Is there a Xara Lite or Xara Viewer out there?

[bcire68]

I've been working on a map for work with a lot of help from the talkgraphics users. (seeMap Tracing Post here)

Now that I am at a point where the map has usefulness, I would like to be able to put it out to the various potential users within my company.

The strength of this drawing (included below) is that it has a lot of layers that the user can add or subtract as needed, individual states can be highlighted, etc.

What I would like to do is to provide that limited functionality (layer visibility selection, adding fills (crosshatching and transperancy are nice too) and maybe Text (Text is only a Nice to have)) to my prospective users.

Is there anything out there that will allow someone to do that with a .xar file? If not an application, maybe a .dll file that would allow that functionality in a VB app or something?

My fall back is to export hundreds of what I think would be the most used images as clipart and provide them to all users. I would also, then, have to provide new exports everytime anyone needs a new cut of what I've drawn. This is not the best option.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
Eric

[bcire68]

I've been working on a map for work with a lot of help from the talkgraphics users. (seeMap Tracing Post here)

Now that I am at a point where the map has usefulness, I would like to be able to put it out to the various potential users within my company.

The strength of this drawing (included below) is that it has a lot of layers that the user can add or subtract as needed, individual states can be highlighted, etc.

What I would like to do is to provide that limited functionality (layer visibility selection, adding fills (crosshatching and transperancy are nice too) and maybe Text (Text is only a Nice to have)) to my prospective users.

Is there anything out there that will allow someone to do that with a .xar file? If not an application, maybe a .dll file that would allow that functionality in a VB app or something?

My fall back is to export hundreds of what I think would be the most used images as clipart and provide them to all users. I would also, then, have to provide new exports everytime anyone needs a new cut of what I've drawn. This is not the best option.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
Eric

[Soquili]

Hi Eric,

I know of only one plug-in that can show .xar files in a web browser. It does not provide the ability to change layer visibility. It also does not work with all XaraX .xar files. It was written for use with .web and .xar files created with the CorelXara programs. Xara has not updated the code and has indicated they have no plans to do so. You can find the plug-in at: http://www.xara.com/downloads/plugin/

It does offer the ability to zoom in and out of the image.

Soquili

[raynerj]

Hi ERic,

You could always save it as a flash file... see here for an example Black Hills Maps

http://www.draginet.com/dragon.gif
John/DOT

[bcire68]

John,

That is interesting (although I will probably need at least 25 of those little links). Can you tell me how to save it like that?

I know that X can export to .swf files, but somehow I doubt that the various layers are automatically saved as links, and that would be the part I need help with.

While we are at it, the ability to export the drawing directly from the .swf to a .gif, .jpg or .png (without doing screen prints and copying into paint) would be great. The end users are not very graphic savy, so the fewer number of steps to get their selected drawing, the better.

Thanks.

Eric

[This message was edited by bcire on March 02, 2004 at 05:38.]

[raynerj]

Eric,

Have you ever done any work in Flash? This is doable, but time consuming. I would export each layer separately with printers targets in the corners.

Then I would import all the layers separately into flash and then go from there.

The links you see on blackhillsmaps are actually separate SWFs built up from separate layers.

Email me if you need more info/examples. raynerj_<img src="images/smilies/nos...s@draginet.com Really do not want to put the source files on the net.

http://www.draginet.com/dragon.gif
John/DOT