ellipse perspective bug?

[robagar]

hi all

Am I doing something wrong, or is the perspective mould broken for ellipses? These three shapes have pretty much the same mould applied, but the ellipse is just wrong

[Soquili]

Hi Robagar,

Welcome to Talkgraphics.

I get the same results as you, with the ellipse and the perspective mould. Using Xara X, X¹, and Xtreme I get the same results.

I thought that creating a bitmap copy of the ellipse, it may be similar to using a square; but that didn't work. I get the same effect as using an ellipse.

[robagar]

Welcome to Talkgraphics.

Thanks!

I get the same results as you, with the ellipse and the perspective mould. Using Xara X, X¹, and Xtreme I get the same results.

Glad it not just me. Do the Xara dev's watch this forum, or do you have to submit a bug? The support page of the website gives the impression that they don't particularly welcome bug reports...

[Soquili]

The owner of Xara Ltd. and some of the development staff visit the forum. There is also a bug reporting URL. I'll see if I can find and post it.

Found the email address instead of a URL.

Charles Moir:

This product is tested and should be reliable. However if you do find *serious* problems (like it crashing) please email xtreme@xara.com with the details of how to reproduce the problem. Please do not post bug reports here in this forum.

[robagar]

Wow, don't they realise how arrogant that sounds? I really want to use this program, but that kind of attitude makes me think twice about buying it!

Anyway, It seems that the problem is really that the perspective mould doesn't quite do what it says on the tin. It doesn't just transform the shape as if it was being viewed at an angle, but distorts it too. It can be corrected by moving the two upper control points down so that the trapezium is wider than it is tall.

Is it possible to select & move more than one control point at the same time?

[Soquili]

Hi Rob,

That quote from Charles is a bit out of context in this thread. The original was posted when the trial download was made available to the members of this forum to Beta test. Having a centralized place for bug reports is the logical alternative to trying to find them in the various posts here.

Hold the shift key down to select multiple nodes.

[amoore]

Hi Rob

Soquili's right. The quote from Charles is out of context here. At the time, they were trying to get the product out the door, and people were going on about smaller issues and wishlist items.

Rest assured that arrogance is not a quality that's typical of Charles nor any of the other Xara staff I've encountered.

It does turn up in the occasional Xara user , but around here we don't tolerate it for very long. The watchwords in the Xara community are "friendly" and "supportive", and Charles and Company are the ones who set that tone.

If you let that perception of arrogance turn you away from Xara, you'll be missing out on a great product and a great community.

[robagar]

Ah good. I've encountered (and worked for!) too many software companies that refuse to believe that their products could possibly have any bugs. Nowadays, the first thing I tend to look for when checking out new software is a public bug list - it's a good sign that they take support seriously.

Anyway, where's my credit card...?

[tonylondon]

hi all

Am I doing something wrong, or is the perspective mould broken for ellipses? These three shapes have pretty much the same mould applied, but the ellipse is just wrong

I believe you may not be setting up your perspective correctly. See my example which shows a chequer board, a bitmap circle and a vector circle superimposed.

They look OK to me. (Unless I'm missing the point)

There's a guest tutorial I did some time ago on the perspective mould tool - it may answer your question,

All the best,

Tony

[gwpriester]

The best way to create an ellipse or anything in perspective or Isometric projection is to create the material flat, then apply a Default Perspective envelope and snap the objects to the target shape.

Gary