Importing a shape from Photoshop

[Polar Bear]

Hello

I wonder if you can help?

I have created a logo in Photoshop CS5 and saved it as a PNG file.

I have been told to get it into Xara 3D as a design I have to first open the PNG in Adobe Illustrator and save that file as an Adode Illustrator File (ai) which I've done but I simply cannot get it into Xara.

Am I doing it right? Should the file be a certain size to import into Xara 3D?

I have followed the same procedure above for both wmf and emf files but still can't get it into Xara 3D.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rgds

[gwpriester]

Welcome to TalkGraphics

The logo has to be in a vector format. PNG is a bitmap format.

You need to convert the bitmap to a vector object. Vector Magic http://vectormagic.com/home might be able to convert your logo to a vector (PDF or .AI) that you can import. But the vector can only be one color.

[MarcT]

Hi Polar Bear, if you have created your logo with the pen tool in Photoshop, you can export directly from photoshop : " File/Export/Paths to illustrator"

Otherwise you can convert it to vectors in illustrator by doing an image trace before saving : " Object/Image trace "

Marc

[Polar Bear]

Hello

Many thanks for coming back so quickly. I've gone down the Illustrator route. I have managed to get the Live Trace to work and I can get the image now into Xara 3D BUT the image is being traced (I know that sounds obvious) and the result is shown in Xara 3D. But I wanted the whole shape to be traced. Let's say the image is a a bar, the the sides are being traced with the reuslt that Xara shows the sides but the centre is hollow - I hope this makes sense. I wanted a whole bar in Xara 3D. Am I doing somehting wrong in Illustrator, do I need to 'fill' the trace?

Rgds

[gwpriester]

A picture = 1,000 words.

Can you post an image of the logo/and or your traced AI image?

You might have selected the Outline option in Xara 3D. I don't have Xara 3D Maker installed at the moment but as I remember the is an icon with an O that is outlined. And I think it is in the Extrusion tab. If that is selected, un-select it and see if you have a solid shape.

[handrawn]

do I need to 'fill' the trace?

yes - give it a vector fill