I'm a graphic designer who has suddenly found myself in over my head with a project. I was contracted to design a collection of shapes to be cut out for a toy construction kit. The pieces are to be cut out using a water jet and I was told by my employer that files created in Adobe Illustrator would be compatible. The design of files proceeded very well until I was informed by my employer that the files I sent were incompatible with the CAD software used by the water jet facility. I re-saved from .svg to .dwg and resent but was informed by the water jet tech that the files were hatching and the splines were broken. He said that he could fix this problem at a cost of \\\$75 per hour with an hour needed to repair each file. My employer, who didn't provide me with the proper file format information in the beginning (and who should have hired a CAD drafter instead of an Adobe Illustrator expert) is holding me accountable for getting the file format right even though I was hired under the assumption that the work was to be done in Illustrator. Under no circumstance will the employer pay the water jet tech the \\\$75 per hour to "repair" my work. I have downloaded DraftSight on the employer's recommendation but I am an absolute novice to the CAD environment. I was unable to get the information from the water jet tech on how to repair these .dwg files (no doubt because he stands to lose a tidy sum if someone else does it), so I am turning in desperation to this forum. My question is this:

>> For .dwg or .dxf files generated in Adobe Illustrator CS 5.5 is there a quick and/or easy fix for the issues of hatching and broken splines? The objects in these files are accurate drawings to scale and I shudder at the thought of trying to recreate them in the DraftSight environment which is utterly alien to me at this time.  

>> Please remember that I'm a novice, so the technical equivalent of mono-sylabic words will be necessary in explaining what needs to be done.

Thank you.

John in Minneapolis