News

Corel preps vector graphics for business use

• By Rich Seeley
• April 30, 2003

Corel Corp., Ottawa, Canada, today announced the availability of its new Smart Graphics Studio, SVG technology for creating and publishing open-standards graphics. The tools make it possible to take business data and existing graphics such as CAD files and convert them into useful applications, said Ian LeGrow, vice president of new ventures at Corel.

Far from playing simply an illustrative role, explained LeGrow, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) technology can be deployed in applications to improve productivity.

In a presentation with Rob Williamson, product manager for Corel Smart Graphics Studio, the point was illustrated with an example of a power plant using SVG rendering.

When a problem arose with cabling in the demo plant, engineers and technicians followed cumbersome processes to identify and locate a specific cable. A query to a database produced identification numbers for the cable, which then had to be searched for manually on a CAD drawing of the cable layout.

A new application using Corel Smart Graphics Studio integrates the ID numbers from the database and the CAD drawings onto a single PC screen with the cable in question highlighted so that it can be immediately identified. This represents a productivity gain for the plant workers and could be crucial in an emergency where every second may count, LeGrow and Williamson pointed out. They said this illustrates the firm's motto: "Smart Graphics are good for business."

The Microsoft Windows-based Corel Smart Graphics Studio includes developer tools, a process builder for binding data sources, a server and an SVG viewer.