QCAD 2.1.6.4

[andrew]

A little googling reveals that Cheetah only imports a small subset from SVG, namely only <path/> elements (or spline elements). It ignores all other elements, including lines.

See also:

http://cheetah3d.de/forum/archive/index.php?t-214.html

"The problem is that it is important to convert a object (circle, rect, text, etc) to a path. Since Cheetah3D only reads the path informations from the .svg file."

http://cheetah3d.de/forum/archive/index.php?t-434.html

".svg files can contain rects or text. But Cheetah3D only imports the Bezier paths from the SVG file. So convert the rect in Illustrator to a path and Cheetah3D should be able to read it."

[ttrw]

Interesting.

Gives me something more to work on.

Thanks Andrew.

[ttrw]

A little googling reveals that Cheetah only imports a small subset from SVG, namely only <path/> elements (or spline elements). It ignores all other elements, including lines.

Andrew, I think you've missed the point- with the 'lines'; C3D actually does import lines very well. If I draw exactly the same drawing (in Intaglio)- a intersected square and circle, save as an svg, then import into C3D and then extruding the drawing, I get this;



Whereas, if I draw the same image in QCad and then import that into Cheetah3D, I get this;



(notice that the rectangle is missing!)

If I add a solid fill (which I did to get a solid object in Intaglio in the first image above) to the QCad drawing, I can't even get an option to extrude at all.

These are my findings, which suggest that there is a problem with the SVG file that QCad is outputting.

[ttrw]

Moved SVG topic to here;

http://www.ribbonsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=814#814

(to stop hijacking the thread )

[andrew]

I was not referring to lines as in CAD line entities but lines as in SVG line elements.

Point is: Cheetah SVG import is incomplete. It only imports path elements from SVG and not line elements.
QCad SVG export is correct but chooses to export lines as SVG line elements and not SVG path elements.

Please refer to the SVG spec if you are interested in the details:
http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/

Compare chapter "8 Paths" with chapter "9.5 The line element".

In other words: there's more than one way to store a line in SVG and QCad choose a way that is correct but not supported by Cheetah.

[ttrw]

I was not referring to lines as in CAD line entities but lines as in SVG line elements.

Yes I know it was that you were referring to

I know that both UGS and Solidworks have been working quite closely together now for a while with Apple (one result is that the former's flagship product NX has been developed for OS X). While I don't feel that 2D is dead, I know that times must move forward, and companies such as Solidworks (and ArchiCAD, Vectorworks etc) most definitely think that 2D has had its day (if only those companies would lower their prices though- perhaps we'd see some change!).

SVG is coming back into vogue (or it seems anyway), I would imagine, because of the reluctance of Autodesk to stop changing the position of its goal posts as regards to the dxf/dwg file. I've also read recently in MCAD magazine that Autodesk is now considering licencing their dxf/dwg file format, so that all who use it will probably soon have to pay Autodesk a licence subscription fee. (and that will include Ribbonsoft also). Thanks Autodesk!

Adobe on the other hand, have released the 3D PDF format in hope that this may become the new international standard that we've been looking/ waiting for. A PDF can contain all kinds of data, including spline date- a la SVG. Perhaps it's the PDF that have put pay to the SVG file as far as Apple are concerned?