Is the upgrade: Xara Designer Pro X v19 ==> v20 (perpetual) worth it ?

Hello

Has anyone here upgraded from Xara Designer Pro X v19 to v20 (perpetual)?

I have always rather loved XDP, however I only use it occasionally and almost never use it professionally, so A) I would only ever buy a Perpetual version, and B) even then financially speaking, spending the £120 for an upgrade definitely be 'an indulgence'!

MY USE
I have a 4K screen running Windows 10 x64. I use XDP for quick engineering-type sketch diagrams (using a lot of semi-transparency), partly just because I am used to it. I also do a bit of editing of random PDF files using XDP. For many years now one of the most irritating things to me about Xara is they way they have implemented arrow heads to terminate BEYOND the end of the line, but it seems like Xara will never fix that. Likewise, drawing circular radiuses on shapes remains almost impossible too for some reason, but I am assuming Xara won't implement that either.

Nonetheless there are one or two small bugs in v19 that are irritating. Also Xara (very) occasionally crashes. And PDF editing can be a bit flaky. And on a 4K screen the grid can be almost impossible to see!

If you have tried it, what do you make of v20?

J

I use Xara all the time for various work purposes. I don't have the same type of setup as you do with the 4k screen.

I went with the upgrade for one reason and that was to get the ability to export shapes for our company web sites to help speed them up. We have a large site and I want help with it's speed.

As far as the PDF file editing, I have not noticed a real big difference. I don't know what your issue you were having and if they are still present or not.

I too use Xara for engineering drawings because it is just quicker than CAD when I don't need real precise measurements. But like you, I understand that it is not designed to be a CAD program and will have some quirts.

I have not had any crash issue with either V19 or 20. I did find one difference and that is in V20 if I have the program open and I grab a file and drop it on the desktop icon it will not open the file. V19 would open the file in a new window. If V20 is closed and you drop the file on the icon it will open right up in a new window.

I have not had a chance to see how the live copy is working and use the new handles that Xara has implemented yet.

Ray

Ray

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shiphen

Hello
Has anyone here upgraded from Xara Designer Pro X v19 to v20 (perpetual)?
I have always rather loved XDP, however I only use it occasionally and almost never use it professionally, so A) I would only ever buy a Perpetual version, and B) even then financially speaking, spending the £120 for an upgrade definitely be 'an indulgence'!
MY USE
I have a 4K screen running Windows 10 x64. I use XDP for quick engineering-type sketch diagrams (using a lot of semi-transparency), partly just because I am used to it. I also do a bit of editing of random PDF files using XDP. For many years now one of the most irritating things to me about Xara is they way they have implemented arrow heads to terminate BEYOND the end of the line, but it seems like Xara will never fix that. Likewise, drawing circular radiuses on shapes remains almost impossible too for some reason, but I am assuming Xara won't implement that either.
Nonetheless there are one or two small bugs in v19 that are irritating. Also Xara (very) occasionally crashes. And PDF editing can be a bit flaky. And on a 4K screen the grid can be almost impossible to see!
If you have tried it, what do you make of v20? J

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shipen, so v20 is a cut-down version of Xara Pro+, omitting Web Blocks. The functionality is therefore the same in these areas.

Xara introduced Smart Lines well before v19 and these are end-to-end fixed length, apart from when the end is fletched.
Can you explain "drawing circular radiuses on shapes remains almost impossible too for some reason"? A radius is a straight length. Are you asking for the midpoint of a circle.
PDF will be better and I've never found it "flaky".
The UI is better and 4k presentation is, advisedly, useful.

I skipped v19 as I found Magix intrusive.

Acorn

there is at least one bug: https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...ug-stack-order

please note, that AFAIK whilst xara has announced this will be fixed in pro+, there is no confirmation that there will be bug fixes for perpetual 20

on my system, 4K 200% scaling, there have been crashes when using art brushes, but other members have not had this; you may not use art brushes [much]

it is probably worth it for the bundled content which acorn has mentioned, that I believe will at least partly provide a solution to the 'arrowheads', but I have not looked at this

'circular radius' - do you mean arcs of a circle with a given radius ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

'circular radius' - do you mean arcs of a circle with a given radius ?

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Apologies what I meant was the creation of what engineers call a "fillet".

i.e. Where you have a sharp corner where 2 straight lines meet and you want to round it with a simple curve that has specific radius.

e.g. This sort of thing:

Attachment 134426

Attachment 134427

ok got it

no tool to do that, but there are ways of doing it as you may be aware, that can be a bit involved

I agree.

The simplest way I know is to use the Erase tool at 100% round and set the diameter and scale the drawing.
Then touch on each vertex and drag out.

This splits the Line into segments where, with the Shape tool you pick the end of one segment and create a new node then drag the node onto the start of the next segment, rejoining the segments in this way until one Line again.

Very manual.

Acorn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acorn

I agree.

The simplest way I know is to use the Erase tool at 100% round and set the diameter and scale the drawing.
Then touch on each vertex and drag out.

This splits the Line into segments where, with the Shape tool you pick the end of one segment and create a new node then drag the node onto the start of the next segment, rejoining the segments in this way until one Line again.

Very manual.

Acorn

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TBH, I only half-understand that....
Either way one problem I have is the Eraser Tool diameter units always seem to be pixels not page units.

The other problem is that biting off a corner using either the Erase Tool or in fact using a circle of the desired diameter is that it tend to leave line segments behind at random/inconvenient places.

So what I end up doing is working with a square of the desired diameter and either adding it or cutting it off the shape in question. I then delete the unwanted line nodes and then dragging the resulting line by (roughly) it's middle to form some kind of fillet of roughly the desired radius.

Either way, yes VERY fiddly and manual. :(

J

Hopefully, someone will rise to the challenge.

Using a shape to nibble turns the line into a shape as well.
Any intersection results in a shape.

Try centring circles under each vertex.
Manually add nodes where the line crosses the circumference. Delete the original vertex. Bend the Line between the new nodes, adjusting the handles to touch the circle centre.

Accurate, slow and manual.

Attachment 134428

Acorn

I poked my memory and rediscovered this method:

• Select the Line.
• Switch to the Contour tool:
  
  • Outer contour, 48px, 1-step, round join.
  • Inset path.
  • Inner contour, same width, ...
  • Inset path.
  
  
• Break at points for all the sharp corners.
  
  • Delete these points.
  
  
• Some may be the actual Line so reattach to the curved corner.
• The Line ends may need attention as well.

Acorn

if xara alowed you to fully inset a shape outline, instead of it always being half-in half-out, I can see a way with circles; but as it is probanly not worth trying

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acorn

I poked my memory and rediscovered this method:

• Select the Line.
• Switch to the Contour tool:
  
  • Outer contour, 48px, 1-step, round join.
  • Inset path.
  • Inner contour, same width, ...
  • Inset path.
  
  
• Break at points for all the sharp corners.
  
  • Delete these points.
  
  
• Some may be the actual Line so reattach to the curved corner.
• The Line ends may need attention as well.

Acorn

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Yes, quite clever... !
However you end up with 2 lines - one doing the outer (convex) corners and the other doing the inner (concave) corners.
Also quite a lot of steps.


What I end up doing is:
1. drawing a circle of the required radius

2. moving into position

3. I then use it as a rough guide... to manually add nodes on the line where the circle crosses the line (using F4).

4. then deleting the corner node, so that you end up with a diagonal line

Attachment 134468

5. ...which can then be dragged by it's middle point to overlap the circle

This creates REASONABLE circular arc.

Attachment 134469

However, it always seems to undershoot the full circle, so IF I can be bothered I then:

6. add another node in the middle of the arc using F4 (so as to to lock the arc in place).

7. you can then change the nodes at the start of the arc from Cusp Join ==> Smooth Join, which helps smooth out the undershoot of the arc.

Attachment 134471
....
Attachment 134472

Definitely not perfect, but visually reasonable...

J


P.S. My real question though is couldn't we get Xara to add a tool that makes radiusing corners a trivial task?
I have submitting this request a number of times over the years...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

if xara alowed you to fully inset a shape outline, instead of it always being half-in half-out, I can see a way with circles; but as it is probanly not worth trying

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by shiphen

What I end up doing is....

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ah, more patience than I

I was thinking of a circle with required radius, no fill, and an outline of the required line weight - then position it so that it matched up at the right points on the line - break the circle outline so it was just an arc [removing the unwanted piece] - break the line and remove the unwanted piece - join up the arc and the line using ctr+J

problem is: the radius of the circle is mapped to the shape, ie the fill, and the circle outline sits halfway outside of the fill, so it is not precise...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shiphen

However you end up with 2 lines - one doing the outer (convex) corners and the other doing the inner (concave) corners.
Also quite a lot of steps.

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shipen, not quite. The Contour Out/Contour In manoeuvre produces a Shape.
If you have three vertices, after you select them all and Break at points you end up with 6 Lines.
This is a single operation and you actually combine it with an immediate Delete points and you have two overlapping Lines.
In Shape tool mode, you delete one of the overhangs and move the other to kiss the end of the other Line, re-joining into one.

The point of this exercise is to incentivise Xara into doing better.

As yet, I've not found a simple way to remove the fillets.

Acorn