isodraw and SDL trados engine

[pierat]

Hi,

I'm working on a project where there is a lot of isodraw drawings to be translated from english to different foreign languages.

The customer is using the Trados SDL translation memory and I was wondering if there was some experience in doing that ?

More precise questions are :

- does SDL accept the iso draw format ?

- as an alternative, does someone have experience in exporting text from drawing, translating it and reimporting ? Is it standard features ? How it works ?

- as an other alternative,is it possible to do that with an intermediate other format without loosing information ?

As you see, we're looking for different ways for solving the problem and all other alternatives are welcome.

Thanks and regards,

Pierre

[thendricks · Accepted solution]

We're currently upgrading from Trados7 to Trados 2011. We've found with 2011 specifically that the best method is to use the XCF file format for translation. To do this, make the layer that you want to translate exportable (layer window or through macro; it is exportable by default). You do need to have an object ID on each object you want to export so I find a macro works best.

Then under File > Export choose XCF. This produces an XML file following the basic architecture used by CGM. Take the file and run it through Trados. Once you have your translated XCF open it through the IsoDraw while you have the IsoDraw file open.

As a side note, this is why the object IDs are important. We, for instance, translation to Spanish and French currently. We actually open two different XCF files, one at a time. The IDs are the link between the XCF and iso file.