Ideas for the future of the shape builder tool

[Squeaky]

possibly deliberate to flag selected object ?

Could be. Not at all distracting so I'm happy. I just need some time to play now :-)

[handrawn]

[Squeaky]

I'm pretty excited about this tool. I've done a tiny bit of playing to get a work flow going. Drawing an outline and then breaking the shape is a pretty handy work around for not having a fill tool. I just need work out some shortcuts

[handrawn]

what I particularly like is the ability to 'paint-in' fills - especially where the line art is [intentionally] 'wobbly' and there are [again intentional] gaps - I find it much more natural [and quicker] to 'paint-in' behind, and erase the odd overshoot, than to [IMO laboriously] hand trace and then shift the nodes around to make it fit - I guess it depends on whether you are a freehand artist or at least prepared to go that way

[Squeaky]

Agreed. For me hand drawing is the way forward for speed and also adding a little bit of an organic feel. Point by point tweaking is time consuming and seems to really aggravate my RSI :-)

I also noticed that there is a 'smooth region' short cut though I would love a smoothing pen as previously mentioned.

I'm really surprised not more is made of this tool on the new features page. It really is a major step forward for me.

[handrawn]

ah well.... there are three [at least] distinct camps - the 'technical' drawing types that need real point-to-point accuracy, and the website builders, and the freehanders... maybe the features page reflects the largest of these groups?

but I think that these tools can be used by all and Xara has done a great job in implementing them

EDIT: a voice over my shoulder says I left out the 'photo-manipulators'

[Nostaw]

I don't really like the paint tool for many reasons. It's destructive, the nodes and points are unpredictable and makes further editing of the shape a painful task.

A more non-destructive approach:
1Draw a line (brush of circles) > 2convert line to shapes > 3add shapes > 4increase shape size with outline tool using round profile > then 4decrease to "blur" the edging borders to create organic look.

Copy the line first and move it away as copy before converting line to shapes, this way you can make changes later on and repeat steps 2-4 to merge and blur the curve.

This way there's more control of the initial shape before blurring its edges. The resulting nodes and points are still too many and messy but still better if you need more control.

[amoore]

ah well.... there are three [at least] distinct camps - the 'technical' drawing types that need real point-to-point accuracy, and the website builders, and the freehanders... a voice over my shoulder says I left out the 'photo-manipulators'

Don't forget the 'clipart-manipulator' camp. (I'm sure I'm not alone.)