Friday, August 28, 2026

Relayering the onion for PDF reversal from ODG to Scribus

 You can make a layered PDF from a LibreOffice drawing, at least obliquely.

Exporting to PDF from LO does not capture the layers in the source as PDG 1.6 layers.

Opening with Scribus, then exporting to a layered PDF works. But. The layers go from left-to-right as top-to-bottom, rather than right-to-left. Later added layers end up on top, and if they are a scanned image, everything below gets masked.








Tip of the tam-o-shanter:




Original layer order in the Scribus-based PDF export:



BEFORE


Just a little line cut and pasts. Viola!


$ diff  the-madison-floorplan+poi-feet.fodg the-madison-floorplan+poi-feet-regrooved.fodg
726,729d725
<    <draw:layer draw:name="Main Halls + Rooms"/>
<    <draw:layer draw:name="Building Columns"/>
<    <draw:layer draw:name="Fire+Exit"/>
<    <draw:layer draw:name="Closets"/>
730a727,730
>    <draw:layer draw:name="Closets"/>
>    <draw:layer draw:name="Fire+Exit"/>
>    <draw:layer draw:name="Building Columns"/>
>    <draw:layer draw:name="Main Halls + Rooms"/>
1925c1925
< </office:document>
\ No newline at end of file
---
> </office:document>

FODG is your friend!

AFTER


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