a couple of questions

[boxes100]

Hi everyone,
I've had Xara for around a year or so now and it's the best program I've ever come across.
However, I'm still climbing SLOWLY UP the learning curve and would really appreciate a hand up.
I use Xara for creating advertising promos, brochures and that sort of stuff. Small graphic design business at home.

I recently wanted to create a DL size brochure printed on both sides. (3 up on an A4 page). To divide the page equally (landscape orientation) I drew a straight line on the very left edge of the page, cloned the line to the far right of the page, then did a 2 step blend to divide the page equally into 3. Now, as my brochure is double sided and I have to hand trim them I need the divide to be very accurate to centre the elements on each side. After making sure my first straight lines were EXACTLY on the edge of each side and making the blend, when I zoomed in after blending, lo and behold Xara made some decisions for me and MOVED my original lines in from the edges! I figure it must be something to do with the way Xara calculates the math, but this completely throws my work out. Does anybody have any brilliant ideas for me please?
Second question:
I have been making a direction map for a flyer and copied the relevant location map from UBD on the web. I blotted out all the text info. (wanting to do my own) and tried to trace the lines for streets and roads. I must be dumb, I cant get an accurate trace on anything I try. Can someone please give me a bit of help and advice on trace settings please.

One other quick qestion while I'm at it. Can I have multiple pages in one file?
Much appreciated.
June.

[boxes100]

Hi everyone,
I've had Xara for around a year or so now and it's the best program I've ever come across.
However, I'm still climbing SLOWLY UP the learning curve and would really appreciate a hand up.
I use Xara for creating advertising promos, brochures and that sort of stuff. Small graphic design business at home.

I recently wanted to create a DL size brochure printed on both sides. (3 up on an A4 page). To divide the page equally (landscape orientation) I drew a straight line on the very left edge of the page, cloned the line to the far right of the page, then did a 2 step blend to divide the page equally into 3. Now, as my brochure is double sided and I have to hand trim them I need the divide to be very accurate to centre the elements on each side. After making sure my first straight lines were EXACTLY on the edge of each side and making the blend, when I zoomed in after blending, lo and behold Xara made some decisions for me and MOVED my original lines in from the edges! I figure it must be something to do with the way Xara calculates the math, but this completely throws my work out. Does anybody have any brilliant ideas for me please?
Second question:
I have been making a direction map for a flyer and copied the relevant location map from UBD on the web. I blotted out all the text info. (wanting to do my own) and tried to trace the lines for streets and roads. I must be dumb, I cant get an accurate trace on anything I try. Can someone please give me a bit of help and advice on trace settings please.

One other quick qestion while I'm at it. Can I have multiple pages in one file?
Much appreciated.
June.

[Sheff]

It's not a feature Xara has. Yet...

I hope they add it. It would make my life a hell of a lot easier.

Sheffield Abella
sheff@sheff.com
www.sheff.com

[gwpriester]

The bitmap trace feature is not good for accuracy as you have noticed. This is true of all bitmap tracing utilities.

First of all, you are tracing a very low resolution image. And secondly the trace utility has to look at a cluster of pixels and try to make some determination as to how to best represent them in outline form. Not easy. And not very effecient.

Here is a map that I created from a scan. I used the scanned map as a template and recreated the lines and added back the text, and road symbols. I changed the colors, etc. to suit my design.

Doing the lines is really easy. Just use the Shape Editor Tool to do a series of line segments that follow the shape of the road and then drag the segments into curves. Apply a wide line width and then Convert Line to Shape. Now the road can have a fill and an outline. And you can select several roads and Combine Shapes > Add Shapes to add the intersections.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[boxes100]

for your help in answering my problems, Gary I started with Corel Draw from V1 to V4. In the early versions of Corel, the tracing facility was excellent but with each version it got worse, can't work that one out. Never mind, your suggestion is even better.

I really would like someone to give me some suggestions as to dividing an A4 page up equally, it would make my life so much easier.

Thanks
June

[michaelward]

Xara is a very exact application, so I don't think that it's actually moving your line - it's just when you zoom in, you get a more accurate representation of it true location.

To get an exact location I suggest you use the X an Y co-ordinate boxes on the info-bar in Xara.

Xara can position objects to sub-pixel positions on screen - so your line could be a matter of 0.1 pixels away from the edge, and this will become obvious when you zoom in. The same principle applies no matter what unit of size you are working in.

However, there is a more simple and elegant solution to this particular problem.

Create the line you want to align to the side of the page. Then use the Alignment option ( Arrange | Alignment... ) and set the 'Within' option to Page(s) and set the Horizontal alignment to left or right, dependant upon which side you're aligning to.

You can then use the blend tool to create your intermediate lines as you did before.

This should sort that problem for you. If it doesn't, then let us all know and we'll see if we an help further.



Michael Ward
http://www.exosoftwebdesign.co.uk (soon)
http://www.leythers.co.uk
http://www.metalandplastics.co.uk

[Christine Farrelly]

Then move the lines to the background and saved it as a template.

Christine

[michaelward]

Attatched is a template that should be setup just right.

You'll need to save this in your Templates folder in the Xara program folder.


Michael Ward
http://www.exosoftwebdesign.co.uk (soon)
http://www.leythers.co.uk
http://www.metalandplastics.co.uk

[boxes100]

I very much appreciate everybody's help in this, especially Michael for taking the time to set up a template.

Thank you
June

[michaelward]

Always happy to help.

BTW, if you need to cahnge any of the settings in your template, such as the units used, etc. and you want them to apply every time you use that template, simply open the template file, change the required settings and save it again (or you could use Save As... to save it under a different name).



Michael Ward
http://www.exosoftwebdesign.co.uk (soon)
http://www.leythers.co.uk
http://www.metalandplastics.co.uk