Xara simultaneously building out vector and bitmap in v6

[MarkMyWords]

To be honest, if every vector program were as fast as Xaras, I would see little real need for bitmap software. I have said before that Xtreme could well have been the program to make bitmap editors almost redundant, because of it's vector speed.

Unfortunately they don't follow my corporate advice and tend to do what they want instead. Hard to believe, I know, but they seem to be doing okay.

[highfrontier]

Like many others, I also switch in and out of 2d, 3d, vector, raster.. and necessarily, the lines between them are blurring. The first company to offer a true and capable hybrid vector/raster should do very well in future.. this is a holy grail that not just Xara is going after :
Alias Sketch (not sketchbook pro) is a new product that has a long way to go but is offering something similar, though closer to raster than vector and just not up to production work IMHO. Xara are coming at it from the vector end and doing better, again IMHO.
The twin product workflow Adobe solution just doesn't work for me.
I think Xara are going in the right direction (web aside) ;-)

[Markku]

Like many others, I also switch in and out of 2d, 3d, vector, raster.. and necessarily, the lines between them are blurring. The first company to offer a true and capable hybrid vector/raster should do very well in future.. this is a holy grail that not just Xara is going after :
Alias Sketch (not sketchbook pro) is a new product that has a long way to go but is offering something similar, though closer to raster than vector and just not up to production work IMHO. Xara are coming at it from the vector end and doing better, again IMHO.
The twin product workflow Adobe solution just doesn't work for me.
I think Xara are going in the right direction (web aside) ;-)

Thanks for the Alias Sketch tip. That is one amazing looking drawing app! The bitmap/vector integration seems truly fluid and being a 3D house they've actually borrowed some tricks from 3D like real time mirroring.

The new Xara apps are great and the staff should take a much earned vacation. While on vacation I would suggest a summer camp where they would study a number of 3D apps and benchmark if there are any features in those 3D apps that Xara could implement in order to meet demands for new drawing features. I bet they would find plenty.