr. Kelso has compiled a number of other useful Illy scripts on his site, many of which help streamline the cartographic design process. Check them out!