CGM and SVG are currently the most significant file formats in technical illustration. We will discuss the current status of the formats, and make some important announcements with respect to our support of CGM and SVG.
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CGM and SVG 2020 Workshop Webinar
1. CGM & SVG Workshop
May 14th 2020
11am Eastern Time, USA
Presenters:
Don Larson, CEO
David Manock, VP Sales & Marketing
Welcome to the Webinar
We will begin shortly
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Copyright Larson Software Technology (c) 2020
2. CGM & SVG Workshop
May 14th 2020
11am Eastern Time, USA
Presenters:
Don Larson, CEO
David Manock, VP Sales & Marketing
Welcome to the Webinar
We will begin shortly
www.cgmlarson.com www.svglarson.com
www.cgmlarson.com
Copyright Larson Software Technology (c) 2020
3. www.cgmlarson.com
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Agenda
ā¢ Housekeeping
ā¢ Company Overview
ā¢ Slide Presentation and Demos
ā¢ Including Use Cases
ā¢ Summary
ā¢ Q & A
ā¢ Closing Information
CGM: Computer Graphics Metafile
an ISO (International Organization for
Standardization) standard for vector
and composite vector/raster picture
definition since 1987.
SVG: Scalable Vector Graphics
a modularized language for describing
two-dimensional vector and mixed
vector/raster graphics in XML.
4. Webinar: Housekeeping
ā¢ If youāve experienced problems when joining the webinar,
please use the questions function to communicate
ā¢ All attendees will be muted for the duration of the Webinar
ā¢ Computer Audio is the recommended option
ā¢ Associated materials are available in the Handouts section,
drag and drop to download to your computer, at anytime
ā¢ Post your questions during the webinar using the panel
ā¢ Questions will be answered following the main presentation
or by email
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5. www.cgmlarson.com
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Larson Software Technology
ā¢ Based in Houston, Texas, USA ā New Location
ā¢ Founded in 1984, graphic technology experts for 30 years
ā¢ We develop powerful, innovative graphics software and toolkits,
based on open standards
ā¢ Promoted CGM usage, by providing a free CGM & TIFF viewer,
replaced by a subscription version available online
ā¢ The Larson online store is now open, the address:
ā¢ www.cgmlarson.com/store
ā¢ Developer of the first HTML5 CGM viewer, no plug in!
ā¢ Member of the CGM Open Foundation
ā¢ Larson technology simplifies the graphics workflow for Technical
Publications Professionals, Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists
ā¢ www.cgmlarson.com www.svglarson.com
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COVIDā19 Update
ā¢ Larson Software is fully operational
ā¢ Larson is considered an essential services company
ā¢ The reason, we have government and defense industry
customers
ā¢ The Houston Office is open, with reduced staffing
ā¢ The majority of our employees are working from home
ā¢ Our customer support has been unaffected
ā¢ The online store is open 24/7:
ā¢ The CGM and TIFF Viewer, VizEx Reader available
ā¢ More products coming soon
ā¢ Stay safe
7. Introduction
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ā¢ Main webinar drivers:
ā¢ The conversion of CGM to SVG continues to grow
ā¢ What is TECH SVG?
ā¢ We have updated all our relevant software solutions to support TECH SVG
ā¢ CGM browser plug-ins, the current status, not dead yet!
ā¢ What are the pitfalls and benefits of using SVG?
ā¢ Present āUse Casesā
ā¢ Communicate our CGM and SVG expertise and product strategy
8. Historical ā The formats
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ā¢ CGM ā A 2D graphics format with a long history of publishing quality
graphics in different environments
ā¢ The WebCGM profile was developed to deliver Vector Graphics on the Web
ā¢ Visit CGM Open for more information www.cgmopen.org
ā¢ SVG - Objective to deliver high quality vector graphics for the Web
ā¢ The development of SVG was influenced by other submissions to the W3C (World Wide
Web Consortium)
ā¢ VML - Vector Markup Language (Microsoft)
ā¢ PGML - Precision Graphics Markup Language (Postscript)
ā¢ The final decision was to base SVG on XML
ā¢ More information on the origins:
ā¢ Secret Origin of SVG
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CGM and SVG - Commonality
ā¢ 2D Open formats accredited by the W3C (Not Proprietary)
ā¢ Suitable for the creation and maintenance of technical illustrations
ā¢ The only open graphical file formats that can be hybrid
ā¢ Both formats can contain editable Vector and Raster Data
ā¢ They have the potential to be validated
ā¢ CGM already has a defined profile, WebCGM adopted by the ATA and S1000D
specifications
ā¢ SVG has the potential to be validated using a schema
ā¢ Metadata can be included in both file formats
ā¢ Provides the ability for interactive graphics
ā¢ SVG has the additional capability of animation and can be data driven
ā¢ Display of vector graphics in a web environment with out a plug-in technology
ā¢ The SVG support is native
ā¢ CGM display can be achieved using the Larson VizEx View HTML5 technology
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CGM Background
ā¢ Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM)
ā¢ 2D Open Graphics format
ā¢ Not owned, non-proprietary
ā¢ Managed by the CGM Open Foundation
ā¢ www.cgmopen.org
ā¢ The CGM format first appeared in the 1980ās
ā¢ The format was widely supported by many graphics-based applications
ā¢ W3C Standard
ā¢ WebCGM profile developed specifically for web delivery and adopted by
the S1000D Specification www.s1000d.org
ā¢ CGM required plug-in technology to view graphics in a web browser
ā¢ W3C - http://www.w3.org/Graphics/WebCGM/
11. Where is CGM used? ā Industry Sector
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ā¢ Aerospace Space & Defense
ā¢ Automotive
ā¢ Oil & Gas
ā¢ Why these industries?
ā¢ CGM = open, non-proprietary, reliable data exchange
ā¢ The commonality ā CGM Profiles = Validation
ā¢ More specifically industry profiles
ā¢ Aerospace & Defense = WebCGM
ā¢ Oil & Gas = PIP
ā¢ Automotive = WebCGM
ā¢ CGM is used for delivery, publishing and the display of graphics
ā¢ In the Oil & Gas sector CGM is predominantly used for data exchange and
display of geophysical information
ā¢ No requirement for web delivery or graphical hotspots
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SVG Background
ā¢ Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG)
ā¢ XML encoded format
ā¢ W3C Standard
ā¢ http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/
ā¢ Managed by SVG Working Group
ā¢ http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Main_Page
ā¢ Native support in all popular web browsers
ā¢ No plug-in technology required (HTML5 Native)
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SVG the Specification
ā¢ XML based
ā¢ SVG 1.1 ā Full
ā¢ SVG 1.2 ā Tiny
ā¢ A subset of the Full specification
ā¢ Designed for phones, tablets etc.
ā¢ Technical illustrations only require a small percentage of attributes
available in the SVG Specification
ā¢ Version 2.0 of SVG released
ā¢ There is no impact on our current support of SVG
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SVG is XML encoded
ā¢ Benefits:
ā¢ Based on the international open standard
ā¢ Structured information based on a schema
ā¢ In theory could be validated against a tailored
industry schema
ā¢ Caveats:
ā¢ Not designed for data exchange, result could
be interoperability issues
ā¢ The off-the-shelf schema covers the whole
specification
ā¢ A new profile schema would be required to
validate against specific attributes/elements
15. Where is SVG used? ā Industry Sector
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ā¢ Aerospace & Defense and Automotive
ā¢ Over the past few years, weāve experienced a significant growth in the use of SVG
ā¢ Mainly for the display of vector graphics in a web environment
ā¢ GIS (Geographic Information System)
ā¢ Maps on the web
ā¢ But not Google maps!
ā¢ GIS Software Vendor
ā¢ https://www.esri.com
ā¢ Graphic Arts
ā¢ Graphics on the web, when vector data will provide benefit
ā¢ Data Visualization
ā¢ Data driven images, animation, dashboards etc. One benefit of XML
ā¢ https://bl.ocks.org/kerryrodden/7090426
ā¢ Data Driven Documents
ā¢ https://d3js.org/
16. Current Status Overview
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ā¢ Graphics Conversion and Display
ā¢ Introduction
ā¢ Convert CGM to SVG
ā¢ Displaying CGM and SVG graphics
ā¢ Strategy
ā¢ TECH SVG
ā¢ Considerations and Implementation
ā¢ Use Cases
ā¢ Technology
ā¢ Strategy
ā¢ Products
ā¢ Compliance
ā¢ Specifications and Standards
ā¢ Have they changed? Will they change?
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Introduction ā Conversion and Display
ā¢ The primary conversion scenario, CGM exported to SVG
ā¢ The main driver for the conversion, display SVG graphics in a web
environment without a plug-in
ā¢ CGM graphics display on the web was predicated on a plug-in
technology
ā¢ The ability to import SVG graphics is also important
ā¢ Primarily generated by Adobe Illustrator
ā¢ Our SVG data exchange experiences motivated the writing of
the TECH SVG profile
ā¢ The objective, standardize the elements we import and export from
our own software
ā¢ We published the TECH SVG profile, making it publicly available
ā¢ http://cgmlarson.com/pdf/TECH%20SVG%20Profile%20DRAFT%20V1.1.pdf
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Standardization and Technology
ā¢ Two-part strategy
ā¢ Standardization
ā¢ Develop guidelines for the import and export of SVG
ā¢ Publish guidelines with public access
ā¢ SVG Data Exchange Objective: Interoperability
ā¢ Technology
ā¢ Update our software to optimize SVG export and import
ā¢ Develop new and enhance existing product/s supporting SVG
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ā¢ What is TECH SVG?
ā¢ A subset of the Full and Tiny Specificationās
ā¢ How will TECH SVG help?
ā¢ Defining a standard method of exporting and importing
SVG elements
ā¢ Improve data exchange quality
ā¢ What else are we doing?
ā¢ Socializing our strategy and encouraging 3rd parties to
participate
ā¢ Specifically talking directly to the Aerospace and Defense
communities
ā¢ Work in Progress
ā¢ Developing our products to be TECH SVG compliant
ā¢ COMPLETE
TECH SVG
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Converting CGM to SVG
ā¢ Exporting the CGM file, we only use a
relatively small portion of the SVG
specification
ā¢ However, there is an intersection with Full
and Tiny profiles
ā¢ We are currently optimizing the export
based on real life customer files
ā¢ Conversion Challenges
ā¢ File Size
ā¢ Embedded Raster Images
ā¢ Hotspots
ā¢ Line styles
ā¢ Fonts
SVG - Full
SVG - Tiny
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Displaying CGM and SVG files
ā¢ The display of CGM and SVG graphics would usually take place in
a web browser
ā¢ Traditionally the CGM graphic would be viewed using a plug-in
technology
ā¢ The web browsers abandoned the support for many plug-in technologies
ā¢ This strategy prompted the conversion of CGM files to SVG
ā¢ SVG files do not require a plug-in to view graphics in a web browser
ā¢ The latest development, Microsoft Edge based on Chromium can
support plug-ins, caveat, still investigating
ā¢ Larson has developed a technology to allow CGM graphics to
displayed in a web browser without a plug-in, VizEx View HTML5
Demo Later
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Displaying SVG
ā¢ As discussed, and demonstrated in the introduction SVG
is native to the HTML5 format
ā¢ Therefore it is very straight forward to display the SVG
graphic
ā¢ The only downside is you will have to build a viewing
environment for the SVG, e.g. toolbar
ā¢ Breaking news - We now support SVG in our ActiveX
control technology
ā¢ The result, one environment for all the important file formats
ā¢ CGM, SVG, TIFF etc. side by side
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Displaying CGM ā Plug-in
ā¢ The new Microsoft Edge is developed using the Chromium platform
Googleās technology
ā¢ The new version of Edge enables an Internet Explorer emulation
ā¢ This is not a default setting, it requires enabling
ā¢ Enable via the āflagsā function
ā¢ The integration should allow you to run plug-ins, including the
Larson ActiveX plug-in
ā¢ Additional research and testing required to confirm functionality
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CGM and SVG Viewing Overview
CGM
Plug-in
CGM and SVG
No Plug-in
SVG Native
VizEx View
HTML5
ActiveXActiveX? IE Tab
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Main Topics
ā¢ Conversion - Raster image support
ā¢ Display Hotspots ā Interactivity
ā¢ Use Case 1 ā Hotspots
ā¢ Use Case 2 ā Display
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Raster Images - Conversion
ā¢ CGM and SVG both support the embedding of images
ā¢ CGM will usually have a Group IV Compression (TIFF) embedded
ā¢ This is standard practice for hybrid CGM files
ā¢ SVG does not support TIFF, therefore only JPEG and PNG can be used
ā¢ Conversion?
ā¢ A hybrid CGM is converted to SVG
ā¢ The TIFF image will require conversion to either JPEG or PNG
ā¢ A large conversion task, samples should be checked for quality
ā¢ The vector elements will not be affected
ā¢ A hybrid SVG is converted to CGM
ā¢ The conversion should be good, because CGM supports JPEG and PNG
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Hotspots - Display
ā¢ Hotspots ā embedded attributes, providing user interaction
with the graphic
ā¢ This could be simple feedback, for example an information tooltip
ā¢ The interaction could also be more complex, a link to another
graphic or text in a table e.g. Parts List
ā¢ CGM has a clearly defined method of writing hotspot
metadata
ā¢ The details are documented in the WebCGM profile
ā¢ http://docs.oasis-open.org/webcgm/v2.1/os/WebCGM21-
IC.html#webcgm_interactivity
ā¢ SVG the same functionality is possible, however, there are
multiple methods of defining a hotspot
ā¢ So why is the hotspot definition important?
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Hotspots ā Display
ā¢ The risk of not having a clearly defined hotspot
attribute is interoperability
ā¢ The definition of a hotspot can have ramifications
ā¢ The SVG hotspot data is not recognized, the result difficult
to edit
ā¢ Will the hotspot work correctly in the viewer environment
ā¢ The benefit of TECH SVG, the hotspot attribute is
clearly and consistently defined
ā¢ Therefore, the software can write the attribute consistently
ā¢ The result improved interoperability
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Use Case 1 ā Hotspots
ā¢ Case ā Converting a CGM containing hotspots to SVG, interactivity
missing!
ā¢ When using the CONVERT CGM to Vector conversion tool the graphic was
converted incorrectly
ā¢ The hotspots did not work in the SVG
ā¢ The reason, legacy software from Autotrol and Intercap generated CGM
hotspot information in a non-conforming method (embedded)
ā¢ We developed functionality to recognize the embedded regions in the graphic
ā¢ The technology will now recognize the hotspot and include in the SVG file
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Use Case 2 ā Display
ā¢ Case ā Displaying a CGM file in Chrome using the ActiveX control
ā¢ A customer who uses our ActiveX control asked if we knew of a
method of using with Chrome
ā¢ Chrome no longer supports plug-in technologies
ā¢ We did some research and discovered an extension that enables the
functionality
ā¢ Demo - IE Tab
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Conversion and Editing support - CGM & SVG
ā¢ VizEx Edit, professional technical illustration
ā¢ Import and Export of SVG files
ā¢ Uses the TECH SVG profile for the export SVG files
ā¢ CGM, fully complying to international specifications, S1000D, ATA.
ā¢ Add hotspotās manually or automatically
ā¢ Hotspots created in VizEx Edit preserved in the SVG
ā¢ View the interactive graphic in VizEx View HTML5
ā¢ http://www.cgmlarson.com/demos/jsViewer/table_cgm_example/index.html
ā¢ Or, view as SVG in a popular web browser
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Batch conversion support of CGM & SVG
ā¢ Larson develops two batch conversion products
ā¢ Enabling the conversion of graphic files to CGM and SVG
ā¢ VizEx Transform ā Multiple formats
ā¢ Convert CGM to Vector ā SVG, PDF and EPS
ā¢ VizEx Transform
ā¢ Supports import and export of files, including SVG
ā¢ Enables batch auto-hotspotting
ā¢ Supports the TECH SVG profile when exporting an SVG graphic
ā¢ CONVERT CGM to Vector
ā¢ Batch conversion
ā¢ Exports SVG using the TECH SVG profile
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Software Development Kits
ā¢ Larson has SDKās enabling the integration our technology with your processes or your
solution
ā¢ Conversion
ā¢ CGM to Vector SDK ā Windows or Linux
ā¢ Supports conversion from CGM to SVG, PDF and EPS
ā¢ Enables integration with production processes
ā¢ Display
ā¢ VizEx View ActiveX
ā¢ A viewer control, can be embedded in your IETM solution
ā¢ Supports CGM, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, BMP
ā¢ Now Supports SVG
ā¢ VizEx View C++
ā¢ Enables you develop your own viewer environment for integration MRO system
ā¢ Supports CGM, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, BMP
ā¢ Now Supports SVG
ā¢ VizEx View iOS
ā¢ Enables the CGM viewing integration on Apple devices
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The Specifications
ā¢ W3C ā www.w3c.org
ā¢ World Wide Web Consortium
ā¢ WebCGM & SVG
ā¢ S1000D ā www.S1000D.org
ā¢ International Technical Documentation Specification
ā¢ Issue 5.0 of the specification just released
ā¢ There is no impact on the CGM requirements in Issue 5.0
ā¢ SVG is not identified as requirement in the S1000D specification
ā¢ ATA (Airlines for America) - http://airlines.org/
ā¢ iSpec2200 ā Commercial Aircraft
ā¢ Both CGM and SVG are W3C recommendations
ā¢ Completed the accreditation process
ā¢ CGM specified for S1000D and iSpec2200 as their recommended 2D graphics formats
ā¢ Deliverable - CGMās are usually delivered by the supplier or contractor along with XML/SGML
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CGM ā WebCGM profile
ā¢ The S1000D WebCGM profile is described as cascading
ā¢ WebCGM 2.1 is the full profile
ā¢ The S1000D profile is a subset of the WebCGM 2.1
ā¢ S1000D still requires the CGM format to be compliant
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Summary
ā¢ Larson continues to make significant progress in supporting all graphic
formats
ā¢ Our conversion of CGM to SVG is maturing, as our customer base continues to grow
ā¢ We employ a lessons learned strategy when supporting the CGM and SVG
formats
ā¢ Benefiting the market and our customers
ā¢ The industry standard specifications are still focused on CGM as the
primary illustration deliverable
ā¢ CGM Plug-ins continue to be used, as more solutions appear e.g. Edge
ā¢ We will be pleased to work with companies or organizations interested in
implementing CGM and SVG based solutions and deliverables
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Closing Information
ā¢ You can discover more information about Larson Software Technology at www.cgmlarson.com
ā¢ Our new domain name is now active www.svglarson.com
ā¢ A link to a recording of the webinar will be sent via email
ā¢ All the materials will be available:
ā¢ www.slideshare.net/donlarson1
ā¢ Follow us on youtube, Linkedin and Twitter
ā¢ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp-oMoh-_mobVGpP459yMVA
ā¢ https://www.linkedin.com/company/larson-software-technology
ā¢ www.twitter.com/cgmlarson
ā¢ Next webinar June 4th
ā¢ Compliant S1000D illustrations
ā¢ Register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7484679521544275724
ā¢ Contact us via email:
ā¢ david.manock@cgmlarson.com or don.larson@cgmlarson.com
ā¢ Thank you for attending