Hi all,

I'm trying to convert an SVG file to a PDF file, using the GUI. However, when I click "OK" (after Save As -> PDF -> Save), Inkscape freezes (and when Inkscape is started from a terminal, there is no output in the terminal).
When I try the same from a terminal with the command inkscape -z -D --file=Dummy.svg --export-pdf=Dummy.pdf --export-area-drawing --export-latex, nothing happens.

The file is rather large, 360 KB. I uploaded it to my webspace, maybe somebody could look into this case? Thanks in advance.
Link: http://www.redpanda.nl/Dummy.svg

By the way, I would like to use the PDF as a Figure in a report (LaTeX), hence the --export-latex part.
Used OS: Ubuntu 10.10 (upgraded from an original 10.04, where the problem existed as well).

Give it some more time - I just tested PDF export with a current build from trunk via command line on Mac OS X 10.5.8 (using cairo 1.10) [1] - it exported fine to PDF, but took several minutes. Export using the GUI with 0.48.0 (built with cairo 1.8.10) still running while I'm typing this… [2]

Possibly the long time it took to export is related to how the curves of the diagram are processed: they are clipped paths with only a minor portion visible of each.

BTW - maybe try without the redundant options on the command line: '-D' and --export-drawing-area' are the same ;-)

[1] to compare with your linux distro: AFAIK Ubuntu 10.10 has cairo 1.10, Ubuntu 10.04 cairo 1.8.x (or possibly a devel snapshot of cairo 1.9.x) - the cairo libs are needed for PDF(/PS/EPS) export from Inkscape.

[2] export with 0.48.0 via GUI (using the pdf-latex option) successfully done after about 9 minutes:

Code: Select all

LeWitt:Ailurus suv$ ls -l Dummy-0480.pdf*
-rw-r--r--  1 suv  staff  143458 Dec 31 03:37 Dummy-0480.pdf
-rw-r--r--  1 suv  staff    3829 Dec 31 03:41 Dummy-0480.pdf_tex

Thanks ~suv, for your elaborate reply

~suv wrote:Give it some more time - I just tested PDF export with a current build from trunk via command line on Mac OS X 10.5.8 (using cairo 1.10) [1] - it exported fine to PDF, but took several minutes. Export using the GUI with 0.48.0 (built with cairo 1.8.10) still running while I'm typing this… [2]

It worked fine indeed, although it took about 11 minutes. Usually I'm rather suspicious after I don't see any feedback after a minute or so. Would it be an idea to add some progress feedback?

~suv wrote:Possibly the long time it took to export is related to how the curves of the diagram are processed: they are clipped paths with only a minor portion visible of each.

Yep I know, unfortunately I don't have the Matlab code to reproduce the plot, and draw less curves.

~suv wrote:BTW - maybe try without the redundant options on the command line: '-D' and --export-drawing-area' are the same

Oh haha, I didn't know the meaning of "-D", should've checked it before I added something.

Thanks again, and a fine New Year's Eve to everyone!

Ailurus wrote:Would it be an idea to add some progress feedback?

Yes

• Bug #171435 “Progress bar for time-intensive operations”
• Blueprint “Time-intensive operations management”

… or more similar to the issue filed in

• Bug #616129 “Progress Dialog for Save As Optimized SVG”
  quoting from the comments:«The solution may be similar if not identical but the perceived problem is very different (long blocking operations look like the app has frozen vs long non-blocking operations appear to silently fail).»