How do I import a shape from illustrator? - found a solution

Started by berrick, November 18, 2017, 05:51:55 PM

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berrick

 8)Hi All,

I hope I have posted in the right place.

I have created an image in illustrator of a piece of network equipment which I have tried to get into visio Pro 2010 but everything I try fails to import it correctly.

Am I better trying to create this shape in visio rather than importing from illustrator cs6?

I'm looking for guidance/link on how to do any of this as I don't know how to create shapes in visio etc. I suspect this is where most of my problems stem from.

TIA




Yacine

Illustrator is a vector graphic program. It should be able to export to SVG. The SVG can then be imported into Visio.
Yacine

berrick

Thanks for the reply. I have already tried this but I get an error and the log file contains many entries as below

[Information] DataType: Element <path>
Context: Line 21
Description: Unsupported attribute type clip-rule. Attribute ignored.


The resulting image is horrible. I just went with the default svg settings when saving in illustrator

Yacine

That is certainly because Illustrator has more effects than SVG supports.
Either use less fancy effects or do a complicated export as bitmap, then vectorize back (in Illustrator? or Inkscape).
Yacine

berrick

@Yacine
QuoteThat is certainly because Illustrator has more effects than SVG supports

Is what I thought. However as a test I created a basic file consisting of a rectangle with flat fill. Inside this I had a rectangle with rounded corners and some text inside it.

It still gave same errors. However I ignore errors and it looks OK apart from the fact that text doesn't scale  >:(
This is most likely because I am not really sure of what I'm doing regards visio.

So question is how do I import and keep text at right size and allow it to scale in visio?

If there are any tutors on how to do this I would appreciate links.

many thanks

wapperdude

Any chance we can see the image?  There might be an alternative that word fail to provide.

Wapperdude
Visio 2019 Pro

berrick

Hi All,

So I have been playing around some more and the only way I can get the text to scale is to use the info found here http://www.visguy.com/2009/05/06/top-twelve-text-tips/ Tip 11.

I thought text should scale without the need for something like this as the file is in svg?

Am I going to have to do this for every bit of text I use in my shape  :o ?

I have attached the file I'm using as a test as saved from illustrator

Paul Herber

I think we also need to see the original, i.e. a screenshot of what you see in Illustrator.
Fill patterns from Illustrator will not work correctly in Visio.
The 'stroke-miterlimit' warning is just saying that Visio cannot handle this attribute. It took a few seconds for me to work out what 'stroke-miterlimit' was trying to mean. 'stroke-miterlimit' would be 'stroke-mitrelimit' in British English but then 'stroke-mitre-limit' might be better!

Electronic and Electrical engineering, business and software stencils for Visio -

https://www.paulherber.co.uk/

berrick

Thanks for all the replies.

Just to clarify I'm not overly concerned about the log errors as it appears ok when inserted.

But I would like to understand if the text should scale when inserted without having to make changes to the shapesheet?

I have attached an screen shot of the shape in illustrator

wapperdude

#9
That's it???

3 rectangles and some text?  Do this directly in Visio.  Draw the rectangles, for simplicity, largest 1st, smallest last, select all, use alignment tool to center the three shapes, group.  Create your text, position it where you'd like it, add to group.

You can use the fill tool/options for each rectangle to get specific color/shading.  Once grouped, however, group attributes will push into all subshapes.  But, you can click on a subshape to identify it only.  Move it, re-size it, change coloring, line style, etc.

Resizing text is not quite so straight forward.  There are several common techniques, but the attached file illustrates what I believe to be the most successful.
Wapperdude
Visio 2019 Pro

berrick

@wapperdude LoL,

That's the test file I was using to see if my shape was causing the errors in the log file, not what the actual finished result will be. The actual shape I'm creating I will be starting from scratch as I screwed up the scale and other bits trying to understand about the errors etc and before I posted here.

I will take a look at the file you supplied thanks  ;D.

If there are any tutorials about creating shapes in illustrator or best practice and then importing it would be very helpful? 

wapperdude

 ;)

I'm not aware of any direct import into Visio, certainly not Illustrator.  Most imports come in as bmp, png, wmf, etc.  While Visio was intended to be a full-fledged "drawing" tool, it does have a good array of tools.  Big advantage is objects in native format, and you avoid a lot of file bloat.

You can draw from scratch, or use an image (place it on background) and trace over it.

HTH
Wapperdude
Visio 2019 Pro

Yacine

Quote from: berrick on November 20, 2017, 05:56:40 PM
But I would like to understand if the text should scale when inserted without having to make changes to the shapesheet?

Presumably the text size comes from the setting in the "standard" style (see Drawing Explorer for styles).
From here 2 possibilities:
1) change the standard style
2) resize the text of your shapes
- manually if possible
- by code, if for what reason ever, it is necessary.
Yacine

Nikolay

I would try with EMF format (it's vector)
Many "equipment" companies use this approach, as far as I know (e.g. most of stencils from http://www.visiocafe.com/ are EMF)

Means - try exporting EMF from illustrator, and importing into Visio.

berrick

Thanks for all the suggestions.

EMF looks promising. A quick test shows text scales great. However some of the graphics look horrible all jagged and some parts of a rectangle no fill just stroke don't display, these display great as svg.

How can I clean up the jagged graphics, sure I read something about this in all post I read.