Copy/Paste between Rhino & Illustrator

Hello Everyone! I’ve been lurking on the forums for a while, but this is my first post!

I do a LOT of back and forth between illustrator and rhino, each time I have to export to DXF/DWG and import into the other program. Is there a plugin/script available that could make it possible to simply copy/paste between the two programs?

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Hi,
you can Export your selected file as *ai file for illustrator!
All the Layers will work in Illustrator too!

Thanks for the response! I am aware of this function, I do use it sometimes! What I’m looking for is a way to circumvent the import/export functions and just copy/paste. I know it’s not a huge difference, but it could save me a whole lot of time and clutter in my project folders.

I’ve got a macro that I use to go between the two.

Left button:

! _-Export _Pause
"C:\Users\User\Desktop\curves.ai"
PreserveUnits=Yes
_Unit=MM
ViewportBoundary=No
_Enter

Right Button:

! _-Import"C:\Users\User\Desktop\curves.ai"
PreserveUnits=Yes
_Unit=MM
ViewportBoundary=No
_Enter

Then I set up an action in illustrator to open the file that was created by rhino.

So the workflow is draw in rhino select the geometry and click the button. Open illustrator and click action to bring it in. It’s pretty quick and could be further sped up by assigning some keyboard shortcuts.

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I kind of wanted this bumped because illustrator can now accept SVG format via paste And copy. Rhino can export and import svg. So seems to reason that it could be done via SVG. This would even mean that you could copy and paste with PowerPoint. lol

Granted, in Rhino, you might want it to be a menu item, and not just copy/paste since you wouldn’t want to try and store every object as svg.

Hello - Copy/paste to Illustrator is supported in the V7 WIP.

-Pascal

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Ha, it looks like that’s exactly what you did too. lol
I’m not saving production work in WIP, so I’ll just have that open as a little bit of a passthrough for copy and paste then, for now.

I appreciate that it also isn’t pasting fills as hashes. I never really knew what to use those for.

Pascal, always with the answers. Thanks man.

Oh, one thing though…Is it possible to keep scale? Well, I know it’s possible, but could you please adjust it to keep scale?

The number coming through is pixels. I’m guessing illustrator is Always holding pixels? And being that illustrator is Horrendously stupid in that respect, it will Always assume size is 72 pixels per inch. You know, because back in 1996, that’s how many pixels per inch most monitors were, you’d get 96dpi if you had a nicer monitor. And they’ve been sticking to that one for probably 30+ years.

So knowing that, I can just make sure I’m in inches, then scale by .0138888888. But It stands to reason, we could just take the svg from illustrator and automatically scale that on paste, based on which units I’m using?

Granted, since I’m just using the WIP as a passthrough for this, I’ll just switch to “printer units” which is the same as Illustrator. But I thought it could be nice to let it automatically scale for you. That likely should be an option though, because if you copy the SVG from something like powerpoint, inkscape, or sketch (not sure if the WIP is on mac) then scale may actually be correct.

I just thought I’d mention it, along with the potential “solution” of switching Rhino to Printer point units so scale matches.

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I forgot to come back here to post. There is a limit I guess? Or maybe it’s rounding errors? But if you do a Make2D of something rather complicated, copy that and paste it to illustrator it’ll be missing Lots of lines. Not sure if that’s a rhino issue, or an illustrator issue.

That’s great -Thanks McNeel.

is that supposed to export vector data? on mac i only get a view capture copied.

This would be a really great functionality but like @kalamazandy I’m facing scaling issues. I was wondering if someone figured out what the logic for scaling between the two programs is?

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What would have been really useful is to point to documentation that describes this feature in more detail, namely which minimum version of Illustrator is required.

Having a problem understanding what minimum version of Illustrator is needed for this to work (using CC 2017 isn’t working for me).

after 3 years i am still waiting for an answer… on mac that only imports a rastered image no vector data is being pasted. can anybody comment on this function?

We only have this working on Windows for now.

any hope for mac soon? currently i have to export as illu, open in illu copy paste to indesign, three rather lengthy steps for one…

Probably not; it’s on my list but there are many other projects that are currently taking priority.

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