OmniGraffle 7.7 is focused on improving SVG import and export. If SVG is a part of your workflow then we would love to know how OmniGraffle 7.7 works for you. Is this an improvement? Did anything break? Let us know here or by sending email to omnigraffle@omnigroup.com and if you can include any sample files that would certainly help too!
Download the latest build here: https://omnistaging.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle/
(OmniGraffle will automatically check for new public test builds)
It would be very helpful if OmniGraffle maintained PNG images within the SVG XML code instead of just stripping the images out and holding them in a folder separate from the SVG code. There is no way another software such as Serif’s Affinity Designer or BoxySVG knows how to incorporate those back into the diagram. That has to be done manually. It’s very hard for me to work cross-platform with the Windows people.
Yes, please.
Seconded.
The whole SVG Export needs re-work. The bit-wise improvements over the last six years has resulted in a fat monster, the problem reported by jlhayden being just one.
Actually, the problem is deeper than that. The database that comprises an OG file isn’t, it is a 1960’s style Record Filing System, with massive duplication. If you fix that, you will improve everything. Not just file saize and app performance, but eased exports for SVG; Visio; etc.
I work on a very large set of diagrams in a diagramming tool that uses UML, SysML, and UPDM for describing operations and functions in large system of systems. That tool is MagicDraw - it’s cross platform as it’s written in Java. The DoD uses it extensively as well as NASA. The problem with MagicDraw, other then cost, is the difficulty in obtaining decent renditions of the large diagrams for showing to the system stakeholders. The best method I’ve found is to export the diagrams as resolution independent SVG files, read those into BoxySVG and exporting PDFs from that.
Since that works well, I’ve found that OmniGraffle works very well for another need to trace data flows through very large diagrams. The MagicDraw diagrams don’t work well for tracing data flows. MagicDraw is not layer-based, but OmniGraffle is. OmniGraffle works well except for four things:
OmniGraffle is not cross-platform and the Visio Export doesn’t work well.
Since I switched to SVG to make things cross-platform, I need the images to be embedded in the SVG file so I don’t have to re-place them into in the diagram after the export.
The best thing OmniGraffle has given me is layers because it enables me to show multitudes of different data flows by placing each flow type on its own layer and then turn a layer on or off as needed for a particular view. OmniGraffle exports the layers and labels to SVG well except for the missing I’m,ages. I would like to see nested layers for better grouping in the sidebar and locking, visibility, and print icons for every object in the diagram.
OmniGraffle misses many lines when Opening or Placing an SVG image. When I export an SVG from OmniGraffle, the vectors and layers are retained (except for the images). Other software will read the files just fine retaining the layers and their names. When I open that same file with OmniGraffle, lines are missing and layers are turned into groups with no names - so OmniGraffle won’t read its own SVG output correctly.
I use OmniGraffle regularly for diagramming stuff that MagicDraw isn’t made for. So anything you can do to incorporate the fixes will be a big help to me.
I’m,ages ?
Sorry, I meant images.
I’ll also note that Excel on Mac has defaulted graph export as SVG over the past few days - at least on my Mac. (Extremely annoying in itself but it might mean more users of SVG.)
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