Michael, what version of ai does MoI exporter use?

inkscape has recently introduced ai import, but v9 or higher...pdf-like, i understand.

i have always struggled to produce hidden line type vector drawings of objects created in MoI. potentially this route could be useful:

export from MoI as ai > import into inkscape > edit in inkscape OR export from inkscape as dxf

but...i get the feeling that ai's from MoI are not compatible with the inkscape importer :(

also, any chance of pdf export from MoI?

Hi Steve - MoI currently exports as AI version 8 files, which is kind of a more simple structure before it switched to the PDF structure that is used in newer releases of Illustrator.

The last time I looked, it seemed that the Inkscape importer only supported the new PDF type structure and not the older method, which is kind of too bad since the older method has a rather broader support among various different programs since it is a lot more simple than PDF. For example most 3D modeling programs that support AI format for reading in drawings only support the old pre-PDF AI version.


> also, any chance of pdf export from MoI?

Yeah, I would like to have this eventually, but it is not a particularly easy format to work with, it is going to be a fairly substantial undertaking to make that happen.

Probably I'll be able to do an SVG export before that point, which would likely be the best way to get things into Inkscape. But that will still take enough work for even that part, that I think that is not going to be able to fit into the v2 timeframe though.


One other method you could try right now is to save your curves in a 3DM file, and use this utility:
http://moi3d.com/download/3dmCurves2DXF.zip
To convert it into a DXF file with spline entities in it.

Then there seems to be a dxf2svg converter for Inkscape which maybe would do the trick...


- Michael

ok thanks for that Michael. i particularly like the feature in your ai exporter where you can choose which view to save as a flat drawing.

just another thought...does anyone know of any software (other than illustrator) that will open ai files form MoI?

Hi Steve,

> does anyone know of any software (other than illustrator) that
> will open ai files form MoI?

There are quite a few... Most 2D illustration programs will do it, Inkscape just happens to kind of be an exception.

For example, Corel Draw, Xara, Deneba Canvas, ... Xara is probably a good one to try: http://www.xara.com/us/products/xtreme/buy/ - a lot of people like it and it is pretty inexpensive at $89.

Also there is a very inexpensive ($39) shareware program called Mayura Draw (http://www.mayura.com/) which if I remember right can do it. That would probably also work as a converter since it can save to SVG.

Also another possibility - it looks like it may still be possible to get a free copy of Creature House Expression 3 from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/expression-design/CreatureHouse.aspx?key=download

- Michael

Hi Steve,

I've only just recently started to need a program for use with AI files, but didn't want the costs of Adobe Illustrator.
So I've been using Xara Xtreme & that works really well with the AI files I've made & exported from MoI.

http://www.xara.com/us/products/xtreme/

Hope that helps, Colin

Blender works fine with AI from Moi ;)
http://www.blender.org/

thanks, all for those links

Pilou, as you say, blender does import them, but lines show up as multi-point curves (can be converted to mesh) and faces are not imported. useful for importing curves created in moi, but not useful for generating hidden line views...

(also, the importer fails if any other scripts are running in blender)

will look into the other apps