Digital Workshop

Hi,

I just imported a complex EMF file into Opus 05 it has over 4000 nodes with curves. I know that this is a huge number of nodes but it's a complex graphic which will have it's color change via script so it needs to stay as a vector.

I find that the Opus Editor runs extremely slow when doing anything with the graphic. Is there anyway of speeding up this process? Would exporting as a ILV and importing again do anything?




Spec: P4 3.0GHz HT EMT64 / 1GB RAM / ATI X300 128MB


Joe

I find that if a vector has more than 800 nodes things start to slow down, even on a fast computer. -- Saving as .ilv's will make no difference.
Just a matter of processing power available.

You need to reduce the number of nodes before importing it into Opus.
Most graphic applications have the ability to do this, although the results can be disappointing.

Just out of curiosity -- how have you managed to make a complex emf that will import into Opus as a vector?
What app was it made in?
I have never been able to do this -- I have to use the older wmf format.

Paul

Hi Paul,

I use Corel Draw for vector work have found it the best for supporting multiple file formats. I stopped using WMF a long time ago as the file format doesn't support curves on a line, I have had no problems exporting to EMF and importing into Opus. If you experience problems try removing the outline of the file your exporting as sometime Opus gets confused with them. You can just add the outline again from within Opus.

Also as far as I know WMF is based on old Windows 3.1 technology (16bit) and EMF is basically the 32bit version of the Windows vector engine.

The other issue is that I zoom in 400% to edit some nodes within Opus which slows it down even further. Also have you noticed vector movements this happens now and again to me.

Joe

You may find creating vectors in Opus results in less points than using EMF or WMF. Neither WMF or EMF support all the features that Corel or Opus can do in vector editing, so often the export to metafile is innefficient and results in a lot more points than is necessary.

EMF is just an updated version of WMF (which is basically 16 bit), but to be honest there's very little difference between the two.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Would it be possible for Digital Workshop to create am export to ilv plug-in for Corel Draw or even Xara Draw (X1)? Or the option to import from either of these applications.

have found that if you export the EMF from Corel as a large image, so set the page size in Corel to A3 or A2 and then size the vector to fit that and then export to EMF. Corel seems to keep more detail then if you were to export a small size file.

The problem with creating vector graphics in Opus is the lack of export options out of Opus, so once the file is created with Opus it can't be moved to anything else for further editing or to be used in support materials, website, brochure, etc.

An other option would be to create a standalone version of the Opus vector engine so you could create vector graphics and be able to save ilv and export to EMF too so the graphics could be imported into Corel and Adobe. Having a separate application would be good as it may be quicker to respond. Just an idea.

With respect to zoom, which I do in Opus when editing vector nodes, is there anyway to speed this up or add a Pan tool so it would be easier to pan around the page. Also I've noticed slight movement of vectors when editing and zooming, so they move out of line.

Joe

In theory yes, but the problem is getting the necessary information out of Corel and Xara to do this. We did have an import for Corel Draw 6 files, although only as a bitmap, but to update that further was going to cost a huge amount of money and it just wasn't worth it. You can always try to convert your vector drawings to PNG with alpha and use them in Opus that way.

I'm not sure what this issue with zoom is. It's probably just the large number of points that's causing all the problems.