I was wondering if it's possible to export (or perhaps even copy/paste) to Illustrator while preserving the object names that have been assigned in MoI. As far as I can see, only the layers are currently preserved, is this correct?

Also, would it be possible to specify the Illustrator artboard dimensions as a config option?

- Fabien

Hi Fabien, yes that's correct that only layer names will be preserved in AI export, not object names. As far as I know there isn't any mechanism in the AI8 file format for representing object names, so I don't think that there is any way to make that happen. If you export out from Illustrator in AI8 format you will probably see the object names not round tripping back in there also.

The artboard size will be settable in the next v4 beta though, there will be a new option for controlling page size for AI and PDF export, on the options dialog:



- Michael

Hi Michael,

I could've guessed that the v.8 format didn't support this feature, as you would've likely had implemented this already if it were possible ;-) Having the option to export and specify a page format is already very helpful. I presume the origin will be the bottom-left corner of the page?

What about the DXF format? It appears that named objects aren't preserved there either (into Illustrator, or even back in to MoI).

- Fabien

Hi Fabien,

> I presume the origin will be the bottom-left corner of the page?

The bottom-left corner of the page is the origin for the PDF/AI coordinate system, yes. But how this relates to the origin in MoI depends on what export mode you use.

If you use the mode Scale: "Fit to page" (or if you are exporting a perspective view), all the vectors that MoI generates will be scaled and moved to stretch across the entire page. If you use Scale: "Preserve units" you can set how units in MoI will relate to units in the AI/PDF page and there will be a new option here too for whether to center the output on the page or if center is unchecked it will map the origin in MoI to the origin of the page.


> What about the DXF format? It appears that named objects aren't preserved there
> either (into Illustrator, or even back in to MoI).

As far as I know DXF format does not have any facility in it for object names either.

- Michael