Skip to main content
Participant
September 26, 2024
Question

Callouts in AI not transferring correctly when art inserted in FM

  • September 26, 2024
  • 4 replies
  • 490 views

I have a situation where I create an illustration in Solidworks Composer (verison 2023) and save it as a jpeg. I then open this file up in Adobe Illustrator (2024) and add callouts. The callouts look good in AI (see below). I then save the file as an AI file and as a SVG file.

 

When I insert the svg file into my FrameMaker document (2020) some of the callouts are not pointing to the correct items. Somehow they get moved around (see below)

 

I recently updated my Adobe Creative Suite about 2 weeks ago and that is when this all started to happen. If the callout is indicating a large item (like Right Door or Monitor), it isn't much of an issue because the line still hits the item I am calling out. But, when the callout is for smaller items (like Handle and Scanner above), the lines move too much to where they are not even touching the item in question.

I don't know if this is a AI, FM issue or SW Composer issue. When I do callouts directly in SW Composer, save it, then open in AI to crop and save as an AI & svg file, when I insert into FM document, the callouts seem to stay in place. But there are times I need to add callouts using AI and right now it is hit and miss. I am finding I have to move the lines around until they actually touch the item.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    Community Expert
    September 27, 2024

    I believe the issue arises from Illustrator. Illustrator has Art boards and when saving as SVG there are multiple options for handling the Art board settings. And it seems FrameMaker has issues interpreting Illustrators svg's correctly.

    Bjørn Smalbro - FrameMaker.dk
    Community Expert
    September 27, 2024

    Hi,

    I had this issue for years. This happened always, when there is a space in the text.

    Adobe said that a font face attribute in the SVG file would cause this. This attribute would be deprecated. Corel used this attribute. I do not know about Adobe Illustrator.

    See this thread for more info: https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-12723

    However, browsers ignore this attribute and still show correct SVGs (although it might be that the font is not kept). Whereas FrameMaker moves the text around.

    Yes, PDF or EPS work very well.

    In the almost current FrameMaker version 17.0.3 this seems to be fixed (at least with my test file). Just tested. Also save as PDF with and without Distiller.

    I checked this also with version 16.0.5. No issues (with my test file).

    Still I encounter issues with SVG now and then and am very cautious.

    Best regards, Winfried

    frameexpert
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    September 26, 2024

    What are your deliverables? If they are print/PDF only, I would save the Illustrator files as PDF instead of SVG.

    Participant
    September 26, 2024

    Hello,

    Thanks for taking the time to help me with my issue. Saving the AI file as a PDF does work and I can use this method. The only issue is when I save something as .svg, when I am looking for art to use in a new manual, if I find something in another manual, I can click that piece of art, and it will show me the path of where it is located. I can then go to the folder, copy it and paste into a folder in the current manual. The PDF version doesn't do this. But it does a great job of keeping all my callouts in the correct positions and I will use this. Thanks again for your help.


    Greg Vogel
    [PII removed by moderator]

    frameexpert
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    September 26, 2024

    If you import the PDF by reference into FrameMaker, you should be able to do the same thing. Click on the PDF image, choose Graphics > Object Properties and you will see the path to the PDF. But I may be understanding your process.

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    September 26, 2024

    What version of FM2020 are you on? I think there were 8-14 patches issued for that version.
    The other thing you might check is "flattening" the images when saving them in Illustrator before placing them in FM.

    Participant
    September 26, 2024

    Hello,

    Thanks for taking the time to help me. I have version 16.0.0 and I do see there is an update - 16.0.6. I tried to update to this but ran into some disk space issues. I am going to talk to my IT department tomorrow and they are going to install a larger storage disk on my computer. I will try your suggestion once this is done and hope the fix is in the update.


    Greg Vogel
    [PII removed by moderator]