Feature suggestion: Mould tool enhancement

One of my least used tools is the mould tool. Strangely however, it's a really powerful tool. I feel that it needs to be more user friendly though. For example, the shape editor tool can be used to better manipulate the envelopes, but why can’t this be done directly with the tool itself?

There are a large variety of mould envelopes that can be designed, as done so here, but these as presets would be much less time consuming. Furthermore, some facility to alter the properties of one of these presets in a manner similar to MS Word’s auto shapes could save time.

I also feel the 4-node envelope is becoming a noticeable limitation.

Some novel uses for the mould tool were highlighted here.

Custom envelopes would be handy for all types of things. More than four sides.

I agree that being able to increase the number of control points in the envelopes, would be very handy.

For this very reason I use the 'Warp mesh' (a warping tool, not a colour tool) in Expression to distort bitmaps/groups, which is something I do quite often.

I agree that the Mould tool, although powerful, is still very limiting in terms of what it should be capable of. I would love to see the ability to add nodes as we can with the Shape editor.

I can think of a number of times in the past when I have been frustrated by the 4 point/side limitation. More sides would be welcome.

Eric

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Originally Posted by MarkMyWords

I agree that being able to increase the number of control points in the envelopes, would be very handy.

For this very reason I use the 'Warp mesh' (a warping tool, not a colour tool) in Expression to distort bitmaps/groups, which is something I do quite often.

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Yes, but the Warp Mesh tool in Expression is different in use to the mould tool in Xara. A mesh tool allows deformations within the bounds of the mould to be made, whereas a mould allows only edge/boundary alterations. The mesh is an extension of the mould, but unless all internal mesh points move in proportion to an edge point motion (as can be seen that happens in Xara when you click the show grid button on the mould tool infobar), it can be fiddly to achieve just a standard more-than-4-point mould. This is the case in Expression. Simply trying to achieve the arch mould for example (shown above) using their mesh is difficult and fiddly. In fact I gave up before completing it (see pic below), as it was impractically time consuming.

Perhaps future versions of Xara could use:
1. Perspective envelopes (4-point, straight-sided mould)
2. (current) Moulds with the ability to add more node points
3. Mesh grids to alter any internal mesh point.

If this could be applied to both bitmap and vector object groups, it would represent a significant improvement to the mould tool as it currently is.

Yes I agree, Expressions mesh-warp tool is far from perfect and for some jobs envelopes are better.

If you select your point or group of points (in Expression) and hold down the CTRL key whilest moving them, the rest of the mesh will move proportionally (to a certain extent).

It's quite easy to use the mesh warp to distort patterns and textures to simulate fabrics, not so great for spheres or cylinders, but for laying a texture over a complex surface it works very well.

For something like the effect you want in Expression (folding one part of the image behind another?), you would need to split your bitmap in two and create two distortions, one each for the foreground and the background parts, but it would be quicker to use an envelope.

It's the constant swapping from one program to another, in order to get the best tools and effects, that I dislike so much.


If there were a way to combine the two tools, that would be really great.

An envelope with an internal mesh? LOL!

This limitation of Xara is the main reason I keep CorelDraw installed on my PC.

.joroho.