The controversial eraser tool

[handrawn]

attached is a screenshot from sketchbook designer in vector mode

rather than an eraser as such it allows you to just jiggle the mouse along the length of the vector line and it varies in width organically [adding or subtracting]- note it is still a line and not a shape - this sort of organic sculpting is at least as useful as a true eraser and very very quick to do once you get the hang of it, it works a lot better than illustrator, more like the old pre Microsoft Expression3 brought up to date and a lot quicker than messing around with shapes and nodes for the organic stuff

[iamtheblues]

Here is a circle with a few strokes of the eraser tool in Serif DrawPlus X5. It was done in about 20 seconds.
To prove to myself this was still vector here is the full procedure I used.
Circle with linear fill with a tramline effect outline. Random shapes “erased” from the circle with Serif’s Eraser Tool.
Exported from Serif Drawplus X5 as an .svg file. Opened in Inkscape and exported as a .pdf file. Imported to XDP 7 as vector shapes.
The attached .xar file shows all shapes are still fully editable.
Would be a useful addition to Xara's toolbox, methinks. I cannot reproduce this with XDP 7's current tools...
...perhaps some of you may know otherwise?
Bob.

[Sheff]

I am in this hell right now. I'm working on an undersea project and I need to create sea weed. I am creating the leaves in illustrator and then turning them into strokes in Expression. It's the only way I can take an object and stretch it across the length of the path. If I were to do this using Xara manually, I would have to create a single leaf and then manipulate with a mould which is clumbsy and unpredictable.

I should add that I too am a huge proponent of an eraser. The lack of an eraser has driven me back to using Illustrator. As it stands, I create/erase in Illustrator and then cut and paste into Xara. This is far from efficient. The same goes for Expression. I have to export pdf from Expression then import into Xara because of Xara's limitations in their brush tool.

[jpalmer]

Its in drawplus X4 as well and works great

[David O'Neil]

Its in drawplus X4 as well and works great

<sarcasm - not at you> You must be mistaken! John has made it quite clear this feature is far too difficult to incorporate into vector programs. </end sarcasm>

[Rik]

...this feature is far too difficult to incorporate into vector programs.

<sarcasm> Too difficult for Xara? Surely not?! </sarcasm>

[handrawn]

John actually [as I read it] rather gave the impression that, yes it could be done, but it wasn't going to be in the foreseeable future - I would bet that is not because of difficulty so much as priorities and resource, it maybe that an implementation worth doing [for xara] would take a lot of work... which is not the same necessarily as 'difficult'

[Ricardo Almeida]

I 've tested it on Inkscape.

I like it.

[Ricardo Almeida]

I don't know if this has been posted... and I'm not sure if it makes sense.

An alternative to the eraser:



1- Use the Freehand and Brush Tool on the part you want to erase

2- Convert line to shape

3- Combine Shapes: Subtract Shapes

[iamtheblues]

Thinking outside the circle - neat idea!
The only problem is that this method only produces one shape, but with the Serif eraser the shape can be broken up into individual shapes for further editing.
Bob.