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Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

Read & write svg (Scalable Vector Graphics) in AC &

Anonymous
Not applicable
Maybe svg will can change the .pmk & .dwf format.

svg:

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a text-based graphics language that describes images with vector shapes, text, and embedded raster graphics.

SVG files are compact and provide high-quality graphics on the Web, in print, and on resource-limited handeld devices. In addition, SVG supports scripting and animation, so is ideal for interactive, data-driven, personalized graphics.

SVG is a royalty-free vendor-neutral open standard developed under the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Process.

w3.org - SVG
wiki
adobe
8 REPLIES 8
gerd
Newcomer
At the moment svg is not really a file format that can substitute pdf
- too less users have installed something to view svg
- the format is not very common
- the file size will be bigger than an optimized pdf or dwf because it is a textfile
I'm not sure if it is possible to
- measure dimensions inside such a file
- embed fonts
- embed pictures (in one file, of course it is able to show a picture file inside the drawing; its much easier to send one file to a customer than a folder with many different files)

But of course it is a file format with big possibilities, many additional informations (about building elements) could be packed inside. So I think, it should be observed and integrated in archicad when it gets more important.

best regards, gerd
Anonymous
Not applicable
- too less users have installed something to view svg

... For examlple a lot of browsers with adobe plugin (firefox, ie) can. Inkscape is a powerful open source free svg editor.
inkscape.org
- the format is not very common

XML is't common? 🙂
- the file size will be bigger than an optimized pdf or dwf because it is a textfile


Both pdf & dwf is initially a textfile. You can compress also the svg.
- measure dimensions inside such a file
- embed fonts
- embed pictures (in one file, of course it is able to show a picture file inside the drawing; its much easier to send one file to a customer than a folder with many different files)


Inside svg is there one XML structure, and maybe you can put any informations in it.
gerd
Newcomer
... of course the idea behind svg is great.
for example artlantis-r uses xml files and it is sometimes useful, because you can analyze problems or copy the location of a camera without opening the file (only using xml editor or text editor). there are also preview pictures for the file included in the xml.

but I'm not sure if the format is already useable for plans with thousands of lines. perhaps you have some links showing architectural plans, this may convince me and others. at the moment I think, the main use of svg will be more or less graphic things compareable with flash files

for all, who are interested in svg: here you can find some more informations in different languages (main theme is cartographic use, but different parts will be near to architectural use as well:
http://www.carto.net/papers/svg/index_e.shtml

best regards, gerd
owen
Newcomer
not really surprised but ... no developments on this front in 4 years!??

Regardless of Import/Export SVG (which should not be difficult anyway) i would at least like to be able to place SVG files as a Figure or Drawing, and be able to snap to elements as we now can with PDF.

I guess this would probably require getting almost all the way to full Import/Export capability anyway.

There is a lot of SVG stuff out on the web now and none of it can be imported into AC without converting in another program first.
cheers,

Owen Sharp

Design Technology Manager
fjmt | francis-jones morehen thorp

iMac 27" i7 2.93Ghz | 32GB RAM | OS 10.10 | Since AC5
NCornia
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
Use DXF as intermediary to import SVG into Archicad.

You can save an SVG file as a DXF using Inkscape, a very powerful free SVG creator/editor. Available at http://www.inkscape.org.

One caveat: The DXF script out of the box does not create a suitable DXF. But you can download the "Better Better DXF Output" script from this link: http://tim.cexx.org/?p=590

I was able to trace an existing profile photo of a crown molding by doing the following:

1. Import raster image into Inkscape.
2. Use the bitmap trace feature to have the program automatically turn the profile in to SVG format.
3. Save as DXF
4. Open in ArchiCAD as DXF for use as a polygon to profile.

It takes a few steps but it beats trying to trace the complex profile by hand.
Nicholas Cornia
Technical Support Team - GRAPHISOFT North America
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Anonymous
Not applicable
Robert wrote:
- Inkscape is a powerful open source free svg editor.


I note that Inkscape has a newly released version 0.48.1 on three platforms.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Support for reading and writing SVG (again) would help support users of Trelligence's Affinity 6.x which can use SVG 2D symbol elements imported to it, and WRL 3D objects.
Anonymous
Not applicable
SVG files are exportable from sketchup, and would be a step in the direction of being able to use sketchup in conjunction with archicad.