Back again - just wanted to thank everyone, plus ask about erasers

[Big Frank]

i have absolutely no use for an eraser tool, but having said that it's a long-standing sore point with a lot of xarans and a lot of people who come to xara from other, lesser graphics apps that xara doesn't have an eraser tool and even though i wouldn't use it, i think we should really have one. who knows, even i might find it useful!

come on, xara towers, let's have an eraser tool for the drawing and sketching community

[Soquili]

Just a guess on my part and seeing as this question has been brought up many times over the past decade or more. If it were a simple change to the core application it would already have been implemented.

[mwenz]

There's (at the least) two parts to any programming change. It begins first with seeing the advantage or need to make the change. Then it is a matter of incorporation.

I would hazard a guess it is more the lack of seeing the need and or being a lower priority than the features that have been incorporated over the last several versions.

Take care, Mike

A little too large to upload to the forum...only about 560k but slower connections beware.

http://www.wenzloffandsons.com/temp/dp-erase1.avi

[rpc9943]

perhaps implementing a "line that cuts through any object below" that draws the same color as the page BG and then commits, then auto-convert-line-to-shape, selecting-all-objects-beneath-the-line, group-all-objects-beneath-the-line, then boolean-subtract-lineshape-from-group, ungroup..............

It would be a quick workaround to calm the users until a better mode

[Big Frank]

http://www.wenzloffandsons.com/temp/dp-erase1.avi

yes, it would be great to have an eraser with that functionality - i can actually see me using that now that i see the beast in action

thanks for posting that

(p.s. with camstudio and other tools you can convert avi to swf, smaller file and streams on the page)

[handrawn]

thanks Mike

very useful for 'sculpting shapes' very quickly

[angelize]

Actually the availability is nearly there, you can nearly do what you see in Mike's video already. draw freehand over any vector shape with your freehand drawing selected ctrl+X to cut to clipboard then right click on shape and paste Opacity Mask. What would be better would be if an OM could be made into a brush, then not only would you have the much desired eraser, but you would be able to customize it as well by applying a circular transparency or feathering to your OM shape you could control the hardness/softness of your eraser brush. Sadly it doesn't work (yes I tried it) Perhaps this is something that Xara might want to look at in future versions.

[handrawn]

Actually the availability is nearly there, you can nearly do what you see in Mike's video already

interesting idea Frances - but sadly I have to disagree

I don't see any difference between the result of an opacity mask and the result of boolean subtract - except that it works with a line directly so you can miss out the 'convert line to shape' step, which as they say is at least better than a poke in the eye

it probably doesn't work in a brush because you are not actually 'painting transparency', it's not an entity in itself that you could make a brush out of

[haakoo]

Drawplus has an eraser and pdf export to load into XDP
Artrage is indeed a nice scribble/pencil tool and with drawplus autotrace function conversion to vector great to use too

But to have a time saver,having inkscape is a must,it has an eraser and supports metafile copy/pasting
It supports metafile from IS>DPx5 DPx5>IS | XDP>IS IS>XDP | DPx5>XDP but not XDP>DPx5 ??
(it has a paste special feature with an option for enhanced metafile but it doesn't recognize the file on the clipboard,so it is stuck as a png without transparency)

Hans