webcgm or svg

[Perttu]

Hi, I am a beginner in illustrations and I have tried to figure out what is best format for distributing interactive vector graphics in internet. I realize that there are basically two formats: SVG and WebCGM that can do the task. WebCGM is favored by PTC but SVG can be rendered directly by many browsers without any plug-ins. Are there limitations in SVG that would make the better choice to be WebCGM? The need is at this point simple. To create an electronic spare part catalogs where the hotspotted pictures can be navigated in and out. Opinions and views are much appreciated. Perttu

[thendricks]

Both have positives and negatives. SVG is more widely used on-line, but not as much as say Flash. CGM viewers are not as common, but PTC offers a viewer (though expensive). My main suggestion is to determine your audience. If you can control what is being used to view the pages (say only business customers), go with CGM and get the PTC plug-in. If you don't have much say (everone else), go with SVG. The best option, however, may be to look into Flash. Though this doesn't get you all the way to where you want, it's close. http://sourceforge.net/projects/svg2swf/

[cschmaehl-disab]

The Viewer PTC offers is "IsoView" that is able to display various types of file formats. WebCGM is one of them, if you have the need for it, IsoView is a good fit. However the more interesting part is that IsoView also displays the IsoDraw format directly, so you can use your files right away without converting them. IsoView is not just a Plug-in, furthermore it has a very rich APi that enables you to fully control the interactivity of the files and their behavior. regards, Christian

[ChristopherDabr]

Dieter prepared a white paper long ago on this very issue. If you search around you'll find it. The pro and cons of each format are listed in his white paper. I found it on google. www.cgmopen.org/technical/cgm-svg-20030509.ppt look here also: http://www.cgmopen.org/technical/cgm-svg-20030508-2.htm Good luck