XPG6 Creating New Brushes and Colours

[RJP74]

When I create a new brush in Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 6 and then paint a line with it it paints in the original colours of the grouped object I used to create the brush. In Xara 6, it seems impossible to change the colour or to set a new default colour in the way that XARA 5 could.

I did discover that I could edit the brush settings and set the fill option to "All Brush Colours" then I can set the colour. However, the setting is not retained on SAVE and this process must be done for every line drawn - very tedious. The default seems to be "Named Brush colours" but using named brushes does not work either.

On the supplied default brushes in XARA 6 it is possible to set the colours easily. The problem occurs on new brushes created in XARA 6 where this does not work. If I create a brush in Xara 5 and import it into Xara 6 it works correctly. So it seems I need to have both Xara 5 and Xara 6 installed if I want to use brushes.

My question is this: So how does one create a new brush in Xara 6, use it, and easily give each instance a desired colour? Some help would be appreciated on how to do this.

After several hours experimenting I have come to the conclusion it is either not possible, not easy, or requires some techniwue I was unable to discover.

[itsfransie]

I already raised this problem here: http://talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=46091

Unfortunately, it's not considered a bug, but it's supposed to make GNOMRA work better. IMHO it doesn't, though, and turning off GNOMRA in the options doesn't help either.

Frans

[RJP74]

I think I have found out how to make new brushes correctly.

First, I found a video on Youtube on how to do this which describes a work flow a little differently from the Xara manual. Following his instructions, I suspect that not all colours were named in my group. It seems that every colour must have a name. Then it works. The work flow is create your shapes, use the color picker to set each colour as required and then name the colour and then repeat for the next colour until all done. I don't see why this is important as the colours seem to be totally ignored after the brush has been created and subsequently any colour, named or otherwise, can be applied.

Second, I think that the internal engine gets easily broken. I get a quite a lot of serious errors which get sent back to Xara (on average about one every half an hour of usage), and a whole bunch of errors which do not get sent back and I frequently get a message saying that Xara is unable to create bitmaps for brush stroking. (see attachment). This can occur when zoom is small (67%) and the graphic is a single circle and all I am trying to is click on the select tool. When I get this message it typically comes three times in a row. After getting this message everything "looks" ok but actually the brush engine no longer works correctly and a restart is needed. Any brushes created after these error messages do not work correctly and it is not possible to subsequently set the colours.

[handrawn]

I posted in Dear Xara about the 'unable to create bitmaps for brush stroking' here:

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=46289

its been around a while - could try using a larger width stroke, or reset the spacing, but I think its a bug:

try this:

close down all designer programs - open a new blank document - select marker custom brush - do NOT draw anything, just scroll the zoom right out and back

on my machine the message appears, without having actually made any strokes whatsoever....

[PixelDust]

Handrawn - Just tried your steps, and I didn't get an error. I used the mouse scroll wheel and Control key to zoom. This was in Designer Pro 6.

[Albacore]

I have been so busy for the last three weeks I haven't had a chance really to get to grips with the new version so I can't make a really informed reply here. To be honest I thought that what we got in XPro 5 in brushes was about 10 years out of date with other vector programmes but JokeArtist showed with a bit of work they were usable. Have a look at these two links: http://www.b3tards.com/v/10e06e336b5...0/brushset.jpg
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...hlight=brushes

The video one I found very helpful which is the 2 link.

[angelize]

To make a brush in XDP6 create your shape and then open the colour editor and create a named colour. Use this named colour for your brush shapes.(make sure you select your shapes and select the named colour as the fill) I usually name it brush or something like that. Once you have created your brush and edited the settings you should be able to change your brush colours by clicking the colours on the colourline. One thing to note though you have to deselect your last line drawn before you change colour if you don't want it changed. Its just a matter of hitting the esc. key before a colour change or if you are using a tablet tap on a blank area of your drawing or the pasteboard. I hope this helps.

[Xhris]

Hi,

I was contacted about this thread and I’ve attached a xar file explaining how brushes work now and what’s changed. Interestingly, no functionality has been lost in V6, and the only change is that the default setting “local colours replace” has been changed from “no brush colours” to “named brush colours”. This allows brushes to become much friendlier and usable by remembering line settings (such as colour etc.). However, the change means that you must understand how to design brushes so their colours can be changed. Take a look at the xar file for more help, and also section 3.1.3 of my brush tutorial on my website.

Xhris

[ss-kalm]

Xhris,

The brushes tutorial on your website gave this ..... It isn't too much help as it stands.

[Xhris]

True, I hope to re-jig this site eventually (it's not very good at the moment). I think that page says you can get the printable version from the menu. The site is quite a heavy time commitment; too much to do, too little time