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By Barry Graham - Wednesday, April 6, 2005
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Could anyone here recommend an *Inexpensive* VECTOR Graphics program that can import Metafiles output from Genopro?
Please don't name a Bitmap Graphics program like IrfanView, Paint Shop Pro etc.
These produce Bitmaps fromVector input.
It must be a VECTOR program similar to CorelDraw.
I have an old program called Top Draw which would be ideal but it will only import WMF's not the EMF's exported from Genopro.
I have tried graphic converters that claim to do EMF to WMF without success.
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By maru-san - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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There are several programs to convert to other picture formats such as MetaCon Ver 1.0 B1. In Metacon you can put a picture into the background and convert both together to png, jpg or bmp formats.
I am not quite sure whether this is what you want.
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By Barry Graham - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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PNG, JPG and BMP are all RASTER formats that become "jaggy" when zoomed.
Metafiles are VECTOR formats based on co-ordinates not pixels.
I am looking for an inexpensvie graphics program that will preserve imported EMF or WMF files in Vector format.
Does anyone know of one?
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By crash893 - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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just out of courisity why
( i dont know any vector programs )
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By Barry Graham - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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To answer your question there is an example here:-
http://users.tpg.com.au/btgraham/files/phelan.pdf
It's a small download (50kb).
Rotate to the horizontal and zoom in Acrobat Reader to view.
The PDF was produced using a virtual PDF printer at 600dpi so it's still reasonably sharp when zoomed.
I've discovered that I can use my old Top Draw vector graphics program by selecting the required part of the diagram in Genopro and pasting into Top Draw with both applications open.
The map outlines were imported as Metafiles and the arrows, text and fills were added in Top Draw.
All data (diagrams, text, arrows and fills) can be rescaled, stretched in either direction or rotated as required.
Even the data in the Genogram - the name Edward (Ned) Phelan has been stretched in both directions and the colour changed - the notation (died aboard Mooltan) was added by clicking on the surname and typing in the additional text.
The page is a bit ornate - I just created it as an example of what a vector graphics program can do - there is nothing on the page that can't be edited, scaled, recoloured, rotated or moved.
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By Howard53 - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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Have you looked at Zoner Draw 3? http://www.zoner.com/draw3/default.asp. This will import .wmf files and is freeware. If you want to import .emf, then Zoner Draw 4 ($49) will do so. The programs claim to be vector graphic editors.
There is also Serif DrawPlus 4 at http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/ which also claims to be a vector editor and will edit .wmf and .emf files. It requires online registration but is otherwise free.
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By Barry Graham - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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Thanks for the links Howard.
Unfortunately ZonerDraw does not allow the editing of imported or pasted Metafiles.
SerifDraw does allow editing but the import is poor - text is dropped and the square male gender symbols become broad arrows.
It does appear to be a good program for creating vector images though.
Looks like my old (Win3.1) Top Draw program is the best of the bunch - it's a small program but it has similar capabilites.
I'll continue the search.
Thanks again.
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By Howard53 - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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I have one more suggestion. Microsoft now own Creature House and they have Expression 3 available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/. I have successfully opened up an .emf file exported from GenoPro OK for editing, although some of the objects appear on top when they should be hidden behind (if you see what I mean!) I presume this occurs depending on which object was added first in GenoPro.
I haven't tried to do too much with the program, but all the objects can be edited and the graphics and text are fully legible at high magnification.
It's worth giving it a try! 
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By GenoProSupport - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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Just curious, what types of graphics you want to add to the genogram/family tree? Is it special text, images, arrows, curves?
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By Barry Graham - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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All of the above plus the ability to be able to edit the Genogram.
Rescale text, symbols and line widths.
Group and ungroup items, move, rotate.
Change text fonts, colours, add additional lines of text to names and birthdates.
Add place of birth and death to individuals, photos, maps etc.
I have to develop a style for the output - I'm working on it.
The rough example added as a link in an earlier post:-
http://users.tpg.com.au/btgraham/files/phelan.pdf
gives some ideas but I didn't go all the way and edit the Genogram so it could be displayed over the graded fill background - so the background behind the text was left white.
My intention is to produce family groups on separate pages in PDF files - like a book that can be opened in a web browser.
The reports produced by Genopro were excellent for early versions of Windows but they don't work so well with XP - which is why I'm trying to find an alternative using PDF files which can be read universally and present no problems within a browser.
For the moment I'll get by with Top Draw as my graphic editor.
Howard:-
I tried the link to Expression but I need to be a registered user of the earlier version to download. But thanks for the link.
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By GenoProSupport - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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Wow, this is a nice PDF. You have a lot of work ahead of you if you do it for every family in your genealogy tree :wink:
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By Howard53 - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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Barry, Microsoft implies that you have to be a registered user of an earlier version of Expression in order to download, but if you go past the NET Password log-in stage, you will find that you can download Expression with no problem. I do not have an earlier version and am able to use the downloaded version with no limitation (so far!).
I agree with Dan - your sample pdf is excellent.
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By Barry Graham - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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Thanks for the compliments Dan and Howard.
It was just an example not a finished product - I have to develop a consistent style for the pages - this was an experiment.
I had just discovered that I could paste a selection from GenoPro Beta into my graphics program - I hadn't been able to that from v1.
My tree isn't so large just 260 individuals - I don't go too far back - just far enough to find a family or location overseas that was the origin for each branch.
At present I only need 5 or 6 generations to move from my little island in the Pacific to reach the UK (the source of all my branches).
And I'm only concerned with the direct line plus siblings - I don't stretch to descendants.
I recently made contact with a guy who claimed to have 400,000 individuals in his tree - Australian records are pretty good - I doubt if many on his tree are verifiable.
Howard - I followed your instructions - No doubt Expressions is a great program but I was a bit daunted by the 57Mb download !
My old Top Draw program comes in at under 2 Mb unpacked.
Thanks for your concerns but I think I'll stick with my powerful (if underweight) alternative.
I'm slowly working out an method (by layering) that seems to speed up the editing process.
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By GenoProSupport - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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I recently made contact with a guy who claimed to have 400,000 individuals in his tree (57 MB).
Wow. This is the largest genealogy file I have seen so far. I am always fascinated by those large files for performance benchmark. By modifying the code to select rows in the Table Layout, I was able to reduce the processing time from 81 seconds to 15 milliseconds for a Gedcom a file having 65,000 individuals.
Such a file will be a good sample genealogy tree for the new AutoArrange of version 2.1. The new AutoArrange will be capable to create GenoMaps when detecting overlapping.
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By Barry Graham - Thursday, August 18, 2005
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If you'd like to try Top Draw here are two sites where it can still be downloaded.
Public Domain Software Library
http://www.pdsl.com
PC World
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,5368,00.asp
If you have used Corel Draw you will be able to get started straight away.
If not work through the Tutorials in the Help menu.
And the Help itself is pretty good.
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By Barry Graham - Wednesday, December 14, 2005
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Back in August I wrote:-
I've discovered that I can use my old Top Draw vector graphics program by selecting the required part of the diagram in Genopro and pasting into Top Draw with both applications open.
With the latest Beta version this is no longer possible.
Top Draw tells me that it "cannot access clipboard data".
I cannot paste into Powerpoint either (no error message just - nothing).
I can get around this by exporting an EMF that I can import into Powerpoint and then if necessary export a WMF that I can import into Top Draw.
Just curious - What changes have occurred in the graphic structure of the Genogram that prevents Copy and Paste into another graphic application - It worked back in August?
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By GenoProSupport - Wednesday, December 14, 2005
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With the latest Beta version this is no longer possible [to do copy & paste].
Top Draw tells me that it "cannot access clipboard data".
I cannot paste into Powerpoint either (no error message just - nothing). I have fixed the problem. Can you download Beta15b again (http://www.genopro.com/beta/InstallGenoProBeta.exe) and confirm the fix? Just curious - What changes have occurred in the graphic structure of the Genogram that prevents Copy and Paste into another graphic application - It worked back in August? Yes, I changed the way the metafile is stored in the clipboard. Originally I was suspecting a memory leak during a copy & paste operation. I changed the code and tested the new code on all my computers (95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista) with applications such as Word, Excel and Paint to discover it worked fine. (I don't have PowerPoint by the way). The documentation for the API SetClipboardData() is very sparse and does not explain the transfer of data ownership for the CF_ENHMETAFILE parameter. This is nothing new but the norm with Microsoft documentation. You have to find it out by yourself - or by a customer reporting a problem.
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By Barry Graham - Thursday, December 15, 2005
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Downloaded and Installed.
Clipboard now available in all graphic applications.
Thanks Dan for the fix.
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By honyk - Saturday, January 7, 2006
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http://inkscape.sourceforge.net/ Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file.
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By Barry Graham - Tuesday, March 7, 2006
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Here is another Vector Graphics editor that will import EMF files from Genopro.
After editting they can be exported as JPG, PNG or EML.
It's Freeware.
UNIDRAW
http://webdraw.digitalcreation.us/download.htm
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By 184547 - Friday, August 18, 2006
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Corel Draw 11 will import emf files and when ungrouped all objects can be edited and, the fonts can also be edited. But why would one want to do this.
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By Daniel Marin - Friday, July 13, 2007
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To shared the family tree easy I'm used a PDF file, created by distiller (virtual printer) and then the file (PDF) can be used in mani vectorial programs such, Corel, AI, Freehand, Indesign, ETC.
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By appleshaw - Sunday, July 22, 2007
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I have just downloaded Open Office (for the Power point alternative) and have seen that it includes a program that will import .emf files (Draw) and edit them. Only problem so far is that the fairly large file I tried 'lost' the left hand part. I had similar problems with Canvas8.
Also it does not save in other formats. However you can Export to many bitmap formats.
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By HintsZoltan - Tuesday, December 23, 2008
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I tried also to create a cdr file. The problem: the recognition of the exported metafile. For ex. the Corel X3 can import it, but the left part of the genogram is missing, and also are missing several data: names or dates, etc. This informational loss is randomly. In different family trees are missing other and other parts of the genograms.
Somebody could fix this problem?
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By idrisi33 - Tuesday, December 23, 2008
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I have the same problem with CorelDraw 12, X3 and X4.
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By HintsZoltan - Sunday, December 28, 2008
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I also tried with several other programs, and no one is importing the emf file exported with Genopro. I'm pretty sure it is a bug in the exporting program. Sorry for this, because I'll should use very often. But - never knows: if somebody have an idea to solve this problem, do not hesitate to write about it in the forum.
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By HintsZoltan - Monday, January 5, 2009
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Finally I could solve the problem! With an emf converter I edited the Genopro - generated emf file, and I saved in wmf. This format is supported by Corel. In this way I can edit the file.
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By Gauthier - Sunday, November 22, 2009
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I recommend you Inkscape. It's a free open source vector graphics, comparable to Illustrator and in some features better than this, for example it can handle xml files and apply mathematical transformations to shapes.
This is the link:
http://www.inkscape.org
Hope it helps.
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