So I am currently going through the Inductive University videos for Ignition 8 to see if we should use Vision or Perspective for an upcoming project at a new customer site (my preference would be Perspective so we can integrate mobile applications in the future). This particular project is an assembly line that has existing graphics in Ignition 7.9 that I would like to leverage.
I’m wondering, is there a way to export an SVG file from Vision to then import into Perspective?
Alternatives:
I can re-create these graphics in Ignition 8’s Vision, export them, import them to Perspective
re-create these graphics in Ignition’s 8 Vision and reference them in Perspective
I have yet to see anything that explains this but have not looked through all the material yet. Feel free to link me to a video or other forum post explaining a solution to this.
I would like to avoid using a non-Ignition application to create the graphics if possible. If anyone knows of an upcoming revision that adds drawing tools in perspective, please let me know!
Nope, you have to import an SVG into both Vision and Perspective. You can't copy graphics between the two.
I would be re-creating your graphics in a dedicated vector graphics application, for example Inkscape (open-source freeware) or Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw etc. Then you will always have a copy of your graphics in a standard format to use in either (and also have a lot more freedom and control over how you create your graphics). Ignition, or any other SCADA, is simply not designed for creating graphics more complex than simple shapes, and really, nor should it be; that's what dedicated graphics packages are for. Just like you don't try to use Wordpad for your documents with functional features like page headers/footers, document styling, table of contents, references, etc.
Yeah I was afraid of that. For me, I’ve developed some methods for making really good graphics in Ignition. I have everything set up to snap to a 5px grid, which makes propogating and developing much quicker. If I use a stand alone platform for graphics, which making some shapes may be easier, I’ll have to take extra care to ensure they line up with everything else. I’m pretty fluent in AI so using another program isn’t an issue as much as getting all the sizing correct and what not.
Is there a reason Ignition hasn’t made it possible to export graphics created with the vector tools in Ignition to a SVG file format, or make them usable in Perspective from a technical standpoint? We have a whole lot of graphics created with the vector tools created in Ignition 7.x, will be a whole lot of work to redo them to get the same look/feel of those graphics in Perspective.
Using external software to create SVG’s does allow for better graphics but would be difficult for plant technicians to make changes or fix graphics if they need to open a separate software to make those graphics changes, as opposed to simply opening the template and editing using the simple built in tools.
The main reason we haven’t done something like that is that once imported into Vision, an SVG is no longer an actual SVG file. Once it’s turned into a stack of components in Vision, you can do whatever customization you want to it - which won’t necessarily have a direct analogue in the SVG file format. SVG editing tools in Perspective are high on our list, but exporting out of Vision (or Perspective, for that matter) after modification is not really something technically feasible.