Re: Creating new shapes in sodipodi

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On 7 May 2003, Philip Serracino Inglott wrote:

> Date: 07 May 2003 23:03:06 +0200
> From: Philip Serracino Inglott <phsi mlatanet net>
> Reply-To: dia-list gnome org
> To: dia-list gnome org
> Subject: Creating new shapes in sodipodi
>
> Can you tell me if there is a tool to 'optimise'
> svg? That is to say remove "transform" and turn them
> to absolute values.

Programs (like Sodipodi) that export SVG should allow you to save as plain
SVG and not use any application specific markup.  You might need to file a
feature request with Sodipodi.

> I tried using sodipodi to create a custom shape, but
> had to clean it out by hand (not very nice)

I did something similar using OpenOffice to Export SVG and then manually
adding the <shape> markup and adding <svg:svg> namespacing infront of
everthing, it definately is not my idea of fun.  I will probably
eventually play with the SVG export in OpenOffice (or some other sort of
transformation, XSLT maybe) to do this automagically.

to the best of my knowledge nothing like this has been done yet.

> I also tried dia's own export as shape but some curves
> just disappeared!

I'm not sure why that happens, you might consider trying to convert the
curve to a PATH (messy i know, but it will work).

I filed a feature request against Sodipodi (and Sketch too) asking them to
consider adding Dia .shape export around their SVG export but the answer
was basically that I was welcome to provide a patch if i wanted that
feature.  (there is a report in gnome bugzilla against Dia that tracks my
attempts at evangelism).

I think it would be really great if another more powerful program could
export to something Dia can use, and reduce the need to have a fully
vector graphics editor within Dia (it would be cool to _have_ that power,
but it sucks that we _need_ to do it ourselves and not have the choice).

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/