"In place" editing of more than one object - how complex is simple !!?

As my question is hard to explain, I would like to give an example.

Suppose you have 5 rectangles on the screen. Select all of them and apply eg. a rotation of 10 degrees. Now the computer treats all 5 rectangles as a group and rotates THIS WHOLE GROUP OF 5 rectangles TOGETHER around their common center of rotation.
What i also wouuld like to achieve is i sould also be able to rotate each of the rectangles AT THEIR OWN PLACE, not around the collective center.

Got it? Simple, but tricky!!! You face the same dilemma on several other occasions, you know.
If anyone knows how to do it, please advice!!!

With the 5 rectangles selected, go into the Rectangle tool, change the drop down on the InfoBar to Rotation and enter an angle in the editable field. Note, this only works if all the rectangles are at the same angle. If they aren't then the angle field will say Many, and changing the value will set an explicit angle for each one rather than adjusting each one's current angle.

Gerry

EDIT - thanks Gerry, that's something I will need to look at myself

So, simple but complex right ;).
I can start many questions now beginning with "what if..."
Are the other drawing tools have the same drawback!

interesting - those quick shape options are something I rarely use

Hmm, mnahit. Sounds like you might be expecting Xara to be a mind reader. ;) Suppose the function worked the other way around, but what you wanted to do was rotate as a group without actually grouping the rectangles...

Welcome to the forum, BTW. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mnahit

Are the other drawing tools have the same drawback!

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sorry not sure what you mean by this :confused:

Hi, another method would be to use live copies; Ctrl+click one instance, rotate it and the rest will follow from their respective center.

Marc

in the brand new version 7 - very true :D

non of which gets away from the fact that in the general case for dissimilar objects you [AFAIK] cannot do it in xara - [the rectangles being just an example I think]

Thanks Gerry, I do not think I ever knew that was possible.

No problem, Bill. There was also this fairly recent thread about resizing multiple circles keeping their positions which uses the same principle...

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...ge-of-position

Gerry

I appreciate the information Gerry, I'm learning many new things today. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by amoore

Hmm, mnahit. Sounds like you might be expecting Xara to be a mind reader. ;) Suppose the function worked the other way around, but what you wanted to do was rotate as a group without actually grouping the rectangles...

Welcome to the forum, BTW. :)

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I just multi-select individual objects. Why xara behave like they are grouped? Please try to skew (shear) 3 distinct text objects at once. Xara gives the result as if i've groped them just before skewing! This is nonesense!

"Hoş bulduk" BTW.

I have to disagree with this and think that you calling it nonsense, even if English is not your native language, will not endear you to many people on these forums. You are applying the transformation to the whole of the selection as the 8 selection blobs around the whole of the selection indicate so the behaviour makes perfect sense. Allowing transformations to apply to the individual objects in the selection separately would require considerable changes and would have various difficulties for the UI: each object in the selection would need its own 8 selection blobs; rotation would either need a separate rotation origin for each object or to disable the changing of the rotation origin etc. If there were a large number of objects selected then the selection blobs would be very confusing and even with a small number of objects these blobs could end up on top of each other.

Gerry

As far as i know, 8 blobs indicate the "extent" of the selection. Xara not only uses these blobs to show a selection. Please also be aware of the single points to the top left corners of any selected object.
Maybe this topic will lead to an "intermediate selection" or modification scheme?
Xara can put the same toggle "distinct" button next to Show selection bounds - Show object edit handles - Show fill edit handles and Show rotation handles for this scenario to take effect without delving into blobs etc.

xara does not do multiple selections

a selection is just that - one selection

even when you have added lots of objects to it, it is just one selection

and that is why it acts as one when you rotate or skew it

please be polite - I see you understand perfectly well what the word 'endear' means, so your English cannot be that bad

thank you for editing your post ;)

Ok. A conservative developer and a supporter moderator! I thought i would bring some idea to Xara lovers.

The 8 blobs don't just indicate the extent of the selection, they are also used to control the transformation that is applied when you drag with the mouse. I am fully aware of the single blobs indicating selected objects, if you look just below my name you will see why. It is possible that this topic might lead to a per-object transform feature at some point in the future but I think it is unlikely as the matter has been raised several times over the last 15 years and it hasn't been implemented so far for various reasons including the issues I mentioned before as well as several others.

Gerry

there is nothing wrong with ideas, they are welcome - but there is no point in decrying the status quo just because it does not suit you - you are not going to get your ideas across if you upset the people you need to implement them

Some develeopments might carry some ignorances. In my opinion, you should be more concerned about the "ideas" than non-native languages!
I tried to learn a language and i guess it is enough to explain the exact case now. Please also you try to understand the possible scenarios that Xara is facing now and would possibly overcome in the future. I would be pleased to give more examples that force us to repeat the same edits on a single page, bringing a boring work, totally damaging the idea of "computers" apart from a software itself! You can not make progress if you don't criticise (not decry) the status quo.

decry does not mean criticise, it means condemn [in a depreciating manner] - you get nowhere by being pushy and unrealistic

nothing wrong with criticism of a constructive nature

and also like I said nothing wrong with ideas - but when you proffer ideas you should take counter argument on board, you get nowhere by rubbishing it

You should be more open to criticisms. I dont't think i'm depreciating anyone. I can understand your sensitivity to some level but if i were you i would admire "any" contribution. If you try to improve my english, OK i accept it and learn from you, this won't hurt me. But if I try to improve Xara, not my nature, please also you accept it! I've already made proposals without any reply. If you don't need my ideas, please tell it directly!

You have had reply - GerryI's posts

Gerry works for Xara

The way I read it is that your suggestion is impractical for several reasons, which are possibly to do with the way that the program is conceived/designed/written/implemented/road-mapped etc - I can't say for sure, I don't work for Xara or Magix

An impractical suggestion is not an unwelcome one - just impractical.. on technical/cost/overhead grounds... whatever - maybe implementing it would have downsides elsewhere

suggestions for improvements are always very welcome, thank you, but sometimes the answer is going to be [regretfully] no, not at this time, sorry - that's life

I'm so sure that this small detail will have much more supporters than you would imagine. Please call me that time, i would be pleased to support the product. Thank you for all the explanations.

what it would do, almost certainly, is increase the cost of the software significantly because it is not a small detail technically, that much I can appreciate

and I can also see it would be welcome as an option, I would like it myself - but as resources are always limited there are other things I would like first - and we are all different in that respect are we not :D

thanks

Resources are enough until the judgement day, don't worry, Allah arranged and still controlling and will always controll any resource you can or can't imagine. What makes the resources limited is the people whinking with limited minds!

If you now need easiness, tell me now, which one is easy!

1. Taking the coordinates of each of the 5 rectangle, finding their central point and modifying each of them with respect to this central as a single group!!
2. Taking the coordinates and modifying them at their place without any imaginary grouping!!!

well if you are going to be philosophical I'll refer you to Aesop - it is dead easy for someone to say how simple it would be to do something - eg put the bell round the cat's neck to warn the mice when he is coming - but pity the poor mouse that actually has to do it, cause it ain't that easy..... words are cheap, especially when you don't appreciate what is involved

since you persist in being rude ['limited minds'] I'm closing the thread