Xara keeps crashing

[Egg Bramhill]

Alice

The routine I use with brushes is as follows:

In the default folder where you save your Xara files, create a sub directory and name it 'MyBrushes' or similar.

Now any time in the future when working on a new project, if you create a brush you think you might wish to use again, save this xar file in the 'MyBrushes' folder giving it a meaningful name. See the attachment below: This .xar file just holds the brush shapes and a single copy of the Brush. I would save this in the 'MyBrushes' folder as 'stars1.xar'

A few months down the line you might decide to use this brush again. File / Open and drill down to the 'MyBrushes' folder and open the xar file with that brush in it. (In this example 'stars'.xar) Close it again.

If you look in the Brush drop down list, that brush (stars1) is now in the brush list and will remain so until you exit Xara.

The advantage of this method is that it doesn't slow down Xara's start-up.

Egg

[raffy]

HI,Egg! I tried your method of keeping brushes in a desktop subfolder,and it worked beautifully!Thanks! I have some brushes from XaraXone called "Egg's Blocky Brushes".Are they yours?If so,do you have others?At least I know I can trust them if so.

[Egg Bramhill]

Yep that will be one of mine. As I stated earlier I don't think it's a problem with any particular brush, I think you can trust all the brushes posted in the Brush Swap Shop. I think it's more a glitch somewhere along the line that's best avoided by not permanently placing Brushes into the Xara brush gallery.

If you like a downloaded brush, just draw a simple line within a new xar page using that brush then save that xar file into your 'MyBrushes' folder. Then it's alway available if you need it again but doesn't have to load up every time you load Xara

Egg

[raffy]

Thanks,Egg!Will do.Any ideas on the importing of photos into Xara to use in Xara files?
Also,I'm having trouble with loading fills from XaraXone and getting them to work.I have a file of abalone fills from there,but whenever I try to load them into Xara,I only get 1 of several,and when I try to drop it onto a figure,I get the gray Xara logo instead,or a message that says that Xara was unable to download the fill.I also tried to load a different file,one with stars in it,but when I open the file in Xara,there is only the 1 abalone fill-no stars!Wierd!This happened in the trial verson,too.Could it be a hold-over?

[Egg Bramhill]

Just a quick reply ... the sun's starting to lighten the sky and it's long past the time for me to creep back into my crypt.

Again, I don't import fills into the Fill Gallery.

If you have a file full of textured images that you might at some time use as a fill... fine.

Create a 'MyFills' folder.

Now when you want to search for a fill go to File / Import and drill down to 'MyFills' / 'Rusty.jpg' or whatever name, and click import.

Now select the 'Rusty.jpg' instance on the page & delete it. Sounds stupid I know. But it still resides in the Bitmap Gallery.

As an experiment, create a very large circle on the page. Select it, open the Bitmap Gallery and select the 'rusty.jpg' bitmap (or whatever bitmap you imported) and from the top menu bar of the Bitmap Gallery hit 'Fill'

Again, here you have a method of using fills without loading countless numbers unecessarily.

Egg

[raffy]

Thanks,Egg!I've been busy all day,trying to finish my homework for an online class in PSE4.I tried out your method of using fills,and it works great,except when I used an image of raffy.It was so large,that I couldn't make a shape big enough to hold him.I'm going to try to resize him.How small does he have to be?Also,I'm going to try to load him as a fill with the fill tool.I hope it works.I'll let you know!(Hope you get back to the crypt in time tonight!)