I though that Xara would have this by now!

[PixelOz]

One thing that surprised me not to find in Xara Xtreme in the new version was something similar to CoreDraw's Dynamic Guides or Illustrator's Smart Guides. I'm a user of CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator and other vector software with many years of experience and I know that for regular artistic drawing that is more "loose" or "irregular" many of these programs offer more than enough features to get the job done but when it comes to technical type drawings or logos, modern artwork that has more straight lines or is more angular and regular or for more regular shapes in general Dynamic Guides or Smart Guides (they both work very, very similar) are incredible time savers, after working with them I realized that I didn't want to work without them.

This is one thing that I was hoping would be included in this version of Xara but it wasn't, to it's credit the Xara people improved the snapping functions of Xara and that is definitely a step in the right direction but this doesn't compare to Dynamic Guides or SmartGuides, trust me on that one.

If you want to draw things like in Isometric view (and there is a lot of modern artwork that uses it and not just technical drawings) those tools make your life a whole lot easier and they are terrific to rearrange polygons or group of polygons in 3D paper models creation. I use that feature of CorelDraw X3 in particular with Blender's unfold script and together they have synergy, it's just terrific. I really think that it not only should be included in Xara, this should become a standard tool in Illustration programs.

One of the coolest features about these type of tool is the way that they sort of "remember" a second vertex or segment once the cursor passes over it and then "projects" that so you can find the point were it intersects with the previous vertex or segment that you brought the cursor from in the first place. That's why I think that Adobe called it Smart Guides. Maybe you could put this in Xara and call it Intelligent Guides or something similar.

Many CAD software already offer similar features and you might argue that some CAD features are for CAD design but I'm not talking about including all the features of CAD software in an illustration program because that would probably make the program too complex for illustration, just a few but at least this feature because like I said it works for just more than technical drawings, it does have many uses in the artistic area and a few technical drawing features don't hurt if you need to do some type of artwork related to this and as an artist I have found myself in several occasions doing that in Illustration programs precisely. It just make one single tool that does a lot, one that is very flexible.

Don't get me wrong, if you think that I wrote all this as Xara bashing that is not the case and by far because it happens that I appreciate any good piece of well created software and I like Xara a lot, why? What's not to like would be a better question. I think that Xara has already become one of the best illustration programs out there and to be honest I think it has truly the potential to be the very best, period. Xara only needs a few features to be just that and in many things it's already better than most starting with it's incredible performance (it is the fastest of the bunch, no questions) but it has many features that I think makes it a terrific illustration program, perhaps too many to name.

I write this because I have observed Xara's history closely (I have been using computers since I was a young teenager around the early eighties) and I do know that Xara has been a pioneer in some features that many people think started in other Illustration programs but that I know really started in Xara first. Being the pioneers that the Xara software people have been I expected them to have included something like Smart Guides in Xara Xtreme by now. Common Xara people, I know that you definitely have the capability to add this feature to your program and maybe make it even better than the other guys, your software is already pulling ahead in some features, make Xara stand out from the rest, you can.

You have a terrific piece of software in your hands, make it even better. Keep up the good work, your software it's definitely going in the right direction.

[Albacore]

I use AI on a daily basis and yes Smart Guides can be a help but also a hindrance and mostly they are off when I am trying get get a drawing started. Xara is being marketed as a do everything application which does all tasks easily and quickly so a clean interface is important. To get back on to your topic I must admit I don't miss the Smart Guides which has been used in AI since the introduction of CS. When I have a simple isometric drawing to do in both applications I would set up the "angle of constraint" and yes in AI I would have the Smart Guides on but in Xara I would just hold down "Ctrl" to constrain the angle which is nice a simple to use.

[PixelOz]

The Smart Guides in AI can be turned on and off easily with a keystroke, same in CorelDraw which is precisely what I do, I switch it on and off all the time easily depending on what I'm doing if you do not like it you just don't turn it on ever and that's it. Some people do not like it at all but many swear by it on some types of jobs like me, the thing is that it's an available choice for those that do like it. Also you can constrain the angle to an Isometric angle in Xara and that is very useful make no mistake but you can't "memorize" points and segments to find intersection points and Smart Guides and Dynamic Guides allow that either at regular angles, isometric angles or at any specified angle when you specify the angle of constrain. I would definitely like to see a Xara version 5.5 or 6 with this feature but with the ability to turn it on and off easily with a keystroke, an icon or menu selection (in Corel you have all three if you put a custom Dynamic Guides icon in a custom toolbar which I did), at least it should be in the menus and as a keystroke. This is the only one thing that has kept me from buying Xara, I like the software a lot.

Yes you can constrain rotate in Xara and in many other illustration programs but is there a way to snap rotate one edge to another edge? I couldn't find a way to do it. For example: lets say that you snap one node of an object to another and then you snap the pivot point (center of rotation) to that same node and then you grab the edge of that object (or a group of objects) and snap it to the edge of the other object (or a group of objects) while rotating it on that same pivot point. I tried that in Xara and I couldn't do it because I couldn't grab the object by the edge while rotating, I could only rotate it by the rotation handles or is there a way to do this? I'm not an expert in Xara though I have used it in the open source version and also in the latest demo to test drive it. With those tools I could do it in Ai and Corel, any way to do this in Xara?

[MarkMyWords]

I would not expect anything "revolutionary" from Xara. Apparently they do not have the resources to make huge changes to the software. New tools are few and far between, that does not take anything away from the excellent program that Xtreme is, it is just something we must come to terms with as users.

[spline]

Did you know that you can create guides from any object or line on the guides layer?

[jnerf]

Will Xara ever be true 64 bit code, to take advantage of larger memory?
I find it annoying to have to walk on eggshells, using the current version of Xtreme
trying to work on a design, sometimes you forget to save every 5 minutes
one wrong move, then Exception error at whatever, and you lose your whole
project you started, which happened today,this is really dumb and should not happen that often
but unfortunantely it does, especially designing large format graphics
that contain bitmap photos and textures,
exception error from xara then crash!!, agggh!, frustrating.

I really hope the Xara team on their next version if there is one
fixes these annoying short comings with this software.

[Soquili]

I'm not a Xara employee so the following is simply conjecture on my part. Although the Assembly language part is confirmed by Xara documentation.

Most of the speed we enjoy from Xara software is due to the core being written in Assembly language. I'm not sure what would be required to update Assembly code from a 32bit environment to a 64bit environment. A completely new assembler would be the first thing needed, if one is available.

Most 64bit code is written in C++. I haven't even heard of many people writing code in Assembly language for a couple of decades.

[gwpriester]

Just out of curiousity, why are you using Xtreme? There are obviously programs out there that are so much better.

[cursor]

... better programs than Xtreme? ... for certain specific task sets, perhaps.

[jnerf]

If Xara had a flatten layers button like PS
we could break the 16000 pixel limitation,
by flatteing the layer, then using slice and cut
then exporting each slice out for panel printing
we could overcome a dpi issue, along with the pixel size limitation.

Having to export out to tiff, above the 16000 pixel limitation
usually results in a failed attempt, so if this is a limitation with Xara
why not a work around like I have suggested.