Help sought importing .ai files (into XDP X10)

[shiphen]

Yes you would need CorelDraw. CD X7 to be specific for this file.

Mike

Are you serious? After all this time Xara can't open CorelDraw files?

[mwenz]

Are you serious? After all this time Xara can't open CorelDraw files?

XDP can only open CD versions up to 5 (for certain) and possibly version 8 files. I cannot recall whether I opened version 8 files or not and I am not finding any on this system to try--but I have hundreds on here so I can keep poking around. I forget what version of CD files AI stops at.

Yep. Like I wrote, the filters need updating. People out in the real world have files from a mix of applications. I don't expect Xara to support all possibilities. But it would be beneficial to them to support the main ones like AI and CD if they ever hope to increase the user base from those other application's camps.

Too, Xara needs to flesh out features of recent AI and CD versions. Else they cannot even update the filters. So in your CD file's example, the type of conical fill that CD has isn't compatible with Xara's conical fill. If they can write a means of translating that conical fill, then they could add that type of conical fill. This type of thing (feature for feature) is the only means to pull in users who want to break from the others.

Mike

[shiphen]

Yes. However failing to import all the features is one thing, but failing to import the file AT ALL is quite another!

Xara need to grow up and realise that in the real world us users have raw materials in all manner of formats and they need to attempt to make Xara as useful to us as possible. And the fact that some those formats is neither here not there.

CorelDraw 6 came out in 1996 - that's NINETEEN years ago!
Even version 9 of CD came out in 1999 - SIXTEEN years ago... !

[mwenz]

Well, I have mentioned the need for updated filters a couple times

I mainly use XDP for origination, rarely to take existing art and manipulate. If what I receive is simple enough, I get it into XDP and work on it. Even if what I need to return is destined for CD or AI, it is done as far as I can in XDP before finishing or simply saving out in one of the other applications. But I have them all in multiple versions as well. I would rather not have to jump through hoops to do so, though.

Ah well, I don't get paid for making decisions so Xara gets exactly what they paid for. Flip side is I do pay Xara for XDP, which gives me the right to gripe once in a while...

Mike

[Egg Bramhill]

Gripe away Mike ..... and let's not mention Xara's svg export filter

[mwenz]

Hah. At least there is the free InkScape. Even when I have made SVG assets in XDP they go through InkScape.

[Egg Bramhill]

Ditto Mike

[mwenz]

Hey Egg,

InkScape is an application I have a "It's OK, I hate it" relationship with. The newest verison has a touch better speed, which has been one of my biggest gripes about it. The other is, well, the UI and the work-flow.

But, like I wrote, at least it's free. I have no firm idea what I spend each 12 to 18 months on upgrading the software I have to. Half of them I use as glorified file converters. Oh, I'll finish something off in them when I am creating the art. In some cases it's start to finish in them (mainly the large format and screen printing stuff).

When I was a young lad, there was a television show named Queen for a Day. Using the title's premise (but not the show's substance), I would love to be King for a day at a few software companies. But as the wise man Tom Petty wrote in It's Good to Be King:

It's good to be king and have your own way
Get a feeling of peace at the end of the day

But for me:

Yeah I'll be king when dogs get wings
Can I help it if I still dream time to time

Take care, Mike

[mwenz]

Got to thinking about at least eps import. CorelDraw has rudimentary eps import natively. What makes it better is if one has Ghostscript installed. Xara could do the same thing with little effort.