Hi, I am getting the common "Failed to load requested file FILENAME" as I have seen many times in the forums, but I haven't seen a solution that works for me. It does appear that some Mac users are able to open .ai files so I hope a solution exists. I have read through viewtopic.php?f=5&t=820 many times but nothing there has helped me past the point I'm at now, which is as follows.

Mac 10.7.5
Inkscape 0.48
XQuartz 2.6.4 (xorg-server 1.10.6)

The .ai file in question was not created in Illustrator, which I don't own, but by a 3rd party (MoI3d) so I don't know what version of that file format it is. I have tried the following:

* right click on file, choose Open With... and select Inkscape
* Open Inkscape first, use File -> Open
* from the command line, navigate to the file, type "open FILENAME"
* Open Inkscape first, use File -> Import, select "Adobe Illustrator 9.0 and above (*.ai)"
(All of these produced the Failed to load message.)
* Open Inkscape first, use File -> Import, select "Adobe Illustrator 8.0 and below (*.ai)". Here, before the Failed to load message, I got a dialog claiming no error but additional information from the script[0] telling me to install UniConvertor, which is not available for Mac (I tried installing the Linux version but was unsuccessful).

There is a lot of advice to check the extension-errors.log file. After some searching I found this log file in my home directory, in this path:

~/.config/inkscape/extension-errors.log

When I first open Inkscape, I get a number of messages in that file [1] about missing extensions. However there is nothing written to it when I try any of the above steps. I suppose I could try finding and installing all these extensions but am reluctant to do so quite yet as none seem applicable. Possibly I'm wrong on this, does anyone know which one would be needed? I cannot find, anywhere on my system, a general error log for Inkscape, nor has Googling for the location of this file turned up anything.

I would be happy with a workaround such as an external convertor, but all of the ones I have found so far have either not installed or not worked. I'm perfectly happy on the command line and dealing with port or brew, reading logs, installing via make, etc (was a developer for years) so nothing is going to be too hard, I'm just stumped right now. Any help or suggestions are much appreciated.

thanks,
Rachel

[0] "You need to install the UniConvertor software.
For GNU/Linux: install the package python-uniconvertor.
For Windows: download it from
http://sk1project.org/modules.php?name= ... iconvertor
and install into your Inkscape's Python location"

[1]
Extension "Dia Input" failed to load because a dependency was not met.
Dependency:
type: executable
location: path
string: dia
description: In order to import Dia files, Dia itself must be installed. You can get Dia at http://live.gnome.org/Dia

Extension "DXF Output" failed to load because a dependency was not met.
Dependency:
type: executable
location: path
string: pstoedit
description: pstoedit must be installed to run; see http://www.pstoedit.net/pstoedit

Extension "EPS Input" failed to load because a dependency was not met.
Dependency:
type: executable
location: path
string: ps2pdf

Extension "LaTeX formula" failed to load because a dependency was not met.
Dependency:
type: executable
location: path
string: latex

Extension "LaTeX formula" failed to load because a dependency was not met.
Dependency:
type: executable
location: path
string: dvips

Extension "LaTeX formula" failed to load because a dependency was not met.
Dependency:
type: executable
location: path
string: pstoedit

Extension "XFIG Input" failed to load because a dependency was not met.
Dependency:
type: executable
location: path
string: fig2dev

Extension "GIMP XCF" failed to load because a dependency was not met.
Dependency:
type: executable
location: path
string: gimp

Extension "PostScript Input" failed to load because a dependency was not met.
Dependency:
type: executable
location: path
string: ps2pdf

Extension "Sketch Input" failed to load because a dependency was not met.
Dependency:
type: executable
location: path
string: skconvert

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

And
Thank you for researching your problem so thoroughly before posting your message. Honestly, when I read the topic title, I sighed, and tried to come up with a nice way of saying what I was thinking, lol. So refreshing ! (Yeah I'm an old smiley nut from way back . They're just fun!)

Unfortunately, I probably don't have a very good answer for you. The only thing that I can think of, is to convert to PDF, and then try to open in Inkscape. I'm not clear if the 3rd party owner and/or creator of the AI file is someone you know? If it's someone you know, maybe they could convert to PDF for you. Then you could try to open with Inkscape

I can't say for sure, but I really doubt that installing any or all those other things (from the error log) will help. Well, unless you decide to use an intermediate format which would need them. I am surprised that the failure to open doesn't write a new entry into that log though! I wonder if you restart Inkscape, if it would somehow force an entry to be written?? But even if it does, it may well say you need to install AI

I'm sorry I don't have been info for you. But maybe someone else will have a better idea.

Hi.

A small trick - the AI file is already pdf! Just rename the file from *.ai to *.pdf and open in Inkscape.
(edit; see this - http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2008/02/24/opening-adobe-illustrator-ai-files-when-you-don-t-have-adobe-illustrator.aspx)
Good Luck.
Please report (lack of) progress!

RGDS
Ragnar

ragstian wrote:A small trick - the AI file is already pdf!

What the heck??!

Hi.

brynn wrote;

What the heck??!

As I don't have Adobe Illustrator - (and likely never will!);
Tested by downloading and renaming the following file; http://webneel.com/post/freedownload/others/styles/curved-lines

Works like a charm.

RGDS
Ragnar

Well if that works for everyone (all operating systems) that will make a lot of people very, very happy!

Hi brynn, ragnar, thanks for your replies.

Brynn, the file was generated by a 3-d modelling program I use, called Moment of Inspiration (http://moi3d.com/). I'm trying to find a toolchain to get the parts of a model I've built into 2-d vector files so I can cut them out on a CNC router and build my model. I will ask the author of MoI about the specific Illustrator format, and if he has any suggestions; I didn't think to do that before.

Ragnar, I did try renaming my file to .pdf, but I still got the Failed to load requested file message with all the ways of opening as in my original message. I tried to open the renamed PDF in Preview, to see what that would do, and got a message that the file type was corrupted or unrecognizable. There are, it appears, several kinds of .ai files, possibly depending on the version of Illustrator? I'm fairly sure my original .ai file is some kind of valid Illustrator format as I am able to open it in Photoshop. However, I can't get Photoshop to save it in any vector format (not surprising considering Photoshop is primarily intended as a raster tool).

thanks,
Rachel

Hi

mnrsiat wrote;

Ragnar, I did try renaming my file to .pdf, but I still got the Failed to load requested file message with all the ways of opening as in my original message. I tried to open the renamed PDF in Preview, to see what that would do, and got a message that the file type was corrupted or unrecognizable. There are, it appears, several kinds of .ai files, possibly depending on the version of Illustrator? I'm fairly sure my original .ai file is some kind of valid Illustrator format as I am able to open it in Photoshop. However, I can't get Photoshop to save it in any vector format (not surprising considering Photoshop is primarily intended as a raster tool).

You are probably right, might be differences between ai files or the program you are using - Moment of Inspiration - might have it's own "quirks".
According to this;http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=839 the PDF and "native" AI files are (supposed to be) the same;
What options does MOI give you when saving to an AI file?
Can we have a look at one of your AI files for experimentation?

RGDS Ragnar

Hi ragstian, thanks for this. Here is a link to one of the files in question: http://www.crazedweasels.com/headboard-top-lam.ai

I'm very interested in your results with it, can you open it in any program? As I noted earlier, I can open it in Photoshop (CS3, not the most recent).

There are no options in MoI when saving to .ai format, just a list of format choices. All the other options are 3d formats, not 2d. I've asked the author of that program about this issue (by linking to this thread) but haven't heard back yet.

I have done more research in the Moment of Inspiration forums and it turns out that it's the Illustrator 8 format that is exported, per this post (Michael Gibson is the author of MoI): http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4908.4

He also claims that it is a version after 8 that has the .ai format changed to be identical to PDF, which jibes with other research I've done.

Unfortunately none of the proposed solutions there are working for me, but that's getting out of scope from Inkscape. My question has changed slightly, to, is Inkscape on Mac supposed to be able to open Illustrator 8 files? There is definitely, for me, that option in the file open dialog, but again it is not working for this file. Installing Uniconvertor has failed, although possibly with further trips to dependency hell I might get that going.

Thanks all,
Rachel

Hi

The three first lines of your file looks like this:
This explains why you can open with Photoshop CS3 but not later versions.
Adobe Viewer can not read your file either - but can happily display other AI files I throw at it.
Will investigate further.

RGDS
Ragnar

mnrsiat wrote:My question has changed slightly, to, is Inkscape on Mac supposed to be able to open Illustrator 8 files?

No, it is not: Inkscape can open PostScript-based AI files (Adobe Illustrator 8.0 and below) with the help of UniConvertor, but the currently available package for Mac OS X (Inkscape 0.48.2) does not include UniConvertor (for technical reasons). [*]

Note I: (for Inkscape users on other platforms) - since the two versions of the file format use the same ending, you have to open older AI files from within Inkscape, explicitly selecting the file format 'Adobe Illustrator 8.0 and below (*.ai)' in the file chooser dialog.

Note II: UniConvertor is an independent project (not part of Inkscape itself), and the team has ceased maintenance of the current version (1.1.5) in favor of a complete rewrite (still on-going). It is likely that only a partial set of features of AI 8.0 files is supported by UniConvertor 1.1.5 (I have no way to verify the content of the attached SVG version).


-----
[*] If you don't have to rely on the official "stable" Mac OS X package (0.48.2), you can test a quite recent release candidate package for a newer Mac OS X package of Inkscape 0.48.4 which includes UniConvertor - see this message on the developer's mailing list. Please do keep in mind though that it is not yet an official package (work-in-progress for better integration into Mac OS X).

My final comment in this topic: with regard to supported versions of AI files in Inkscape, I'd like to refer to the manual (related chapter: Inkscape » Files » Importing Files). Here's the full quote of the section about AI files:

• Updated for v0.48:
  
  .ai (Adobe Illustrator) Opens version 9.0 and later files (based on PDF). See PDF entry below. In v0.47, older versions (based on PostScript) can be opened by selecting the PostScript or EPS file type from the drop-down menu. On Linux, you can use the file command to check the version. In v0.48, older versions can be opened via UniConverter if you explicitly select Adobe Illustrator 8.0 and below (*.ai) in the file-type menu.

~suv, thanks so much for this! All becomes clear now. I was able to install the development .dmg package as found on the mailing list post you referenced, and Lo! I can now open my .ai files! And there was great rejoicing.

For anyone else in this predicament, the 0.48.4 disk image version so far has been stable and done all the things I've tried, although I haven't spent more than an hour or two on it so there are large swaths of things I haven't gotten to. But it does, at very minimum, open my Illustrator 8 files and save them as .svg files which can then be opened in my 0.48.2 version. Also, it is a native Mac app now and does not use X11 which is AWESOME. I'm very much looking forward to the final release of the native Mac port.

Thanks all,
Rachel

Okay, I thought I was up for compiling the latest Mac OS X version of Inkscape, the one that has the UniConvertor built in, and tried hard to follow the instructions here. The script kept halting because something needed to be forcefully activated, and the script restarted. I got as far as trying to bundle it into an app, and it failed one more time, this time because it could not find all those python things it downloaded.

Obviously, I am not a programmer, or this would all seem laughably easy I am sure. Anyway, just a note to anyone thinking of trying out the DIY compilation - the wasted hours and hours of "download this, install that" are simply not worth it, at least if you're not a programmer.

I have given up and will await the DMG installer to be updated. Incidentally, I successfully installed the Windows version on my Win8 virtual drive. However, it was not able to open my AI file either - UniConvertor at least gave me that error message.

Thanks all, for an entertaining read. I still like the program; I just won't be trying to use it to work on AcGIS AI map exports.

Regards,
Russell