Brush Stroking for the Masses

[lucx]

They say it is disabled for this beta, but when you run out of new features to play with, you can experiment with brush strokes.

To do so, open the Xara X installer in WinZip, or extract the contents of the installer. Look for a file called “Default brushes�. I’m using the installer that I downloaded from the Xara site, I don’t know if the one for i-us is identicle.

Open “Default brushes� and you’ll find a bunch stroked lines. Right click on one of the strokes and choose “Edit the properties of the selected brush� from the pop-up menu. Up comes the Edit Brush dialog which you can experiment with all you want. I don’t have a pressure-sensitive pen, so I don’t know if the pressure settings will work or make Xara X crash and burn.

If you switch to the Freehand & Brush tool, then right click on a stroke, you can select “Use this brush to draw with�. You can draw with that brush all you want, even in a separate document. As I’ve mentioned, I don’t know whether pressure-sensitivity works or not.

Creating and editing brushes in still inaccessible. There is a reason that Xara wanted this feature disabled, so I wouldn’t go complaining to them if it doesn’t work right, corrupts your file, or if it causes your computer to go up in smoke.

Happy playing.

[lucx]

They say it is disabled for this beta, but when you run out of new features to play with, you can experiment with brush strokes.

To do so, open the Xara X installer in WinZip, or extract the contents of the installer. Look for a file called “Default brushes�. I’m using the installer that I downloaded from the Xara site, I don’t know if the one for i-us is identicle.

Open “Default brushes� and you’ll find a bunch stroked lines. Right click on one of the strokes and choose “Edit the properties of the selected brush� from the pop-up menu. Up comes the Edit Brush dialog which you can experiment with all you want. I don’t have a pressure-sensitive pen, so I don’t know if the pressure settings will work or make Xara X crash and burn.

If you switch to the Freehand & Brush tool, then right click on a stroke, you can select “Use this brush to draw with�. You can draw with that brush all you want, even in a separate document. As I’ve mentioned, I don’t know whether pressure-sensitivity works or not.

Creating and editing brushes in still inaccessible. There is a reason that Xara wanted this feature disabled, so I wouldn’t go complaining to them if it doesn’t work right, corrupts your file, or if it causes your computer to go up in smoke.

Happy playing.

[Michael]

Got back this morning after moving and rebuilding parts of our new home just to find that:

a/ Xara had only released a Beta ... (which, in MS speak and manner will be followed by a Preview and PreRelease, sigh ...)

b/ SVG export is missing.

c/ Pressure sensitivity is a no-no. At least your posting brought some sunshine around here and I will try to test it tomorrow on a PC with Wacom.

All in all, I'm not very enthousiastic about X. I've had serious lock-ups, crashes and no-responsiviness. Sure, there's a major overhaul of the interface, but some of the quirks still exist and the main improvements I was expecting (wacom support and SVG export) is not there! And that all in a product which should have been ready for market by now. How much longer can we wait

[amoore]

I guess it depends on how you define major. Flat buttons don't qualify as "a major overhaul" in my book.

I haven't had time to investigate the profiles yet. Perhaps they count as the overhaul? Although, if they don't stay open...

[Nathan Heagy]

No need to expand the installer - the file is also in Xara X/templates/brushes

Also, here is a cool new feature: gifs (and possible more) show up with previews in the open dialog box. I've wanted that for a long time.


Nathan Heagy
<HR>
Blow Your Beef Away
Cow Comics!

[Artworks]

Tried the above as suggested - It works.
Also tried the pressure sensitive Wacom Artpad - It works brilliantly - (an original pressure sensitive tablet purchased from Computer Concepts for use on my Acorn - which is now working on my PC with XaraX - that's reuse for you!).

[diniel]

I saw that the preview box showed GIFs - this is very useful when exporting an image for a webpage that will replace an existing image, the preview gives some visual feedback and reassurance that you're overwriting the correct file.

I was nicely suprised with the bitmap fills too - instead of the fill being of "bitmap1" or "myimage.jpg", there is actually a thumbnail of all of the images, very handy when there are lots of bitmaps in a document when you want to make a bitmap fill.

Nice touch.

[adil.h]

The File..Open dialog still doesn't show preview images of *.web files (as indeed it didn't in CorelXara and Xara Webster 2). I have lots of *.web files. In the File..Open dialog, I usually resort to a right-click on the .web file and then choose Quickview from the pop-up menu. A preview feature that worked would be much easier. I imagine this isn't a top priority for Xara right now, but I still hope they manage to fix this before the final release.

Regards
Adil

[Sean Sedwards]

CorelXARA does show a preview of .web files so long as there is one to see! If you checked the Remove preview bitmap option when you saved the file, Xara can not display one. Creating a preview on-the-fly would be too time consuming.

Regards - Sean

[adil.h]

Sean, you're right! Webster shows the preview if the remove preview option isn't ticked/checked. After using the program all this time, I've only noticed now!! You learn something new everyday. Time to go away and eat some humble pie.

Regards
Adil