Interesting @palmercr. That fixed the GUI recognizing all the shapes in the rectangle. I don’t understand why the GUI recognizes the other three shapes and not the fourth. I would think it would be an all or nothing if there were an issue with the rectangle. I also don’t get what happened to create the error in the rectangle. It was a four node shape and a pre-made shape so it’s weird that it was either faulty from the beginning or was corrupted from the combining with the other shapes.
Your fix illustrates another issue too. (It very well could be something I don’t understand yet.) All three elements in your file will only load as one single element. It should let you select different rectangle and assign an independent tasks (cut/score/engrave.) I broke your three rectangles apart and combined them again into three separate elements. They still loaded as one object. I then put each rectangle onto it’s own layer and it still loaded as one. I saw this same issue with the original test file, but it loaded three objects as two.
@Jules the text was converted to objects prior to being combined. The “combine” is a correct option to remove one shape from another. I also used two other boolean join options as well, all produced the same results. It really shouldn’t matter as all combined all the elements into the same identical single objects
Nice observation @mpipes !! I think this is looking like a GUI issue and maybe not on my side. I used your solution of importing a raster to engrave, but it really should work correctly as a SVG. For someone like me with a lot of intricate art, it really is cleaner and easier to have just one step. It’s driving me nuts trying to understand what’s happening. I think you really might be onto something though!
I’m off for my 12 hr work day and I’ll check back on this tonight. Very interesting discussion!
The GFUI groups by colour only, it ignores layers. OpenSCAD can only export one colour at the moment so mine are all grey. To get three groups you need three colours.
I might be incorrect, but my understanding is that in CorelDraw, the Combine option keeps the original attributes of the part so that it can be broken apart again later, which means that it is still capturing the Fill information. Once that is exported into the SVG, it is still being seen by the GFUI, which picks up everything it sees.
If someone with CorelDraw would just try the Trim option, it should be easy enough to see if it is still picked up in the GFUI, or if it does what has to happen…complete removal of the shape from the interior.
Oh snap! I get my GF today, perfect timing to help suss this stuff out and getting that GFUI as the final piece of the puzzle.
Now I’m going down a rabbit hole with Illustrator. I don’t get this behavior. I draw my own text and my own rectangle and I can knock out the text with Make Compound Path. I make my own text and my own random blob shape, I can NOT Make Compound Path. I make new rectangle and new text but the rectangle touched the larger curve of @kittski’s, I can NOT Make Compound Path. Bizarre!
Already did that with my post above. Now, I’m testing with Illustrator since I dont have the GFUI yet, but it looks like the GFUI reads files the same way Illustrator is base on above posts.
The interesting thing about @kittski test files in Affinity Designer is that on test 2.svg it almost looks like the 9 shapes are simply grouped together – but they’re NOT. They’re in a layer.
In my mind, I’m wondering if the GFUI can’t handle layers, only groups… (and, for that matter, what the difference between layers and groups mean to both Illustrator, Corel, and everything else).
I’ve changed the test 2.svg to use groups, I’d be curious if that improves things in the GFUI and other apps, because otherwise I see nothing else wrong with the file and how it relates to fills/islands/holes.
[with the exception of that last row; not sure if that was wrong to start with?]
Well, I can’t make Trim work with the CD file either - (I found and installed a very old version of CD.) (And sorry @mpipes, I missed the Trim part of your earlier testing. Skimming too fast.)
I’m going to play with it for a while by trying to create files from the beginning and see if anything trips. I’m not a real fan of CD but I know there is a way to do it…@smcgathyfay corrected one for it…that Narwhal file. So it’s just a question of figuring out the steps to make it happen.
@jamesdhatch , you said in another thread that you taught CD…any recommendations?
It seems like an issue with Corel writing the SVG file because Illustrator and GFUI both bork it up.
However Inkscape opens it fine.
OpenSCAD apparently opens it fine.
I opened one of @kittski’s other Corel-originated SVG’s with Affinity and it opened fine there too.
If you open it in Illustrator and release all compound paths you can not even fix it. You cant even add your own stuff to the file and make that part work right. However if you then simply re-save as SVG (and disable Maintain Illustrator Editing) then re-open the SVG in Illustrator, the problems go away and you can re-compound the paths.
So now the issue is the CorelDRAW->GFUI workflow since folks shouldnt need 3 different apps to make this all work… hmm… gonna dig for more options in CorelDRAW.
Personally I think that if you can get Corel to stop dumping everything into an Object layer/group, it’ll help quite a bit. I’m not sure if that’s something feasible with it, though.
That’s Affinity Designer’s gig with the Layer/Group thing. If you open the SVG file in a text editor you’ll see there’s only one layer specified in the file.
I had also used “trim” and all the other options to delete one shape from another and they all appeared the same in GUI. The other shapes that do appear correctly in the GUI we’re made in the exact same methods as the missing one too. Since the problem is easy to recreate in new files, it appears to be an issue with how GUI interprets Corel SVGs and not an issue with an incorrectly made file. It doesn’t matter if the SVG is created via and “export” or “save as” either . FWIW I started using Corel 6 about 20 yrs ago and I’m pretty well versed in it and I can’t figure out what’s causing it. It’s so weird.
My mistake, there is no layer in the SVG file. There is a group (the /g/ command) in the SVG that is given an ID matching the layer name but the grouping is a standard feature of SVG and shouldnt be tripping up any program written specifically for handling SVG files. By the way I tried removing that /g/ tag and it kicked an error at me when opened in a web browser. It still rendered the image fine but it looks like an SVG is always going to have that group tag.
I am not inclined to believe there are any issues with the SVG’s written by CorelDRAW.
You can open them all up directly in a web browser and they work without a problem. In fact, a computer I have not updated in 8 years can open these SVGs in a web browser, without a hitch. This same computer can’t even access this forum because the website literally says the browser is too old.
Inkscape, OpenSCAD and affinity open them.
This issue is, without any doubt, problems inherent in Illustrator and the GFUI.
I have completely altered @kittski’s design. I’ve removed curves we all thought were causing problems, I’ve erased EVERY curve. I’ve added curves, added/removed text. Same problems exist with fills when I open in Illustrator. But it all still works in a web browser and other design programs so there just can NOT be any errant data being stuck in these files!
Is there a way to save or export the results of the CorelDraw file as a PDF instead of an SVG?
(I was just noticing that the file that @smcgathyfay shared was a PDF.)
I don’t see it as an option in my ancient version of CorelDraw. But that might be the way to make it work.
