born yesterday...

[utiler]

Hello all.
Xara Xtreme was born yesterday on my PC and so here starts a long and interesting learning curve......

i have been over the movies that come with the software but am interested in how to simply create and save a template for repetitive use....

any help would be much appreciated.

Also, with layering; can you sit an image over another and edit the top one so the one below shows through...?

All the best. i hope XX will see it's first birthday beofre being banished to the 'too hard basket'.
Andrew

[Doug]

Hello all.

i have been over the movies that come with the software but am interested in how to simply create and save a template for repetitive use....

any help would be much appreciated.

Speaking of help: if you open the Xara Xtreme Help, go to the index and enter 'template document, creating' you will find a section on how to create templates.

[utiler]

Cheers Doug, i have had a look and worked it out.

I assume i can create a template then repeat that page layout for additional pages. sometimes i have 5-6 pages to a project. I use Chief Architect for model work and Sketchup for presentation and currently i have been using the layout process in CA for my presentation layouts. [primitive, i know] i hope that XX brings a whole new dimension to my work.

What does XX call pages? i find that some software calls them layouts, classes, pages, etc.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.
Andrew

[Doug]

Cheers Doug, i have had a look and worked it out.

I assume i can create a template then repeat that page layout for additional pages. sometimes i have 5-6 pages to a project. I use Chief Architect for model work and Sketchup for presentation and currently i have been using the layout process in CA for my presentation layouts. [primitive, i know] i hope that XX brings a whole new dimension to my work.

What does XX call pages? i find that some software calls them layouts, classes, pages, etc.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.
Andrew

Could you perhaps define 'pages' ? Do you mean main subsections of a project?

[utiler]

I just want to create a number of pages with the same Titleblock...
say, a cover sheet with perspective images then another with plan and elevation images.... all with the same company logo and reference details.

Cheers,
A

[Albacore]

To answer your question about tracing using layers the answer is yes. There arre two ways to do it one is to always have the layer that you want to trace to the top and converting your reference object to a "Stainedglass Transparency" will allow you to see through the object to draw on the layers or layer below. Please make sure in the layers pallette that you lock that layer so you can't move it. And the other way is to layer the object that you want to copy turning on & off layers after you have given colour fill or if that to complicated just draw outlines and leave the filling to the end.

You can also use layers for your template layout, have your stock items on the bottom layer and use the ones on thetop for pages. Each new page has its own layer and when you want to print that page turn on the stock layer and the page layer. Corel and FreeHand are the only main vector programmes which have multi-pages even Illy uses the nested layer approach in Hot Door's Multi-page.

[Ross Macintosh]

Welcome to the XX forum Andrew. It is good to have another architectural designer around here!

Did Albacore's posting answer your questions? Certainly you can overlay one object on top of another and then use transparency -- or cut a hole -- to allow you to see through the object on top to the one behind. The objects can be on different layers or on the same one.

With regards to your title block: you can create one in its own document and then later just import it into other xara xtreme documents when you need it. If I were doing that I'd probably create the title blocks lines (grouped) on one layer and the text labels on another. Once imported into subsequent documents it would be very easy to just edit the label text as appropriate. In this manner it is very practical to create a collection of drawing elements you use repeatedly -- like North arrows, typical annotations etc. They can be in a template or just a bunch of .xar files you keep together for convenience in a folder.

Regards, Ross