Importing Illustrator Files

[riotacting]

I would like to import text from Illustrator to then loft the curves to create a large neon sign. When ever I try to import a .eps I get, error reading file. When I try to import a .ai file a translate appeats in the hypergraph but there is nothing vissible in the 3D space. I must be doing something wrong. Please let me know if I need a plugin for this task or if Maya supports this 'out of box' or perhaps there is a step in Illustrator I am not doing. Thanks!

[goggle]

What I've found is that the Maya import doesn't support the latest versions of those files. Try and save as the oldest possible version available to you with the least bells and whistles. That usually works for me.

Hope this helps.
-James

[joojaa]

Maya imports a arcahic a and general form of eps wich is something like a version 7 ai or something like that!

Beyond 7 ai tends to become a closed properitary format tahts hardly understood by anythig. Fortunately most progs taht can write out AI can choose version to conform to!

[sibben]

"When I try to import a .ai file a translate appeats in the hypergraph but there is nothing vissible in the 3D space."

This is probably a scale issue. The geometry is there, it's only really, really small. Try selecting it from the outliner and scale it up. IIRC I use AI fileformat version 8 or something and it's always worked fine.