X4 'Panacea' Or 'Pan Of Something Else' Poll?

[The Alien]

Isn't the photo tool just the same thing as the XPE, only better integrated? Its really just an improvement to an existing tool. The photo-stitching is also just a part of it, so its two improvements to an existing tool.

No?

The flaw in your assumption here is that you think I use all the features of Xara. I don't come close but, as I illustrated earlier, I don't whinge and whine because every new feature isn't something that I am going to use every day. It seems that it is other people here who feel that they should be the sole focus of all new features that I was responding to.

- Neither do I. I just give constructive criticism about the program and express my personal opinion where you go out on what looks like a crusade and start criticizing others for what they think of the software and saying that they're narrow-minded because they don't share your opinions
- I always try to express my own opinion without forcing others to agree with me (again, note that I'm speaking for myself and not for others here). If you've read differently, then please post the parts you're referring to and I'll apologise for it and correct them.

No, clearly it only revolves around people who agree with you. Why is my input any less valid that anyone else's? I'm just putting my case forward, like everyone else.

Sorry, but now you're really trying to twist what I said :S When did I say that everyone has to agree with me?
Read what I said above: I give my own opinion and do not criticize others unless they're not being constructive. If others disagree with me, I'm cool with that as long as what they're saying is within limits. If you think Xara is great, that's fine. If there's a user here who loaths it after having tried it, then that's fine too by me. I'm not gonna engage them and say they should think otherwise. Have you noticed the difference between my method and yours by now?
I don't impose my opinion on others

No, that is you being narrow-minded. I see what is there and find ways to use it. You know the old saying - "when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade". What I'm suggesting is that there is plenty to like about this upgrade if you bother to take off the blinkers and look at the bigger picture. Moreover, it is not just Xara who benefits from a broader focus, but everyone who uses the product.

I agree that most people will benefit from this upgrade. Would that be a reason not to give any criticism on the software?
I also see what kind of features the upgrade offers and for some I see great uses while for others I see no use. One reason is that I mostly do vector work, and hardly any photo-manipulation. I accept that to others, the photo editing tools (and all the other stuff I don't use) are useful. However, in expressing my own personal opinion, I say that I would like to see Xara concentrating a bit more on vector tools in future versions.

[BONES]

I mainly use Xara for computer program artwork - current fashions are for carefully shaded perspective-correct little pictures - there could be so much more help from the tools in drawing this sort of stuff in terms of getting the geometry right.

I use it a lot for GUI work for software synthesiser plugins I build. They also require a certain level of precision, mostly for my own aesthetic reasons but none-the-less, and I find the currently available tools more than adequate. As I said, I've seen all that inferencing stuff in CorelDraw but never took the time to work out how to use it. Even in 3DS Max, I usually line things up by eye or by grid-snapping. The other surface snaps and stuff are things I'm perfectly comfortable without.
Mostly I use nudging to keep everything lined up and consistent. With Xara's speed it is amazingly effective and makes alignment tools largely redundant. If you are working with oblique angles, you might find using angle snap very handy - you can rotate an object so that you can align something to it horizontally or vertically, then rotate it back. I have mine set to 5 degrees and make sure I always use it from the start, whenever I rotate anything.

[mikalele]

yeah, and you can always draw lines to find out the angle. But this is not very comfortable in my opinion and it would be much better to have a second reference point for rotations.

Better Snaps are my most wanted feature.

[willdean]

The problem with drawing in perspective is that every angle is different, which makes some of the more obvious workarounds less useful than they would be with some more simple 'oblique' approach.

But I wasn't arguing that Xara isn't 'adequate', I originally took exception to the claim (I can't even remember who made it) that there was nothing left to add to the basic drawing functionality, and the poster knew that because he used lots of other tools.

My point is just that there are lots and lots of other packages for drawing which give you much more help with snapping and alignment than Xara currently does.

Whether any one person wants to use them or not is a completely different subject, but I suspect from the fact that they're so much better in so many other packages is a bit of a hint that there is value to them.

When I see how cleverly implemented and deeply thought-out things like transparency, fills and blends are in Xara, it just makes me wish that the same brilliance could be employed to let me snap to the intersection of two lines, or get scaleable arrow-heads at the end of lines.

When I'm wrestling with the bits of Xara which are still weak, I don't want to let go unchallenged the claim that there's nothing left to improve.

[ss-kalm]

If you want to see how snaps should work, you need to look no further than AutoCad - They turn on or off and can snap to pretty much anything you require. I find that when I need to do a drawing that requires lines snap to certain places, I put it together in AutoCad and import it into Xara as a PDF to finish it off. It would be preferable not to step out of Xara in the first place.

Since my work seems to alway seems to be more technical than artistic, I too would like to comment upon the generally poor implementation of arrowheads. The point of the arrow should without doubt be on the end of the line!

[Ross Macintosh]

When I see how cleverly implemented and deeply thought-out things like transparency, fills and blends are in Xara, it just makes me wish that the same brilliance could be employed to let me snap to the intersection of two lines, or get scaleable arrow-heads at the end of lines.

Well said! I've always admired that when Xara has added a feature it typically seems very well thought through. The respect the Xara development team have for keeping the product intuitive is a fantastic thing. If there should ever be more comprehensive 'snaps' or inferencing added to Xtreme I trust Charles & team will think it through and make something great. [Hopefully Charles will try SketchUp and study how inferencing helps make it a special tool].

Regards, Ross

[BONES]

If you want to see how snaps should work, you need to look no further than AutoCad

That's a very specialised tool and if I wanted to do serious CAD drawings, I wouldn't be using Xara. I also don't see that it is the appropriate tool for perspective drawing, either. Autodesk have built a multi-billion dollar company off AutoCAD, do you have any idea how many developers they have and kind of resources available to them to do this stuff? Hell, they even employ me full-time to show off some of their products. I also think its a bit much to expect anyone to give you those kinds of features in an application costing a tiny fraction of the cost of AutoCAD.
It seems to me that some users want Xara to become something that it is not, whilst the development focuses on making it better at what it is. To my mind, this makes a lot more sense. I've said before that I'd love to have all of Xara's cool stuff in a time-line driven animation package but it would be arrogant of me to suggest that they should take it in that direction. Similarly, I don't see that others have a right to be so negative about the the fact that Xara is not heading in a direction that suits them. I mean, its one thing to make suggestions about features but the tone of this particular thread is, in my view, way over the top.
I spend a couple of hours a day, on average, using Xara. Over the years, I've made a few suggestions and reported a few problems but overall, I've sat back and let the people who run the business do their thing and the results have been spectacular. Xara gets stronger and stronger with each new release but some the attitudes expressed here would have you believe that it is teetering on the edge of oblivion. Do you stop to think how damaging such over-the-top behaviour might be? e.g. If I was someone who had seen something about a new version of Xara and came here to see if it was something I might like to buy, the overall impression would be that I should run in the opposite direction. You really need to read posts carefully to find the little admissions that it is still good but it could be better. In fact, I'm glad I pressed the "BUY" button before I came here to see how long ago v4 was released or I might have thought twice myself.

[mikalele]

I fail to see how improved snaps would make Xara another AutoCad clone.

[ss-kalm]

Bones, I never suggested that Xara become Autocad. If I need CAD I use AutoCad. Just that snapping lines together in AutoCad works fantastically. Xara does have some drawbacks in that area, and parts of this discussion had mentioned snaps. I merely mentioned it as an example of how various snaps can work. Again as you yourself said, everyone uses Xara differently - if the snap feature can be turned on or off (as AutoCads can) then you can use it for accurate positioning or not as you require. It has also been mentioned (in much older threads) that Xara's alignment tool needs some enhancements. A detailed snap system would enhance this positioning too.

I have no problems with Xara just as it is .... if it never changes from now, or it becomes too expensive for me to justify purchasing it, then as it stands it will do me fine. However, I suspect that it will probably move forward and this was just a suggestion for future development.

[MarciaB]

This upgrade opens up more opportunities for me as a full-time, professional designer than any previous upgrade [and that's a lot because I started at version 2.0]. I looked at the list of incredible new features and was amazed at how quickly they had turned all this stuff around after 3.2. I fully expected teh upgrade to cost $99 and was completely blown away that they were offering all this cool stuff for half that! Why anyone who uses this application to earn even a fraction of their income would hesitate for even a second is completely beyond me.

I totally agree ! Just be happy with this exciting new release and have a little faith that Charles & co will improve the program in future releases. I think we don't have to wait for a long time considering the short period between 3.2 and 4 releases