Brushes,eraser and a bouquet.

Hi,

I've been trialling Xtreme 4 for a few days and haven't actually got around to doing anything much with it yet. I've been too distracted working my way through the back postings on this forum.

I think I must have trialled every version since X1 and have never taken the plunge and bought the software. The speed was awesome, right from the early days. I do own other Xara bits and pieces though.

Thought Xtreme might replace my aged copy of Freehand MX and the horrible, slightly newer, but rarely used, Coral Suite I own. I have Photoshop too, so it's vector capabilities I'm looking for.

Is there an eraser lurking somewhere in the Xtreme interface that I haven't found yet?

I gather one cannot load anything other than the default brush collection or save brushes to a collection. Am I correct in this assumption?

Decent brush support and an eraser are such basic tools in any graphics software be it Raster or Vector. I think I must just not be able to find them yet. Can somebody please show me where they are hiding? Layers seem a little clunky to use too.

Felt I just had to say what a really great bunch of kind, helpful people hang out here. Bouquets to all of you. Just love the genial one-up-manship that takes place and the incredible patience of some of the expert users have with bumbling beginner's problems.

Such a nice place to visit.

Dale

Hi welcome

no eraser I'm afraid [mores the pity]

if you use freehand brush you can hold down shift and backtrack undoing what you have just drawn [before you release mouse/pen]

apart from that, erasing is done by subtracting and intersecting shapes

loading an xtreme brush is easy - you just open the file with it in and it loads into memory - once used in your workfile and saved you can close the brush xar file

making brush libraries similar - just save a xar file with brush stroke[s] in to open when required as above

too many brushes open at once will slow things down

layers need an overhaul - so do brushes for that matter - much requested here :)

Nice to have you here Dale. :)

Erasers are generally found in bitmap editing programs like Photoshop. Because to a photo editor, everything is a pixel.

There are always ways to remove portions of a vector object, such as the Combine Shapes functions, but no eraser.

What does the famed Illustrator "eraser" do that you cannot do by simply deleting nodes or shapes? I wish somebody could explain this to me because people coming to Xtreme from Illustrator really seem to be hung up on it. I mean, who needs an eraser...? :rolleyes:

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t...ara/eraser.png

LOL, kinetica. :D

The Freehand Tool can work as an eraser.

No I'm not referring to using a shift key before releasing the left mouse button. :)

nice video Bill - this is not what the illustrator eraser does of course [I'm sure you know that] :)

the attachment below is a procedure in xtreme

the illustrator eraser does this procedure in one operation - a single stroke

you can begin and end eraser strokes anywhere you like, even from outside the object

if they ever get a free form eraser that would be cool

Try holding down the 'Erase' key on your keyboard while pointing to the parts of the drawing you don't want.

Attachment 61874

If your keyboard has no erase key, you can get one here.

BTW: You can try this method with any graphics software ;)

ho ho :D - true enough Steve if you want to simply delete

'erasing' artistically is not simply deleting though, its a way of shaping the object [think 'sculpting'] - the illustrator eraser does this very well and very quickly - personally I think it should have been called a '2D sculpt' tool

Thanks Steve. I printed out the image and pasted it on the button shown below - can't wait to try it ... :D

I should sell those Keyboards John, it would ensure I get repeat PC repair work :D

How's this one" 'Spinkey'

Attachment 61877

Hi Dale,
I am one of these people who still keep there ver. of FH mx to the front of their tool set for it still has its place especially for perspective type drawings. Xara brushes are very similar to FH'es with an editing panel to customise a brush or make your own. As for the eraser that you talk about do you not forget about it and just use the Combine menu for that is the way I use FH.

I think if you get into Xara you will easily transfer your skills from one to the other and you can look forward to using the shape editor tool for most of your vectors. There will be a few things you will miss like the Align Panel in FH as it is miles better, better Flash integration, choosing CMYK in the mixing palette and as I mentioned before the perspective grids but that is about it. What you will gain better raster effects and speed.

Oh dear! I can't stop laughing. Crazy people here. Thanks for the entertainment. Loved the cartoon. Wish I could draw as well. That erase key will come in handy too. I printed it, cut it out and stuck it in place with used chewing gum.

Thanks too for the video, the mini tut and the words of wisdom, including those on the relative merits of FH and Xtreme. I've C & P to a tips folder. It all helped a lot and I can now see that there is more than one way to skin a cat.

I guess it would be easier learning the ins and outs of the Xtreme if you were free from pre-conceived ideas acquired using other bloated software with really unfriendly GUIs. Xtreme seems strangely uncluttered!

Off to tackle some of the tutorials.

Cheers,

Dale

and now version 5 released today - what more could a guy want :cool:

you'll be flying in no time.. :D