SVG export _1_

Question

Hi,
I have troubles when exporting SVG -file from Illustrator (CS3 or CS4, mac version).
Illustrator creates weird _1_, _2_ and endings to the layers, groups or items.
Like this way:
In Illustrator, I create group which name is "SB-test" (this group contains several paths).
I export SVG -file (1.1).
...then, I look that SVG -file in with text editor, Inkscape etc. application...and the "SB-test" -group ID is named as SB-test_1_
Why -and how to avoid that?
Thanks for advance!

Answer 1

I know this post is fairly old, but I stumbled across the same problem with group names when converting to SVG. I created a workaround that is included in a script that is called when the SVG is loaded:
Loop through the SVG and find each group and get the name.
var svgdoc = document.embeds(0).getSVGDocument();
var groupList = svgdoc.getElementsByTagName("g");
     for(j = 0; j < groupList.length; j ++) {
       var child = groupList.item(j).getElementsByTagName("g");
       var GroupName = groupList.item(j).getAttribute("id");
Get the length of the group name and determine if the end character of the name is "_".
    var newGroupNameLength = newGroupName.length;
    var childLastChar = newGroupName.substring(newGroupNameLength-1,newGroupNameLength);
If the last character is "_", change the group name to ignore the last three characters.
    if (childLastChar == "_")  {
      newGroupName = newGroupName.substring(0,newGroupNameLength-3);
set the group ID to the new group name.
    groupList.item(j).setAttribute("id",newGroupName);
Hope that helps. I use the same kind of method to correct the beginning of group names where Illustrator replaces illegal SVG starting characters such as '0' and '#' with "_x30_" and "_x23_", respectively.