Snapping to Grid

[Doug-O]

I'm having problems snapping objects to a grid and was wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if it's just the way Xara X works.

If I have snap to grid on and I draw a rectangle, circle, etc. the objects snap to grid exactly. By that I mean the center of the shapes outline is exactly centered with the grid. Now, if you stretch this shape the outside edge of the objects outline snaps to the grid, not the center. Do this to a rectangle and now some outlines have there centers on the grid and some have there outside edges on the grid.

Also since Xara can not draw arcs what I do is to draw a circle, convert to editable shapes, and break apart. Now you have four arcs. If you move the arcs they too no longer have the center of their outlines on grid. So if you draw a line on grid it does not line up with the arc. If you use snap to objects you can snap a line to the end of the arc. However, if you look at the result the arc does not match up perfectly with the line, there is a small pie shaped gap. It's almost like the arc is off a degree or so. Also a two point arc created this way does not appear to be the same width as a two point line.

Is this normal behavior for Xara?

Doug

[Doug-O]

I'm having problems snapping objects to a grid and was wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if it's just the way Xara X works.

If I have snap to grid on and I draw a rectangle, circle, etc. the objects snap to grid exactly. By that I mean the center of the shapes outline is exactly centered with the grid. Now, if you stretch this shape the outside edge of the objects outline snaps to the grid, not the center. Do this to a rectangle and now some outlines have there centers on the grid and some have there outside edges on the grid.

Also since Xara can not draw arcs what I do is to draw a circle, convert to editable shapes, and break apart. Now you have four arcs. If you move the arcs they too no longer have the center of their outlines on grid. So if you draw a line on grid it does not line up with the arc. If you use snap to objects you can snap a line to the end of the arc. However, if you look at the result the arc does not match up perfectly with the line, there is a small pie shaped gap. It's almost like the arc is off a degree or so. Also a two point arc created this way does not appear to be the same width as a two point line.

Is this normal behavior for Xara?

Doug

[Doug-O]

Well, 62 views of this post and no replies/help. Not even a reply from the mod-squad [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Would really help if I new if I'm doing something wrong or if in fact it is normal behavior for Xara X to act as I've described.

Doug

[jclements]

Doug, perhaps the forum members are unclear as to the problem. Can you diagram some small screen captures to illustrate your question?

Regards

[Erik Heyninck]

Doug, I posted practically the same problem way back in time (january?) and I still haven't found a solution.
Still, you can make an arc by first drawing two lines under a preset angle (see options) and then drawing your circle, snap to objects and drag the circle by its center to the point of the angle. Then you combine shapes and the part of the circle covered by the angle is gone.
When you drag an outline in Xara, the prog reacts by snapping to outline. When you drag a centre or angle, Xara snaps to that.

Hope this helps.

[Mickie]

I have to agree with John, more info about what you are trying to do would be helpful.

In the case of your line lining up with the arc, make sure your circle size is in whole pixels. Even using snap to grid you can end up with a 150.3 x 150.3 circle. In this case the line drawn with snap to grid won't match up with the end of the arc.

This server seems awfully slow today. This may be another reason you haven't had many responses.

Mickie

[Peter Clifton]

Doug-o

I'm relatively new to Xara X but I too noticed this behaviour.

Xara X appears to be outline centric with regards to snap to functions and grid alignment and scaling. Compared to say CorelDRAW which always locks to the centre of the outline.

Try the following, give all the objects you are trying to position, scale relative, no outline so they are invisible (or if a closed object, just the fill should show). Move the quality slider all the way to the left so that you are in wire frame mode, then try the operations you are attempting.

Does this help?

Peter

[Doug-O]

Thanks for the replies. I did try the suggestion to start with shapes with no outlines and work in wireframe mode. This seems to work. However, once you have assigned a width to your shape and move it your back to the same problem, outline of shape is not centered on grid.

I've attached a file to hopefully more clearly describe the problem. It's just amazing to me that Xara behaves this way. Makes it extremely difficult (impossible?) to draw on grid. A very basic function for a drawing package.

Just let me throw in that I find many of Xara's features simply amazing. Such as the beautiful anti-aliasing, transparency, bevel tool. I don't like node editing in Xara, creating basic shapes on grid, color palettes, create clipview does not work as well as Corel's PowerClip, no multiple pages. Sorry, don't want to get into a Xara vs Corel thing. I was just hoping I could use Xara for all my work with vector graphics. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case.

I guess I'll just use CorelDRAW for creating basic outlines and shapes and use Xara for rendering.

Regards,

Doug

[Luciano]

Since I use Xara for architectural drawings almost everyday, I suggest you to disable the "scale line widths" option.
Objects will align correctly and size will be measured on the middle of outlines.

Luciano

[Doug-O]

Luciano,

That's it. Thanks for pointing this out for me. I'm sure this should help a lot of folks using Xara. I've attached the Xara help regarding this.

Doug-O