upshot

I've always wished you could take something like an .eps or .pdf and apply it like a raster map.

Does anyone know if that's possible?

The results (in my mind's eye) would be very crisp vector graphics even when the camera is very close....

Chad Warner

You should look into the toon renderers like illustrate or finaltoon. I know that illustrate will actually create vector files from the views, like a hidden line file that you can export as an .ai file.

-Chad

upshot

Yes... I understand these products can output vector graphics and I would love to own one of these npr plug-ins (It's hard enought to explain why I'd like a $200 set of rpc people). Maybe some day!

I'm wondering if there is a way to map non-raster files onto objects...

chuck

thats an interesting idea, but i've never heard of anything like that. you want to apply it like a material, but still have a vector file right? what kind of an object are you talking about? a line drawing of a car/person? what about just making an object with renderable lines? no bitmap, just geometry. couldnt you bring in a CAD car elevation as lines?

i guess i just bite the bullet- hit render (4000x3000) and go home.
i do know that sketchup can export a vector file though... but now you've lost all of the good features of viz.

btw, what firm do you work for, if you don't mind?
i work at IDS in troy, around 90 people.

chuck

Dave Jones

Hi,

I think what you're looking for is the swift 3d plugin,

http://www.erain.com/products/plug-ins/

I don't own or use this plugin, but know someone who has it and it generates exactly what you want, true vector output, not antialiased lines in a jpeg file or whatever. I know he generates flash files, but i'm pretty sure it creates dwg and dwf files too. From those, (assuming you have autoCAD) you can create pdfs, and eps files.

Not sure if there is a trial version, but it's ceartainly worth a look.