Can't fill shape.

[Tallis]

I have this imported vector shape from wmf- a simple oval, like a script italic O

"1 shape on imported layer 1." when selected.

How do I fill in this shape with color, I mean the whole inside? I must be getting a block, because I cant remember. I ultimately want to put a solid color, or picture in it, but at this point, it's not a solid shape ( like you draw with the square or circle tool, which I've been able to fill with bitmaps ) It's just an oval outline, almost as thin as a line, but it says it's a shape, with the inside hollow, transparent. Every time I try to fill, only the thin outline ( the actual oval itself) gets the fill.

So I tried to intresect it with a shape in all different ways to get this thing filled in so I can then fill the hole inside with a bitmap, but it wont take...

I need to keep this exact shape and size oval. What am I forgetting?

[Egg Bramhill]

Tallis,

It's quite usual to import a vector into Xtreme and have this problem. Some vector programs allow lines to have fills for example and it's possible to "cheat" Xara Xtreme into doing this.

Usually it's an unclosed line that's imported but Xtreme reports it as a shape.
If you use the selector tool you should see the 8 "grab" handles plus another smaller square. Note where this is then change to the Shape Editor tool and grab this node and move it around until the little plus sign appears. This will close the shape.

Or you could attach the xar file.

[Tallis]

Here's the source I simply dragged into xara. the file wouldnt upload, shown as invalid file type, so i zipped it. it's a monogram.

i want to play on the shape of actually 2 interecting ovals outside the letters, and play with color and bitmap fills to achieve a nice collage. i know how to make a square, then fill it with a bitmap ( sometimes a head shot type photo ) and move it around. But here I want to keep this oval shape, then fill it with a picture, but I can't get off the ground.

[Egg Bramhill]

Tallis,

Yes it's a common problem with wmf, emf and eps files. I downloaded your zip and imported the wmf into Xtreme.
1: Ungroup. Deslect all.
2: Select one of the ovals.
3: Find the "9th" Blob.
4: Zoom into this area
5: Change to the Shape Editor tool
6: Change fill to None & stroke to blue / line width to 0.1Pt
7: you can now see the true shape.

It's not an elipse, more like the green shape below it.

[Egg Bramhill]

To get the effect you're after try the attached xar.

[Tallis]

Wow, I dont know how you found that point, whether from sheer experience or perhaps you saw something, but I would have never found it.

I see your atached xar file, and the loops are closed.

On mine, I zoomed in more at the synapse you highlighted, before it's pulled together to be closed. You can see along the gap there are some nodes, and when I grabbed one of them to drag and close the "line" to a "closed shape" if those are the right words, it just pulled a distorted triangle, not the whole end. How did you close the gap?

[Egg Bramhill]

Wow, I dont know how you found that point, whether from sheer experience or perhaps you saw something, but I would have never found it.

Normally with EMF WMF & EPS files the fault is at the Start/End of a shape. Xtreme highlights this Start point with the "9th Blob" so I just zoomed in on there and Bingo there it was!

How did you close the gap?

Sorry Tallis, I should have said earlier. I didn't use your wmf, I created a new xar file and used the elipise tool to create the ovals. So there are 2 ovals both with a stroke and no fill.

I cloned these two elipses.
Arrange / Combine Shapes / Add Shapes.
Send to back.
No Stroke. Applied a bitmap fill.
Feathered

So in total there are 3 shapes

[Tallis]

Thanks. So I guess, seeing as though you rebuilt it instead of joining the edges, that you really can't drag the edges closed?

I tried like the dickens and never got the plus sign. I tried removing nodes, to try to get one node that was by itself on the end, to then try to pull that over the other end... Is it because the shape is so "thick"? That's not really a good word as I was zoomed in to thousand whatnot percent, but I'm just getting my bearings still.

Your recreated shape was super, thank you. May I ask how you got the edges to by asymetrical, like calligraphy, thinker in some areas, thinner in others? When I draw an ellipse, the edge is all uniform all around.

[Egg Bramhill]

Tallis,

I could have corrected the wmf but it was just easier to draw a new image.

To create a non uniform stroke:

Draw the Elipse,
Select the Freehand tool
Go to the Stroke drop down
Select the desired stroke
Hit appply
You may need to increase the line width.

[-=Drifter=-]

Egg, it looks like each of your ellipses has two sets of strokes. How did you accomplish this? Did you just make two lines for each? I tried slicing my ellipse and that made a shape instead of a line.