Bug in grouped shapes and transparencies?

**David O'Neil** · 05 January 2009, 06:54 AM

I hope another update is soon in the works. In addition to the bugs still open that I've reported, I just found another one having to do with grouping objects. Ungrouping them doesn't do what you expect.

Create a circle. Give it a shadow. Group it and then give the group a linear transparency. Ungroup it, chosing 'Remove Effects.' The circle is mistakenly given a linear transparency. Making it worse is that getting rid of the transparency is difficult, if not impossible without stepping back to before removing the grouping.

I've even had objects simply disappear when trying to get them back into editable shape. And very few of the objects I've had this problem with were as simple as this example.

**steve.ledger** · 05 January 2009, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by David O'Neil

Create a circle. Give it a shadow. Group it and then give the group a linear transparency. Ungroup it, chosing 'Remove Effects.' The circle is mistakenly given a linear transparency. Making it worse is that getting rid of the transparency is difficult, if not impossible without stepping back to before removing the grouping.

Perhaps I'm missing a step David, but I cannot repeat the problem.
I'm also not certain what you mean by Ungroup it, chosing 'Remove Effects.'

This is how I interpreted your steps:
1: create a circle
2: apply a shadow (I chose 'wall shadow')
3: Group it
4: apply linear transparency
5: ungroup and all I loose is the linear transparency (expected). The wall shadow remains unless I remove it via the shadow tool (which I can). I don't see where the 'Remove Effects' part comes into this

**David O'Neil** · 05 January 2009, 07:26 AM

When I select 'Ungroup' I get the following popup box because the transparency is applied to the group as a whole. I select 'Remove Effects,' but that option doesn't remove the effects correctly.

**steve.ledger** · 05 January 2009, 08:20 AM

Hmm - I don't get that box, I don't ever recall seeing it actually. I have 'Make groups be transparent as a whole' set as my default.
If I uncheck 'Make groups be transparent as a whole' in Options, I still don't get any errors or see that dialog

I even set Xtreme Pro 4 back to defaults using XaReg and still don't see the box or have any issue. How odd.
You have the latest patch installed I assume?

Can anyone else recreate David's problem?

**zaphodeist** · 05 January 2009, 08:38 AM

Tried a couple of variations - eg different shadows - but couldn't replicate problem nor did I get pop-up.

**Fred C** · 05 January 2009, 02:20 PM

Using Xara Xtreme 4.0.1.5601 CD.

I also tried several variations:
1. 'Make groups be transparent as a whole', checked and unchecked.
2. 'New effects are locked by default', checked and unchecked.

I can't replicate the problem. No popup messages.

**David O'Neil** · 05 January 2009, 02:46 PM

If you don't receive the message, when you ungroup is the transparency applied to the individual items inside the group?

It appears that the 'Make groups be transparent as a whole' General Option is where the bug is. I had it enabled. But as suggested in the previous statement, with it disabled it doesn't make sense for Xtreme to apply the group transparency to the individual items inside the group when ungrouping. Logically, it should just throw away the group attribute. But it doesn't for me.

**David O'Neil** · 05 January 2009, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by Fred C

Using Xara Xtreme 4.0.1.5601 CD.

...1. 'Make groups be transparent as a whole', checked and unchecked.

I can't replicate the problem. No popup messages.

Hmmm. Maybe it's also related to the 'LastAttrAppliedBecomesCurrent' (in the registry Options->Attributes) being set to '1' on my machine? But unchecking the 'Make groups...' setting keeps the messagebox from opening, but has the transparency inappropriately applied after being ungrouped.

**Soquili** · 05 January 2009, 03:03 PM

David I tried all versions going back to Xara X¹ and cannot get the message you posted.

I have tried with and without the "Make Groups..." enabled on those versions that support it.

Ungrouping removes the transparency. The shadow remains.

In Xara X¹ the transparency remained but I was able to select None in the Transparency drop down to remove it.

**David O'Neil** · 05 January 2009, 04:05 PM

Odd. Since upgrading OS and reinstalling Xtreme I don't recall ever playing around with the registry, like I did before the upgrade. I can't see any custom changes in the registry, so I'm perplexed. Hopefully an employee can look into the code and see what conditions enable that messagebox. Or maybe our poking around will trigger one of us to figure it out. It is an annoying problem.