Random Fillable Shapes

I work with people who have physical disabilities and one user drew 351 indiscriminate lines in the hope that he could eventually drop a variety of colours into these random shapes to create a mosaic of colours.

I had to explain to him that the way he worked would not produce any shapes that could be filled in :( .

Does anybody know of a way of producing random shapes in Xara that could then be filled in merely by dropping colours on it? Or is there a dedicated software program that can achieve what I am looking for on his behalf? :confused:

Thank you, DiscoverIT

well in principle you can do that in inkscape

I'll give it a go

Inkscape (FREE) will do the trick.
Saludos,
Bob.

Only just beat me Steve!
Saludos,
Bob.

:D - only because you did the verification first

Bob - did you use the 'fill bounded areas' tool for this?

Xara Can Do it! :D

Select all the lines.
Convert lines to Shapes
Add Shapes
Break Shapes
Remove the top shape that covers all
Select the individual shapes that remain
Left click a colour

See the Xara Xone Tips pages: http://www.xaraxone.com/html/tip_of_the_week_2.html

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for 'Big Frank's Instant Filled Shapes from Lines Tip'.

Eric

[Edit] Or since Bill is faster than me...just follow his directions as they are the same.[/Edit]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for finding the link to the tip.

I knew someone had shown how it was done ages ago, but my old memory could only recall the steps and not who to thank for them. :)

Any time Bill. I saw the tip again just a few days ago so it wasn't too much effort to search for it.

Eric

I tried that Bill - two things occur:

1 - if there are gaps in the lines it wont break fully into shapes

2 - if you remove the top shape you will remove the lines that separate the shapes [this may not matter]

@ ERIC - thanks I was thinking of that too - same applies as above I think - oh and I cannot get the steps as Frank states them to work - has anyone else?

Steve you are correct if you don't complete a line it cannot create a complete shape. But you knew that without saying. :)

Your step 2 is required to have the shapes beneath revealed. ;)

REGARDING FRANKS TIP:

I think the 'group lines' should be ' select all' and 'convert line to shape' - and in practice you may get away with leaving the 'convert line to shape' step out if all the lines are genuine lines and non are actually shapes

the neat idea of Franks of setting the line and fill color up front falls down here in the current xtreme, as you cannot set a fill color for a line any more, if you 'do' you are simply [re]setting the line color....:(

@BILL

I was comparing it to inkscape where it does not matter if there are [reasonably small] gaps - it will still fill - I think that might be useful here ;)

[you will also be tired of me asking why the heck xtreme does not have this feature when every other vector program worthy of the name on the planet has, from illustrator to serif draw plus]

I think you mis-understood my second point - yes you need to remove the top shape of course, but maybe leaving the lines in place is a requirement [but maybe not], that was all I was saying.... :)

This almost, almost works with the slice tool if you add the lines before hand but it always leaves a few cuts behind.

Anyhoo, I thought I'd have a go at this technique for a different effect and here's the results...

Very cool Sadler! I just played with it too...fun and easy. My stray lines looked like this to me:

I used to do this as a child, we called it "taking your pencil for a walk" Back then of course we used a pencil, paper and markers etc.

Clip veiw it, add a frame and voila! Modern art!:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Burpee

Very cool Sadler!

---

That is neeto!
Cool Burpee and Frances.

@ Steve J

I'm sure that you know this already, however I will point it out for people that are perhaps somewhat newer to the product. If keeping the lines is a requirement, you could always add a step of cloning (Ctrl+K) the lines and moving them off to the side (Shift+Arrow key a few times) so that after you finish the rest of the steps, you could move the lines back (Shift+Arrow key a few times in the opposite direction).

Or alternatively if you just want your new shapes to have an outline, you can always apply one once you have them as individual shapes.

Eric

Hi Eric

yes one way of doing it :)

I tend to copy the original lines to clipboard and then copy back in place after

your method is good if you need the clipboard meanwhile ..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bcire68

...you could always add a step of cloning (Ctrl+K) the lines and moving them off to the side (Shift+Arrow key a few times) so that after you finish the rest of the steps, you could move the lines back (Shift+Arrow key a few times in the opposite direction).
Eric

---

or copy the lines to the clipboard (Ctrl + C) then when you are done, paste them back in place (Shift + Ctrl + V).
Saludos,
Bob.
Edit: @ Steve - I made the mistake of opening a batch of unread posts in background tabs, going off to cook dinner and then replying to this one without refreshing! :o
B.

There are usually a few different ways of doing things in Xara...sometimes several.

Eric

Not quite random shapes, but open ...

Very cool John!

Thanks Larry :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bcire68

There are usually a few different ways of doing things in Xara...sometimes several.

Eric

---

yes it is a strong point of xtreme in many ways [:D] :)

@BOB - ah the dreaded refresh - happens to us all :eek: