Xara Extreme 4.0 Locking Up

[Egg Bramhill]

Yes I can confirm the lock up as follows:
Open the file
Select all. (shows 1 line)
With Shape Editor tool drag select half of the shapes.
Locks up.

Still need to know how and with what the pdf was created.

[Soquili]

Hi Egg, I'm sure you are correct. I eventually killed the xtreme.exe process after about 8 minutes.

I've experienced similar problems when trying to work with someone's CAD creations. I'm leaning toward thinking it is something to do with the export filters of the CAD program as I've had similar experiences with .pdf, .ai, and .eps files. There seem to be many single node objects from CAD export. Possibly something to do with anchor points or some internal references for positioning??

I'm not familiar enough with the internal workings of CAD programs to know how to troubleshoot the problem.

[tsmithf]

The PDF was originally supplied from an architect, and unfortunately we have no contact, so I can't say what app created it.

But the problem has occured before, again with a drawing, but on a completely different job and from a different architect.

I have attched the PDF, however I have had to edit it in Acrobat Pro to remove some confidential information so I hope it hasn't altered the format.

[Soquili]

The unknown single node "lines" are in the .pdf file. I pulled one from the corner of one of the cubicle(?) objects. Zoom to selection brought me to 13808% zoom level.

I've tried to give the "line" a 4 pixel width but it still remains invisible. I can move it about but nothing I do will make it visible.

Any attempt to give a width or height pops up an error saying the value is in error and must be a positive value (which it was).

EDIT: I see the object was in the cinema area so not a cubicle

[tsmithf]

That's not a surprise I guess given the quality of some PDF output addons for CAD programs and architects often use free versions.

However this isn't something I can control, so do you think there is something that can be done from the Xara end that won't cause it to lock up?

This is a repetitive problem, so a solution within Xara would be nice

[Egg Bramhill]

Hi tsmithf,

I believe Bill is correct regarding the CAD files. This is probably why XX doesn't have direct cad import filter. For example, the hatching comes in as 1 line which XX can't create, a single line with breaks. The snooker table is very odd as it's made up of almost 1000 rectangles. I'd say that it imports well but I wouldn't try editing it in any way. It would be possible to lock the imported pdf layer and create overlays on another layer.

[tsmithf]

I must admit that's what I ended up doing in the end anyway

Plus a judicious use of white rectangles masking the offending areas

It would still be nice of course if Xara had a way to sort out the offending geometry on import, but I guess you can't have everything.

Thankyou for your prompt help, very useful.

[Egg Bramhill]

I think the thing is tsmithf that there's a great deal of difference between vector and cad programs. It's not just skin deep. Hopefully Ross might wander past, he's an architec and probably knows more about cad than most of us.