Eraser tool would be cool

**TDolce** · 23 January 2008, 06:13 PM

I think it would be great to have an eraser tool in the next XXP release! Anyone that creates art with a fast hand such as I, knows the value of a spontaneous eraser tool.

My lines cross over and therefore I have extra lines beyond the intersecting points.

In Photoshop (a raster app) you can go over the excess line with the eraser very quickly. BUT,...like I said it's a lossy raster app. Flash does this too, but the problem with Flash is that if you have a tapered line,...and you erase a portion of the line,..it recreates the tapered line again at the newest endpoint.

Xara has no erase tool at all unless you hold the shift key down while drawing the line and then go backwards on the line,...but that doesn't help at all....
And yes,..I'm aware that I can convert the line to a shape and then cut the points down to the desired spot,...but that's about as efficient as trying to photograph lightning with a point and shoot camera.

A fast and intuitive eraser tool would be awesome....

**handrawn** · 23 January 2008, 06:25 PM

yes it would be nice

so would being able to draw an unsmoothed freehand line with the option not to show the nodes

so would drawing a freehand line without any automatic joining whatsoever

so would drawing a freehand line with a touch sensitive brush tool that updated in real time

ah the joys of being a freehand artist with xara

**steve.ledger** · 23 January 2008, 06:33 PM

I'd also welcome this in XXPro's toolbox. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

CorelDrawX3 has a resizable eraser tool (pencil eraser icon - 'X' hot key). Works exactly the same way as a raster eraser.
Though I've yet to create anything useful in CorelDraw in the first place that needs partly erasing.

"Corel Help File on Erasing portions of objects :
CorelDRAW lets you erase unwanted portions of bitmaps and vector objects. Erasing automatically closes any affected paths and converts the object to curves. If you erase connecting lines, CorelDRAW creates subpaths rather than individual objects. "

**TDolce** · 23 January 2008, 06:41 PM

OK,..so I was dreaming.... a guy can dream can't he?

Strangely enough, Adobe Freehand (officially dead now) allows for this. It handles erasing beautifully,...and the line tool is great...too bad everything else was a pain in the butt!

**handrawn** · 23 January 2008, 06:48 PM

Hey it's a great dream!

yes I played with Freehand for a while in the pre-adobe days.

I also had a 15day trial for the current version of Corel Draw, [after having used Draw 8 on my old machine], long enough to decide life probably is too short....

Eraser in xara has come up before - I think it would be popular.

**ss-kalm** · 23 January 2008, 06:52 PM

It's hard to actually erase in a vector application since it keep the reference as mathematical points.

Autocad and some other Cad programs handle these functions with "trim" and "extend".

I always end up using slice and delete to remove unwanted items like that. What is the typically used method?

**steve.ledger** · 23 January 2008, 07:31 PM

Originally Posted by ss-kalm

It's hard to actually erase in a vector application since it keep the reference as mathematical points.

Isn't everything mathmatical on your PC? It's all zeros and ones after all.

'Erasing' would therefore be like 'subtraction' I would think?
Like 'Undo' is a 'subtractive action', interactive erasing must work like undo except that it would not be restricted to a chronological list of recent actions held in the 'undo buffer', rather it would work with the overall data that makes up the image you currently have opened in memory.
I really don't see how this would present too much of a challenge to impliment. Though I admit, I am out of my depth here...

'Bit mapping' must also be a mathmatical calculation, colourised pixels (and brightness values) on a grid rather than point to point (vectors). So here, erasing a raster would be re-mapping the grid.

**handrawn** · 23 January 2008, 07:31 PM

think your right Keith

for example:

**Soquili** · 23 January 2008, 08:14 PM

If you are using the Freehand and Brush Tool and have not released the mouse button at the end of the line. You can hold a Shift Key down and erase.

Attachement is from the Xara Xtreme help file.