SVG import and object naming

[CharlieJeit]

Hi

I import a lot of OpenStreetMap derived material via SVG. The data is grouped and hierarchical - for example, line features are then broken down into railway, highway trunk, highway secondary, foot path manor, foot path minor etc. etc.

If I bring this data into Inkscape it is converted into named layers and groups. If I bring it into Xara it maintains the structure as groups but these all appeared named "group" in the "Page and Layers" gallery. Recently I have realised that I can view a names option from the right click within the page and layers gallery and that will show the original SVG name. I can also view the group names directly in the non-hierarchical names gallery, but if I want to view the names in the layers gallery I have had to manually rename each one!

Am I missing something here or is there a way to view this hidden data in the "Page and Layer" Gallery.

Thanks

Charlie

[handrawn]

in xara, the labels that are assigned to groups and objects in the page and layer gallery are independant of the labels that are assigned in the name gallery - ie:the same object/group can have a different name in one gallery to that in the other......

on that basis I don't think what you ask is possible, as they are not synchronised... but someone else may know better....

EDIT - if that seems strange it is because the p&l gallery gives the hierarchical name, but the name gallery gives the funcion name and one object can have more than one function name depending on what you are doing with it [eg animation]

like I am steve in the p&l gallery - animator, musician, writer in the name gallery ...

[Daniel]

Oh if they were imported on layers it'd be wonderful - it's always a real task to delete the unwanted parts of those maps.

I've had the OSM SVG (or even just a bitmap) on a layer, traced over it manually and then hidden it before now: unpicking them takes so long that for some simple maps, redrawing the road layouts is quicker!

Xara Designer (using Pro+ v22 right now) just freezes on me if I open the Names Gallery... it'll take a couple of minutes then come back and allow me to scroll a little, but there are just hundreds of "glyph123-1" entries, no useful names.

map.zip

[handrawn]

that is one complicated svg

[CharlieJeit]

If you want to see one of those complex SVG have a look at the attachment. This was produced by Maperative (http://maperitive.net/) a very useful (but unsupported) ageing tool which allows you to extract an SVG file from a rectangle drawn on an OSM base. It is also possible to write a rendering script to select your required features and appearances and also to include a contour layer based on the publically available NASA world height dataset.

Here is an example of my end product:



I have just switched from Xara Designer Pro X to Xara Photo and Graphic Designer + and am hoping for a less confusing version future after leaving Magix. These SVG files import fine for me with both versions of Xara but are currently a bit flakely with Inkscape 1.2 (dc2aedaf03, 2022-05-15) - I think there is an update available.

Hope this is of interest

Charlie

[handrawn]

one thing I notice with your svg - it opens with visibility clipped in inkscape, but not in xara pro 19

it certainly moves faster than the other in xara [lot less redrawing to be done]

I have always found maps facinating

[CharlieJeit]

Yes - the Maperative export is clipped by the bounding rectangle rather than cropped for some reason. The first thing I do is Xara is to extract the frame rectangle from a group and move it to the top level alongside the overall group. Then select all (two objects) and Arrange/Intersect Shapes to crop.

The other issue if importing contours is that Maperative produces an over-the-top number of curve points which slows down the Xara redraw and would result in an overly large PDF if not smoothed (my PDF are produced for web download). I haven't found a way to build smooth these curves in Xara so I use Inkscape (Ctrl / A, Ctrl L) for that instead.

Charlie

[handrawn]

in xara there is a slider on the shape tool infobar right for smoothing nodes [curve points]

[Egg Bramhill]

in xara there is a slider on the shape tool infobar right for smoothing nodes [curve points]

Indeed you can but I wouldn't fancy doing it on 18,000 objects!

[handrawn]

no it's a shame you cannot multi select for this operation ?