Xara3D constrains all shapes in the file to have the same height, and will resize objects to make them all conform. This is frequently unhelpful.

The cure is Sizing Pixels. I use them all the time. They let you combine multiple shapes in exact and specific relationships with each other, by giving every imported shape the same overall size, thus ensuring that Xara3D doesn't re-adjust them.

The basic idea is to put a single pixel-sized circle at the top left, and bottom right of the working area in your vector drawing program. All the shapes you make should be inside the rectangle defined by the two pixels. When you export any shape to Xara3D, you select the two pixels as well as the shape you want to export, and export all three in one step. They appear as a single object in Xara3D.

In Xara3D, you set the line spacing to 0, and every new object is imported on a new line, that is, after each object, you type a Carriage Return character. Because the line spacing is 0, and Centre Justification is on by default, all the shapes are superimposed on each other so that the sizing pixels of each shape all match up on top of each other, and anything between the pixels is still in exactly the place it was in your original vector program.

The only tricky part is deciding how far out from your working area the pixels need to be to ensure they can be easily cropped out of the finished image.

I think this would be a good topic for a sticky tutorial, and I'll put something up in the next few days.

Mike