Dear Readers:

I am having problems with EPS curves exported as version 3 EPS from Illustrator CS4. I'm not sure why but Houdini 9.1 won't read them anymore–I get a Red Error display in the File SOP. Houdini 10 reads them but it does not read all of the curves.

Of a possible 16 curves to be read into the File SOP, only 10 made it through.

I used a workaround and ended up importing a DXF file which I got from another package's exporter, but this is a hasty and absurd solution.

Why isn't Houdini reading the files properly anymore?

Thanks in advance for any help on this issue.

Sincerely,
markerline

Houdini's EPS import improved a lot recently but it still has problems. There's a reported bug for curves obtained by using various path operations in Illustrator (like Offset Path or Outline Curve) that don't import.
Is this your case too?

Dragos

how about using a .ai file? You just need to make sure that compression is turned off and you don't output a PDF and you should be able to get your geometry into Houdini. I usually use Illustrator CS3 format.

If this doesn't work then post your .ai file here and we will test it out.

Robert

PS - remember that the geometry comes in really big into Houdini. Press “spacebar - a” to show zoom out and see the geometry.

The problem with the paths that I mentioned exists no matter the format (.ai or .eps) and settings.
You can try in the same file, have a simple curve (let's say a circle), duplicate it and on the duplicate apply a thick stroke then use “Outline stroke” to generate a path from that. The initial circle will import, while the geometry generated by the outline path process will not.

Dragos

dragos,

just tried this out and worked fine.. cs3, 50 pt stroke, duplicate, outline stroke, save as cs3, no compression, no pdf.. imported just fine.. space+a in H just as Robert suggested (or middle mouse on node to see info).. Possibly, the outline stroke is causing issues due to generating a compound path in Illustrator? It's still working fine here, but you could try releasing it in to two separate paths and doing some cleanup on any unneeded anchor points..

cheers,
dq

I'll try it again then, I had lots of trouble with this in reproducible situations. Maybe it's fixed, which would be great.

Dragos

Dear digitallysane:

I tried the method with the circles. Both circles imported without problem. The second circle was actually a set of circles, one inside the other since I had done “Expand . . . ”>“Stroke” on it in Illustrator. Not sure what the problem is. I think it's because the paths that I had originally were not closed paths. But that is a sincere let-down on the part of Houdini because not all the paths you create will want to be done natively in Houdini. Sometimes it's easier to create paths in Illustrator and import them (i.e. lettering).

-markerline

I don't have acces to Houdini 10 and Illustrator until late evening, but I attach a file which here (houdini 9.5.377 on linux 64 bit) doesn't import correctly.
The file contains the outlines of a 7 and a 5. The 7 shows in Houdini, the 5 (which was obtained by doing either some Outline stroke or Offset operation, I can't remember exactly) does not. The file imports fine in Maya & Photoshop CS2.

Dragos

I don't know why but the “5” did not import. However I did my own test with those digits and created type then “Create Outlines” in Illustrator. All of the digits imported when I did that. Wish I knew what filter operation you used on the “5” so I could try it out/troubleshoot.

-markerline

The 7 was obtained by simply converting text to outlines. On the 5 however, after the conversion, I applied either an Offset path command (http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Illustrator/14.0/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-62baa.html) [help.adobe.com] or an Outline stroke (http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Illustrator/14.0/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-6508a.html) [help.adobe.com] – as I said, I can't exactly remeber which.
Basically it seems that the math in those functions creates some beziers which are not understood by Houdini.

Dragos