Converting cmyk/spot vector to greyscale

[delooch]

so is there an easy way in illy, or any other app, to convert vector graphics with cmyk/spot values to its greyscale equivalent and keep it vector? it doesnt have to be a perfect conversion. it would be sort of like grabbing a vector object and rasterizing it greyscale, but keeping the vector info. probably a stoopid analogy but the end result is what i need. i have a project where i need to convert a bunch of industrial symbols to a greyscale-only version. so far ive been ungouping them manually and changing the color values to something close in grey.  for a few its not bad but i just learned there are 100's that need to be done.

from what i understand, they are feeding these into some type of cnc machine that can etch 128 levels of grey, but for some reason it cant differentiate the color vectors..

[Joe]

Select All, Filter, Colors, Convert to grayscale works for me in Illy. Pitstop in Acrobat.

[beermonster]

another good one is photoshop's new "black and white" under image adjustments

you could copy paste as pixels (ok - not a good idea - just sharing the idea) and the black and white function brings up a neat box of sliders so you can adjust the contrast and all manner of stuff of the image - its a great tool - but works with pixels rather than vectors/smart objects

but in illy use joe's method

[delooch]

holy split that was easy. thank you very much Joe!

[Joe]

You are welcome. Glad it worked for you. Now you can set up an action list to automate it.