HPGL Import Extension

[TimeWaster]

I wrote a HPGL Input Extension to be able to open the .hpgl files written by the HPGL Output Extension.

It is by no means a complete implementation of the hpgl standard, my intention was only to be able to open files written by the HPGL Output Extension.

Anyhow, the extension can be easily expanded and the extension warns the user that the drawing could be incomplete if any unknown (unsupported) commands are detected in the hpgl data.

it would be nice if it could be added to inkscape, code attached.

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

thanks for the input!

However, there is already an Inkscape extension that can read hpgl files. It is based on Uniconvertor and reads files with the extension .plt. I've attached a sample test case of an hpgl file. I read this into Inkscape using your hpgl extension and then renamed it to be .plt and read it in again using the .plt input. In both cases the results were similar.

Would you be willing to try the .plt input to see if it is suitable?

[TimeWaster (sebi-k-deactivatedaccount)]

hi alvin,

i know the uniconverter and .plt method, i used it many, many times (too often) while expanding the hpgl output extension.

although it does mostly the same thing as my input extension, the reasons why i wrote this input extension are the following:

- if there is a output there should be a matching input.
- renaming the file extension every time is a pain in the a**.
- the info that .hpgl and .plt files are essentially the same is not common, i only gained it after reading some inkscape wiki page about supporting file extensions in the future, and even this info was obscure.
- even if the .plt renaming method was propagated in the hpgl putput extension it would still be a broken workflow.
- my input extension is not depending on external software, it works right out of the box.

i hope you can see why i wrote this extension.

[TimeWaster (sebi-k-deactivatedaccount)]

i forgot one very important point:

- the plt input via uniconverter does not support arbitrary dpi settings as does the hpgl output, so the drawing will have the wrong size when opening a hpgl (plt) file which was written by the hpgl output with non-standard dpi settings.

[TimeWaster (sebi-k-deactivatedaccount)]

i don't want to be impatient or anything, but after this code gets checked in i am eligible to become contributor to inkscape and then i can check in without writing new bug reports and stealing other people's time... :)

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

committed to rev 12365

I just made a few minor changes in the .py declarations to make it more consistent with current usage, and modified the tooltip for Show Movements since the default behaviour was Un-checked when first loaded.

[TimeWaster (sebi-k-deactivatedaccount)]

hmm, i cant set the milestone... (or i am to dumb for it)