Free Software for Scalable Vector Graphics?

aibrahim asks: " I recently found out about W3C Specification for Scalable Vector Graphics from the Adobe SVG site. So I was looking around for programs that would allow me to work with SVG on Linux, or any OSS system for that matter. Adobe plans on making almost their entire product line work with SVG, including Photoshop. Corel has released an SVG Filter. Yet, I couldn't find a single product with a Freshmeat search that mentions SVG. Looking on SourceForge reveals two projects: Gill and Savage. Neither of these projects have posted any files as of 9/2/2000. Are there any free software projects with a usable SVG product? Can anyone comment on when any such project may come to fruition? Lastly, since Adobe is including SVG features in Photoshop has anyone even mentioned it to the GIMP ^[?] develeopers?"

BRL-CAD

[BandSaw]

This package is more CAD then 2d graphics, (does solid models, shading, etc)

The download is free, but you have to fill out and send in the form to get an activation key. (actually a key for crypt). It took a few weeks between sending in the form and getting the key back, I assume they make some check to see you are who you claim to be.

I have it running under Linux and it is very powerful, a full 3d and solids cad package. It is particularly good if you want to draw something to an exact size rather than just screen position. (ie, if you are going to do CAM off of your model) It has the ability to continuously rotate/translate your 3d model, so you can do fly-bys etc.

You will have to RTFM and the demos to get started using it.

http://ftp.brl.mil/

Re:BRL-CAD - I've been looking for a good CAD!

[BitMan]

Dude! Thanx! I have been looking for a good CAD package to do some mechanical drawings. The fact that it does solid modeling is even better. It also interfaces with various engineering analysis packages (e.g., NASTRAN) which is a plus for some of my line of work.

How difficult was it to get working under Linux? I assume it uses Motif (will LessTif do? although OpenMotif is available and in RPM for RedHat now), or does it use standard X-Widgets? Any other details?

Thanx again ...

-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith

GTK+ based Dia! Comes with most Gnome distros.

[BitMan]

I use the GTK+ based Dia [gnome.org] (Diagram Editor) all the time. It's kinda like Visio and I find it even more intelligent in design (as did a few of my co-workers who use Visio). It comes with any Gnome bearing distro, and is part of the HelixCode HelixCode distro as well. I believe the latest version is v0.85 (just auto-updated my HelixGnome the other day).

Dia is extremly fast, powerful and flat out elegant IMHO. Dia is the vector graphics equivalent of GIMP, looks and acts very familiar. The native file format (.dia) is actually XML-based and quite extensible. All-in-all, I cannot find much wrong with any part of its design or implementation.

In fact, the only thing it lacks is a wealth of templates and object libraries (although there a some good base libraries, they are small). This, of course, can be easily added by regularly users over time.
[ Hey everybody, there's an OSS project you can easily contribute too! Help create a rich object library for Dia! ]

FYI, Dia can export the following vector formats:

• CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile)
• DXF (Drawing Interchange Format)
• EPS/EPSI (Enscapsulated Postscript)
• PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
• SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
• TEX (TeX PSTricks Macros)

Using LyX [lyx.org] and Dia, I can export both PS+EPS (easily converted in PDF) and HTML+PNG (or HTML+SVG) documents from the same original document in LyX+Dia (and the EPS graphics created in Dia show up WYSIWYG in LyX). If you're a tech writer, I think you'll find LyX+Dia a much, much better solution than anything else.
[ Now only if they'd get the LyX codebase over to GTK+ as planned instead of continuing crappy XForms! And yes, I know about KLyX, but it is so out of date with the XForms codebase that it's not nearly as good. ]

-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith

Dooh! Dia uses XML w/SVG *NATIVELY*!

[BitMan]

Of course I couldn't put the obvious together until I actually read the SVG spec. Dia uses the SVG language natively for its XML methods. This example of a horizontal LED "shape" [gnome.org] cited on the GnomeOffice home page for Dia is XML w/SVG.

So if it uses XML w/SVG natively, exports most major vector formats, is lean and mean like the GIMP, why use anything else?
[ After using it for ~6 months now, Dia still continues to amaze me! I've just used it for it's EPS export capabilities with LyX. ]

-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith

SodiPodi

[Booker]

Try SodiPodi [sourceforge.net].

Sodipodi is a small Vector based drawing program. It currently loads and saves SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format, a standard maintained by the WWW consortium and can also inport various bitmap fromats. All the standard tools that you might be familiar with from CorelDraw or similar, work more or less (Circle, Rectangle, Freehand draw). Version 0.15 also has support for node editing including breaking, joining, bezier curves, etc.

As an added bonus, Sodipodi supports alpha channels to their full extent, even on bitmaps.

Printing also works, using gnome-print. The only problem seems to be that Postscript does not support alpha channels.

---

I'm a moron, thanx for the Pro/E info! -Re:BRL-CAD

[BitMan]

Dude, I went off and read everything on the site except the pages on the new 5.1 release. Dooh! I just continue to miss the obvious. Just grabbed the RPM[.crypt] file.

Anyhoo, thanx for the bit on Pro/E. Yes, I deal with Pro/E and being able to import is definately a big plus. What Pro/E version/formats have you had much success with? I also noticed the following list of file formats that can be imported (and some exported) [brl.mil] into/from BRL-CAD (as of version 4.4 I believe).

As far as Mesa/GLX/OpenGL, just upgraded to 4.0.1 and haven't had much chance to mess with any of it. I'm running dual-headed (G200 + V3) so I'm not sure it would work anyway.

-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith

Sketch and Killustrator

[mlinksva]

According to their webpages Sketch [sourceforge.net] and KIllustrator [uni-magdeburg.de] support SVG (export only for the latter).

Sodipodi and Sketch

[tha]

Actually there are lot's of SVG based efforts in the opensource community. To challenge Adobe Illustrator there are Sodipodi [sourceforge.net] and Sketch [sourceforge.net].

There are also quite a few very good free libraries that handles SVG. I know that Raph Levien of advogato.org fame has done some brilliant SVG work for the GNOME codebase.