Adobe Illustrator to Avalon/XAML Export Plug-In

In response to my XAML By Hand? post awhile back, I became curious about what it would take to export Avalon-friendly XAML from a tool like Adobe^® Illustrator^®. So, I downloaded the publicly available Illustrator SDK, and I’ve been spending some spare time in the evenings working on a plug-in.

Well, the plug-in is far enough along at this point to be relatively useful, so I’m releasing it to the public as a free download. The current version works with Adobe Illustrator CS and CS2 running on Windows. Note that this plug-in is not endorsed, warranted, or supported by Microsoft. It was created by me after hours, so use it at your own risk.

For most of the common scenarios, I think you’ll find that the plug-in works very well. However, there are limitations, and you can see some of them illustrated on the Eye Candy page.

Version 0.11 of the plug-in exports XAML that is compatible with Avalon Beta 1 RC, so you should be able to start producing some pretty cool stuff right away. If you do create something that others should see, please let me know, and upload it to the Channel 9 Sandbox.

Speaking of Channel 9, Robert Scoble talked to me about the development of the plug-in, and if you have 25 minutes to spare, you can watch the complete video interview. We talk about raster/vector artwork, how Avalon enables smooth workflow between a graphic designer and an application developer, and I show some demos of the exporter in action.

I’d certainly be very interested in any feedback, comments, or questions you may have.

Enjoy!