MadCap Software Forums

I created an SVG file from a Visio drawing. The drawing uses shapes from a supplier's library of computer equipment. I can save the image out just fine with no error messages from Visio but when I go to add it into the topic or render the target (in PDF), I get a message from the SVG Processor saying there is there is an error processing the SVG file. There's no more detail than that. The error message does not appear to be fatal because the PDF file is properly rendered and looks fine. I have no idea what the processor is complaining about. Has anyone run into this problem before?

Well, I talked to Madcap technical support and it turns out this is a bug. It has been logged as #45913. The problem is due to an error Flare displays during the build process as opposed to any problem with the actual output, which seems fine. They are looking into the cause of it.

15 years later and I still see an error in the build log and no problem in the output. Makes it difficult to take Flare seriously as a continuous integration tool.

Hi,

Can you share the exact steps you used to create your SVG so someone else can take a shot at resolving the issue? Different tools, different workflows, it might work with a slightly different approach from what you used.

Interesting: I created the SVGs with different apps (Illustrator, Affinity Designer, Linearity Curves), but even if they all show up nicely in any browser on either Windows or macOS, Flare has a hard time processing the preview. After a few minutes, the files open up nicely but when publishing as PDF display the ominous "error processing SVG file" message.
In the end however, the PDF comes out nicely as if Flare tries to gloss over some unexpected irregularities.
I wonder what can be done to make Flare pace through like it did a few months ago?

I have recently started adding svg files in my Flare html project because when I insert png files they lose quality.
But now I wanted to make a pdf so I can send the project to someone for review and I get "Error Processing SVG file" in the middle of the build and it does not progress from there (ie no output).
Any ideas?
(I made my SVG by selecting an image in Powerpoint and selecting "Save as picture" and saving as an svg file.)
Joanna

To ensure you have a clean SVG (not a mess created by PowerPoint/Illustrator):

1) Install the free Inkscape program (https://inkscape.org/), which is designed to create SVG standard-compliant files.
2) Open your PowerPoint-generated SVG in Inkscape.
3) Save it in the Plain SVG format.
4) Import the "cleaned" SVG into Flare.

I just installed Flare 2024 r2, which supposedly provides faster SVG rendering. It raced through an SVG-heavy document, but the output PDF contained wrong fonts and bad kerning in the SVG diagrams! Back to the previous fully working version of Flare...

MadCap have confirmed a bug in 2024 R2 if you have SVG files that are read only - all SVGs in my project are read only because I use source control (TFS).

* When you build a HTML5 target, you get a build warning like this: "20011, Failed to load image C:\xxx\image.svg. , HTML5, Compiler, C:\xxx\Topic.htm,"
* In the Flare XML editor, the SVG image is not displayed, and “Load failed” is displayed in a grey box in place of the image.
* If you try and open the SVG file from Flare’s Content Explorer, you get an ‘access denied’ error.

The SVG images in my HTML5 output seem fine - however, mine are quite simple and don't use fonts.