a few questions

**mikalele** · 26 April 2006, 11:13 AM

Sooo, today my CD arrived, haha! Now i have some questions...

1. How can i import an .ai file with its layerstructure?

2. When importing closed polylines from a .dxf file (i use gsview to convert it to .ai) it imports as a line, not a shape. I need to close it manually, though i think the "broken points" are in the exact same location. Why is that!?

Cheers,

michael

http://home.arcor.de/chemil/fm.png

**gwpriester** · 26 April 2006, 12:44 PM

Until someone else comes along (like Ross who has more experience working with autocadd files) I'll just say that Xara cannot import an Illustrator file with its layer stucture. Xara can do a lot of incredible things but this is one of its weak areas. The AI import filter is only up to about version 8.

As for the lines being broken, I suspect this is more of a translation thing between dxf and ai.

This is beyond my expertise but maybe one of our other members will have a better answer.

Welcome to the Xtreme conference, by the way

Gary

**mikalele** · 26 April 2006, 01:38 PM

hmm. Thanks for the bad news!

And the welcome!

I have another question: Is there a way to align outlines? Default is centered, can i set it to inside or something?

I want a rectangle which is 4cm x 6cm without outlines still to be the same size after applying a big fat outline. Couldn't find an option to do that... But i guess that must be possible!?

Cheers,

Michael

**tonylondon** · 26 April 2006, 04:56 PM

I have just created a drawing with layers in Illustrator 9 and saved it as Illustrator 8.
I imported this into Xtreme and the layers are in tact.
Maybe (as often these days) I'm missing the point here...
Tony

**Albacore** · 26 April 2006, 05:43 PM

I agree with Tony. If you save your AI file and then export it as a Legacy ver. 8 file you will retain all of your layers. The only time that you lose your layers when working from Xara into AI is when you open it in AI as a exported PDF file from Extreme. I have to work every day using AI and when I bring work home I can easily import it into X1 & Extreme so long as it is simple in construction and has no Bitmap effects. Some blends do not import to X1 and any 3D effects but most things will open and it is so much easier to do you shape editing in X1.

**mikalele** · 27 April 2006, 07:30 AM

I was trying to import .ai files from rhino3d, which exports the layers but obviously doesn't export to an illustrator 8 format... I opened the file in Illustrator, saved as v8 and now it works! Thanks!

I obviously didn't read Garys post carefully enough, he already mentioned that Xara supports Illustrator only up to v8...

Mmm, but what about this Outline alignment? Is there a way to do that?

Michael

**tonylondon** · 27 April 2006, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by mikalele

Mmm, but what about this Outline alignment? Is there a way to do that?

Michael

Try playing around with scale line widths,
Tony

**Egg Bramhill** · 28 April 2006, 12:36 AM

Hi Michael,

In Xara if you apply an outline it is applied half in and half out of the shape, as you seem to have discovered.

There's several ways around this. Probably the simplest is to create your 4 x 6 cm rectangle, with no outline. Copy to clipboard. Now apply an outline to the original as required. Ctrl-Shift-V the copy of from the clipboard back to the page. Remember if you want an exact size for the outline, just double it's value as the rectangle above will cover half the lower rectangles outline.

**tonylondon** · 28 April 2006, 01:09 PM

Conversely, if you create a rectangle and set the line width then scale it with the 'scale line widths' set, it will set the rectangle including all its line to the value you enter in the box...
Tony