Beginner Brushes question - Fill Props/Colour

[pinkbat]

Hi,

I have just started with XaraX and I am already quite addicted. I love the brushes in particular. But I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get the custom brushes I create to stay editable for colours. I find the Help file is a bit sparse on the topic of brushes.
Here's my problem: Any closed shape, I can set the Edit Brush/Fill Properties so that I can subsequently change colours. But this does not work with open lines/brushstrokes; the setting always defaults back to "no colours" even when I try to save the new setting. I guess there must be a reason for this ...? Or have I overlooked something simple? If someone could explain how the custom brush settings can be tweaked, I would appreciate it!

Cheers,
Britta

[pinkbat]

Hi,

I have just started with XaraX and I am already quite addicted. I love the brushes in particular. But I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get the custom brushes I create to stay editable for colours. I find the Help file is a bit sparse on the topic of brushes.
Here's my problem: Any closed shape, I can set the Edit Brush/Fill Properties so that I can subsequently change colours. But this does not work with open lines/brushstrokes; the setting always defaults back to "no colours" even when I try to save the new setting. I guess there must be a reason for this ...? Or have I overlooked something simple? If someone could explain how the custom brush settings can be tweaked, I would appreciate it!

Cheers,
Britta

[pinkbat]

Geeez ... I had been tearing my hair out for hours over this LOL! And the moment I posted my question, I think I found the solution: I tried "Convert Line to Shape", and that appears to do the trick. Is that right?

Thanks ... sorry ...

[Christine Farrelly]

You are correct - the change colour only works for shapes not lines used within a brush.

Beware though brushes are very addictive...

Christine

[pinkbat]

Thanks, Christine - and your warning comes too late ... the damage is already done [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[ivan louette]

And of course we are curious to see your brushes!

Kindly yours,

ivan

[pinkbat]

Hi Ivan,

I'm afraid it's all just experimental so far ... but if I ever manage to produce anything halfway decent, I'll share it.

I am having a rather vexing problem with Xara crashing (access violation) quite often when I try to create/save/edit brushes. I may have to wait until I can install the programme on a different computer to see if I can get a more stable environment.

BTW, the Siberian Tiger brush is my favourite (well, I love 'em all [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] but that one particularly).

Regards,
Britta

[ivan louette]

Less crashes with the CD patched version. The problems persists a little bit more with brushes containing bitmaps, but more often while shutting down the program after saving your work. Thus save often if you work with complex brushes and very narrow spacing between objects.
An interesting tip I tried to work flawlessly with a newly created brush is saving your file, rebooting XaraX, re-opening the file, saving it UNDER A NEW NAME, creating a new layer and working in this one after locking and masking the first layer.
Otherwise a good display board is very useful for redrawing complex brushes. Now I use a GeForce2MX with 32Mo Ram and I am satisfied.

Kindly,

ivan

[pinkbat]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Less crashes with the CD patched version.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

aha ... yes, I'm still on the trial version.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Thus save often if you work with complex brushes and very narrow spacing between objects.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

yes, that makes sense. I have learned quickly to save at every step in Xara [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
Otherwise a good display board is very useful for redrawing complex brushes. Now I use a GeForce2MX with 32Mo Ram and I am satisfied.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] That's exactly the type of graphics board I am going to get for my new system. My old 16MB Matrox must be getting a bit old and slow.

BTW, I think I may have cured my crash problems with the Xara brushes [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]
I was so desperate, I finally installed Norton System Works and ran their basic system check-up plus disk optimisation. I wasn't really expecting anything much - but afterwards I went straight into Xara and now I can use, edit and save brushes without errors or crashes; overall performance is also improved. Wow - I am one happy Xara camper!
(Please note: I have no association with Nortons whatsoever ... YMMV)
This is System Works 2001 running on Win98SE on an Athlon 600 with 256MB RAM. I always think of myself as a compulsive system checker and optimiser (doing it manually); but this certainly seems to have done the trick for me.

Regards,
Britta