[AD] Import from Serif DrawPlus X8 or older versions

[edmonium]

I use for years the different versions of Serif DrawPlus. I have installed Affinity designer this evening. Although it seems to be nice, I noticed that it seems not possible to open or import files from serif draw plus. If this is really the case, I find that very inconvenient. Furthermore, it seems that the sofware needs a larger time to start than DrawPlus.

[MEB]

Hi edmonium,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Serif DrawPlus and Affinity Designer are different programs and do not share any code. We have not added the ability to load DrawPlus files, because if we did every feature that is saved in the DrawPlus .dpp files would need to be read and interpreted in exactly the same way, meaning that Affinity Designer would have to support every saved feature of DrawPlus. This is not possible, sorry.
 
We recommend that you continue to use DrawPlus for the tasks that DrawPlus is best suited for, and that you use Affinity Designer for new projects that suit Designers features.
 

If you still want to get some work from one program to the other, we would suggest that in you export as a PDF file (or try EPS or SVG) and open that file in Affinity Designer/DrawPlus as needed.

[Bri-Toon]

Hello Edmonium,

There is also an alternative. Through DrawPlus, there is the option in the File menu to "Publish as PDF." That will keep your artwork in vector quality and Affinity does have control over PDF documents. When you bring the file into Designer, just click on the button on the context toolbar that says "Edit Document." Do keep in mind that since Designer was built from scratch, some groups or layer arrangements might be misplaced, but testing this for myself, the artwork looks exactly the same.

 

I don't know how Designer will handle features that are not yet in Designer such as vector patterns, mesh warps, and B-splines, but I hope this helps for the most part.

[deekaybe]

I understand the technical argument... But isn't it strange that a new Serif product is not able to support older serif formats (of which Serif hes the full source code), while it allows to open as is Adobe formats?

[Bri-Toon]

Well aside from the program being built from the ground up, it was originally Mac exclusive just as the Plus range is still Windows exclusive. Not too many people would balance between the two platforms.