importing wmf or emf (distortion)

[gorky2]

Hi !

Importing a circle (wmf or emf format) into KM changes into an ellipse. Is there a workaround about this distortion? Drawing in KM itself is not usefull for me, because I need to import complete outline-maps into Km (and of course can´t draw them freehand, because they have a spefic projection ...)

thanks for any hint

Gorky

[Bob Hartzell]

Is the distortion severe? I am not aware of anything in the code that would be doing this. How are you creating the files? The simple fix is to select all and use the scaling tool to adjust the x/y scaling of the shapes.

[gorky2]

Originally posted by Bob Hartzell
Is the distortion severe? I am not aware of anything in the code that would be doing this. How are you creating the files? The simple fix is to select all and use the scaling tool to adjust the x/y scaling of the shapes.

Hello Bob!

I used my projection-software (versamap) and exported it as wmf. This wmf I imported into KM. I also enhanced this wmf with serveral vectorgraphic-programs (topdraw, smartdraw, mayura draw) and re-exported the file as wmf and/or emf. This wmfs /emfs also show distortion in KM. (Therefore I think the bug is in KM)

From a cartographic point of view any distortion is serve, but I think I can fix it with the scaling tool as you suggested.

Thanks

Gorky

Maybe other users could post their experiences with wmf/emf import here in the forum??

[Bob Hartzell]

It just occurred to me that the code for importing wmfs is totally separate from the code for importing emfs so if both are showing the same problem it is unlikely the distortion is coming from koolmoves.

[Bob C.]

I use two vector drawing apps., XaraX (www.xara-x.com) and CorelDraw to import circles as .wmf files into KoolMoves and both show them to be a bit out of round. Its easy to make circles in KoolMoves so I try to that if needed.

[Bob Hartzell]

I will look at it. It would be helpful if I have a simple example.

[gorky2]

Originally posted by Bob Hartzell
I will look at it. It would be helpful if I have a simple example.

Hello Bob!

I will email you an example

Groky

[Bob C.]

Originally posted by Bob Hartzell
I will look at it. It would be helpful if I have a simple example.

Bob,

I have e-mailed you the two samples I used to test in KoolMoves, thanks.

After your post here I performed an additional experiment by importing both of the .wmf files into Xara and then CorelDraw respectively to look for any out of roundness and found none. A duplicate was made of each and were rotated while being overlapped with the original. No out of roundness was observed.

To restate: A file made in Xara and exported as a .wmf was imported back into Xara along with a similar file made and exported with CorelDraw. This was repeated by importing both files back into CorelDraw. In both cases a duplicate was made of each and were rotated while being overlapped with the original. No out of roundness was observed.

Bob C.

[johnie]

Its not really a matter of the WMF and EMF formats being distorted but rather in the fact that WMF and EMF format implementations in aplications both are such that there is very few programs at all that implemnt the full format and a lot is dependant on the aplications designers decisions. This is why they are more or less dreaded. Inside Koolmoves the descesion was made to import advanced polygon info and color and it does this quite well.

Info on WMF and EMF;

http://www.wvware.com/caolan/ora-wmf.html

The discrepancies are explained here: http://www.companionsoftware.com/PR/...Idiosyncracies the test is here http://www.companionsoftware.com/PR/WMRC/TEST.WMF
Anyhow, we can see by this test on this page 2 things;

1. KoolMoves is not importing all the Metafile information - WE already knew this though. KoolMoves does not import text, transparancies, fills, line widths, line paterns, and Bitmaped info. This is why different WMF exports and rasteriztion techniques work better with KoolMoves. Star Draw in paticular works quite well because its WMF info is all complex polygons and when it rasteriozes what it does is convert everything to polygonsbased on color. The WMF import could and probably should be improved upon. Becuase KoolMoves is only importing the polygon info this is also why a lot of the vector imports do not do so well. Illustrator, for example, uses mostly bitmapped info when importing.

2. The info that it does import is more or less correct. KoolMoves is not distorting circles although it fills them when they should not be filled- in the shapes if you import this WMF and select the Line width to 1 and fill color to white it displays correct. It does best at importing complex polygons. KoolMoves also imports colors right.

I have often mentioned that more vector formats, in paticular the new XML based formats should be added into KoolMoves in paticular the SVG format (A W3C rec) which is speced at http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG or if not SVG at least VML, which is implemented in MS Office 2000 and IE 5.0 or higher, which is speced here http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-VML and here http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...op/author/vml/
[Edited by johnie on 02-05-2002 at 02:54 PM]

[docree]

I get thick lines when I import emf...
I guess, Johnie: "KoolMoves does not import text,
transparancies, fills, line widths, line paterns, and
Bitmaped info." explains that..

What, I would like to see is a point reduction for
our drawn shapes in KoolMoves. Maybe, one that previews
our shape so we know what reduction is best.
Bob is this possible?
*+*+*+*+*
Doc'Ree

[johnie]

Originally posted by docree
I get thick lines when I import emf...
I guess, Johnie: "KoolMoves does not import text,
transparancies, fills, line widths, line paterns, and
Bitmaped info." explains that..

Here this is the explanation:

Why does my metafile "change" in some programs when I import it?
Often, drawing programs import a metafile by reading it and converting each metafile object to the closest corresponding drawing object. No drawing program that I am aware of supports all the possible objects contained in a Windows metafile. And some don't always draw objects the same way Windows does.

Most often drawing programs don't handle things like PolyPolygons (polygons with holes and islands), rotated text, bitmap fill patterns and transparent hatch patterns. This can cause certain "idiosyncracies" to appear when editing some metafiles.

If you want to put your favorite drawing program to the test, use it to open TEST.WMF, and make a small change to one of the objects (to make sure the metafile has really been converted to the drawing program's native format). Then use the Windows Clipboard Viewer to open TEST.CLP and see what the chart should really look like! Are they the same?

Why do some programs display a metafile properly when it is imported, but then change it when I edit it?

This is related to the previous question. Basically, any Windows program can accurately display a Windows metafile with a few lines of code. They just hand the metafile to Windows and say "display it". So some drawing programs take the following approach with metafiles. Initially, when the metafile is added they display it "as is". But as soon as the user tries to edit (or ungroup) the metafile, then they convert it to their own internal format and that's where the idiosyncracies occur.

It would seem from the test WMF that KoolMoves is not importing Line widths and all that other stuff I posted. You can look at the test WMF yourself- It is posted on that site exactly for comparision of WMF export and import comparision.

Of coarse some of the features of WMF are not supported by SWF so on some it would make no sense to have it imported. I would rather see the nonsupported features ignored instead of showing as a black shape though.

A preview of the import option makes sense if its feasible.

[johnie]

I played with this some more and it is so odd. Under Program Files>Common Files>Microsoft Shared>Clip Art I imported about a dozen of the Office WMF clipart files from cagcat50 and they all opened with 0 flaws or distortions.

As far as Opening the Windows Office Clipart KoolMoves is spot on.

I then tried to Open the Metafile Companion test suite with Xara X- It will not Open at all. I then Tried to Open The Windows Clipart with Xara X and it did so-so.