The long awaited Ab2d.ReaderSvg update is available

by abenedik 9. April 2009 18:20

I am really excited to announce that the long awaited new version of ReaderSvg has been released.

The new version 3.0 is full of great new features and improvements. The most important is the support for Drawing objects (objects that derive from Geometry class - DrawingGeometry, StreamGeometry, etc.)

Previous versions of Ab2d.ReaderSvg returned the read svg files as Shapes (Path, Polyline, Ellipse, etc.). This was great when you needed to manipulate separate objects or add some mouse events to objects. The flexibility of Shapes has its cost when complex objects are shown - the performance could be very poor and memory consumption very high. WPF provides a much more efficient way to show more complex images - by using Drawing objects instead of Shapes.

With the new Ab2d.ReaderSvg it is possible to read the objects as Shapes (with the Read method) or as Drawings (with the new ReadGeometry method). And what is more, it is also possible to further optimize the drawing by using resources for similar Pens and Brushes and by combining geometries together (with passing the GeometrySettings to ReadGeometry method).

To make the usage of read svg objects simpler, there is also a ResourceDictionaryWriter sample applications that can produce complex ResourceDictionaries from svg files with just a few mouse clicks. The following screenshot shows SVG ResourceDictionaryWriter application with three svg files added to the ResourceDictionary (xaml of ResourceDictionary can be seen on the right):

Svg ResourceDictionaryWriter screenshot

The support for Drawing objects is just one of the improvements of the new version. Another very big improvement is much better performance of ReaderSvg - now reading svg files is almost as fast as parsing xaml with XamlReader.

Here is the full list of changes:

  • Added Drawing objects support:
    new ReadGeometry method with support for advanced geometry optimization and use of resources (Burshes and Pens are defined in resources).
    new ResourceDictionaryWriter class and sample SampleResourceDictionary aplication to simplify creating resources from the svg files
  • Added SvgDrawing control to show svg file as geometries in xaml
  • Greatly improved performance on svg files where path elements have a lot of segments.
  • Added GetXaml method to get the xaml of the read objects (also used in ViewerSvg; it is much more accurate as System.Windows.Markup.XamlWriter.Save)
  • Added GetObjectName method - gets the name of the object. If object does not have a name defined returns null
  • Optimized the output xaml for Path element - now the properties with default values are no longer displayed. This in most cases removes the following properties: StrokeStartLineCap, StrokeEndLineCap, StrokeDashCap, StrokeLineJoin, StrokeMiterLimit, StrokeDashOffset
  • Added support for gradientTransform on radialGradient
  • Added support for known colors in xaml writter - known colors like Black, Yellow can now be written with its name instead of hex display (#FF000000). This feature is used by default but can be disabled with setting UseColorNames in XamlWriterSettings to false.
  • Fixed propagating text styles to child tspan elements (for example if text has underline decoration set, underline will be used also on the child tspan elements - if not overwritten by different text-decoraton)
  • The path is now automatically closed when the last segment ends on the same position as the start segment. Before if the paths were not manually closed, there could be some sharp edges on some parts of the path.
  • Improved setting the size of returned Viewbox.
    If AutoSize is false the returned Viewbox has the size that is defined in the svg file. The previous version did not set the size correctly.
    If the svg width and height are specified in cm, mm or inches the output size in xaml is set in cm.
  • Added AutoSize property to SvgViewbox and SvgDrawing
  • Added support for bitmap patterns - used as background textures
  • Added BitmapImages property that contains all the bitmaps read with ReaderSvg (also contains images embedded into the svg file)
  • Added ReadPathAsPathGeometry property - If false (default) the path is read as StreamGeometry (better performance). If true the path is read as PathGeometry (worse performance but path can be modified).

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Because of so many changes, it is possible that some of the applications that are using Ab2d.ReaderSvg need to be changed. Please consider the following two issues:

NamedObject dictionarty is changed from Dictionary<string, FrameworkElement> to Dictionary<string, object>. This change was added so the NamedObject property can be also used when svg file was read as Geometry. ReadGeometry method returns objects that are not derived from FrameworkElement. So the type change was needed. It would be also possible to define a new dictionary, but this would only postpone the change - in the future all the readers would implement the same interface and there will be room for only one named objects dictionary. This change could mean that the code that is using the NamedObject must be changed. If only the Read method is used (and not ReadGeometry), than the following code can be used:
FrameworkElement element = myReaderSvg.NamedObject["myObject"] as FrameworkElement;

Another change is that by default all paths are now read as StreamGeometry (before they were read as PathGeometry). This greatly improves the performance of reading svg file and drawing objects in WPF. But if your code expects the PathGeometry, the default behavior would throw a runtime exception. To avoid this, you can change your code to support StreamGeometry or set the new ReadPathAsPathGeometry property on ReaderSvg to true.

The ViewerSvg application has also been updated to support the new features of ReaderSvg. The following screenshot shows the new export dialog (notice the new geometries and new export images options):

ViewerSvg Export Dialog

The new version can be downloaded from my Downloads page.
After downloading just install the new version over the previous version (no need to uninstall).

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ReaderSvg

Updated ZoomPanel control

by abenedik 6. March 2009 23:56

I am happy to announce that the ZoomPanel control has been updated. The following is a list of new features:

  • Added support for WPF Browser applications. There is also a new sample that demonstrated this.
  • Added Viewbox property - Gets or sets the current viewbox as Rect used to determine which part of ZoomPanel's content is shown.
  • Fixed problems when the ZoomPanel content was empty and zoom buttons on ZoomControler were used.
  • Fixed some problems with licensing and evaluation.
  • Added TargetZoomPanelName property to ZoomController - the ZoomPanel that is controller with ZoomController can now be specified by its name (no need for DataBinding on TargetZoomPanel property any more)
  • Added automatic discovery of ZoomPanel on ZoomController. This means setting TargetZoomPanelName or TargetZoomPanel is not needed anymore. The ZoomController will automatically find the ZoomPanel. So everything you need to do is simply drag and drop ZoomPanel and ZoomController from the Toolbox on the Design Surface.

ZoomPanel control

More info about the best zoom and pan control for WPF can be found here.

The new version 1.2 can be downloaded from my Downloads page.

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ReaderWmf

A bunch of additional improvements available

by abenedik 31. January 2009 20:36

I have got some great test svg files and some very helpful user feedback. This lead to the following improvements in Ab2d.ReaderSvg:

  • Added AutoSize property. If its value is true (default - as previous version) the size of returned Canvas is calculated from the size of objects it contains. This is useful if you do not care whether the objects were drawn on the Letter or A4 page - you just need the returned object to be as big as its containg objects. If AutoSize is false the size defined in svg element is used for the size of returned Canvas. This is useful if you were working on a Letter page and would like to preserve the positions of objects inside the Letter area.
  • Improved measuring of objects when AutoSize is true (now transformed elements are correctly measured).
  • Improved ellipse - before svg ellipse was converted into Path WPF element - now it is converted into Ellipse WPF element
  • Added reading elements inside svg link element (before the whole element was skipped). Linking is not supported, but its content is now rendered.
  • Added support for underline and line-through text decorations.
  • Improved processing of text and tspan svg elements.
  • Added help file.

The ViewerSvg has been also improved to support new AutoSize property. Now it also has an automatic error reporting - when an exception occurs in ViewerSvg or Ab2d.ReaderSvg, user can now submit error information to help resolve the problems.

The new automatic error reporting is now part of new Paste2Xaml as well.

To install the new version, download the installer from my Downloads page and simply install it over the previous version (no need to uninstall).

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ReaderSvg | ReaderWmf

Animated 3D Buttons Panel sample

by abenedik 21. January 2009 16:13

As promised I have published a source code for Animated 3D buttons that were used in previous version of Viewer3ds.

The sample shows how to create 3D buttons that are animated when mouse moves over them. Under the buttons there is a nice reflection of the buttons. The models for the buttons are defined in 3ds files and read with Ab3d.Reader3ds.

Animated 3D Buttons Panel sample

The sample is now part of the samples that come with Reader3ds installation.

It is also possible to download the sample alone from here (note that Ab3d.Reader3ds have to be installed on the system).

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Reader3ds

Ab3d.Reader3ds v5.2 has improved WPF Browser applications support

by abenedik 20. January 2009 19:34

The previous version or Ab3d.Reader3ds did not work with WPF Browser applications (XBAP). Because WPF Browser applications are running inside a partially trusted environment, the licensing code could not read the license or evaluation information. The new version overcomes this by embedding the information into the applications resources. To do this a license.licx file needs to be added to WPF Browser application's project and its build action should be set to Embedded resource (also for evaluation version).

This is the list of changes for v5.2:

  • Added support for using Ab3d.Reader3ds in WPF Browser applications (partially trusted).
  • Fixed problems with evaluation version with SmoothingGroups - sometimes "Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection." was thrown.
  • Fixed reading some 3ds files with animation - sometimes "System.OutOfMemoryException" was thrown.

For convenience I have also included samples for VS 2008 into the installer (besides VS 2008 solution).

WPF Browser application

The new version is available on https://www.ab4d.com/Downloads.aspx.

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Reader3ds

Ab2d.ReaderSvg library improved

by abenedik 4. January 2009 20:34

Ab2d.ReaderSvg library has been improved.

The list of changes is not long. I needed some new functionality for importing text. The previous version has also some problems with importing rectangles. This is a list of changes for version 2.2:

  • Added support for FontWeight and Italic FontStyle.
  • Added support for Rotate in Tspan (for Text on Path).
  • Fixed fill and stroke brush for Rectangle element.
  • Removed RunWithDeveloperLicense Dialog (shown when commercial license is installed, but the application did not have an embedded license.licx file).

The new version is available on https://www.ab4d.com/ReaderSvg.aspx.

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ReaderSvg

There is never enough testing!

by abenedik 1. January 2009 14:26

Everyone who has already tried the new version of Viewer3ds knows what I mean. The application just did not start!

During the final testing a wrong version of Viewer3ds "smuggled" into my installer project. Because I have already done extensive Viewer3ds testing, I did not test it again. What a mistake! The installer contained a version of Viewer3ds that required a wrong version of Reader3ds.

Luckily the new Viewer3ds has an error reporting system, so I could act quickly.

The fixed version is already available on https://www.ab4d.com/Viewer3ds.aspx. It was actually already available on 31th December 2008, but because of a New Year celebration I did not have time to write a message about it.

I must admit that the past few releases were not very good. Every release had some problems. I am already using a unit testing, but still there is place for error. I was also quite under pressure, because I have to release new versions for all the products before the previous version expired. With the releases still to come I will have more time for additional testing. So they should be less buggy.

The only thing left to say is:

Happy New Year 2009!

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Reader3ds