Here's what I'm trying to do:

  1. Create graphics with Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 6 and export
  2. Import into Flash CS4 Professional to be edited and animated


I have tried exporting from Xara as SWF, AI, and EMF. Flash can import all of these formats, but there is something wrong with every one of them. For testing I used the file Plan.xar from Example Xara drawings 2 in the Designs gallery.

SWF: Many objects import with the fill or stroke changed to white. Some objects come in with the wrong strokes altogether. For example, instead of a 1pt tan stroke, some elements of the pergola come in with 28.8pt white strokes. Other objects lost their strokes entirely, such as in the compass rose. Arrowheads don't work but that's very minor. Text paragraphs break down to one item per line, but that's minor as well.

EMF: Many shapes were converted to bitmaps. Some shapes are just missing. Some lines of text are in three parts.

AI: Almost perfect. Even the arrowheads work. The big issue here is that overlapping objects with flat transparency (the trees) all became clipping paths with bitmap contents. Completely unnecessary! Just to be sure the problem wasn't unique to Plan.xar, I made a simple drawing with overlapping transparent circles and the same thing happened.

What is the best way to get static Xara content into Flash? I cannot do the animation directly in Xara because Xara's animation capability is extremely limited. I need to add advanced animation, audio, controls, and scripting inside Flash Professional.

Thanks.