Xara 365-vector brush confusion.

As I understood it, in this thread Xara's line brushes are now vector.
Using XP&GD12, I produced this simple crude drawing that looks great when zoomed in in Xara.
However, upon exporting as .svg and also .ai the results are disappointing in Inkscape and Illustrator.
The resulting .svg looks awful in Inkscape as expected.
As you can see from the screen grab -eyes in illustrator- it does indeed import vector files with editable paths, but the eye portion has changed markedly.
I suppose the reason for this could be that I used a circle using the Ellipse Tool and didn't convert to editable shapes before exporting.
The eyebrow looks perfect when zoomed in using Illustrator, so I imagine this is the probable explanation.
Can anyone confirm that Ellipses and other shapes should be converted prior to export?
Bob

firstly bob let me thank you for drawing my attention to frances' thread which I missed - if you are reading this frances, thank you, great brushes [I cannot reply in the thread as it appears to be restricted to moderator replies; [it says I do not have permission...]

ok - are you using the brush strokes as outlines on a closed shape here bob - I find it works best if you do not do that, but keep lines as lines - that said, converting said lines to shape and then ungrouping before export may be a good idea; and converting quickshapes also

You just get weird results when using non standard line profiles when exporting line from Xara. Even working in Xara when you change the line to a shape you get many unexpected results. Don't know what line you used with your eyes so can't make any comparisons with .ai or .svg files on export.

Frances's lines export well into Illy but the lines need to be grouped and are hard to edit but it is all vector and you could make a Blob brushes out of the single shapes in AI. No Inkscape on my h/drive so can't tell what they look like there.

If you are using vers. 11 brushes they are fine printing directly from Xara but taken them else where you will have some problems. I think Xara missed a big trick in last version or was it the version before that when they improved the brush engine for a vector drawing programme to give a vector line bitmap properties I can't understand. Also the DPI of that line or shape is 192 why? why not at least 300 dpi.

@ Steve-Converting line to shape and exporting to Illustrator opens the line as a raster image.
Very disappointing.

@ Peter-Using P&G Designer V.12 these days for various reasons that I won't go into here. Unamed Brush 3(A). As you said, weird results.
Bob.

even if the brush is pure vector?

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Also the DPI of that line or shape is 192 why?

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there is a registry fix that might alter this, but I have not yet tested it...

As far as I can tell, the brush is pure vector, although I do have some doubts.
The screen seems to take a little while to redraw when zooming in during which time it does look to be raster, despite what we have been told about that patch in V.11, which I assume has been carried over into V.12.
Bob.

The brushes in the set linked to in the opening post should convert to a purely vector shape when you convert "line to shape" it is important to choose convert line to shape not covert to editable shapes. Edit: perhaps the convert to vector is a DP only feature? Bob when you convert line to shape do you get a vector shape in P&GD?

I've tried the registry hack and it does work well, however when drawing with a complex brush the higher you set the dpi the quicker the program needs to show only an outline, to keep up with quick strokes. But at 300 a raster brush will print out quite nicely. Increasing the size of the brush definition object can also help.

the screen redrawing I think is normal bob depending on the speed of your graphics

thanks again frances for the registry info...

Creation of art brushes in Xara:

If you created a brush from a vector shape, when converting lines to shape, you will receive a vector shape.
If you created a brush from a group of objects(many vector shapes), you will get bitmap. True if the line is curved enough. A straight line is likely to be a vector. :) Strangeness...

Attachment 113508

One thing. I have long ago been taught that before exporting all lines must be converted into shapes. I carry out this rule until now.

A grouped vector brush definition object should yield a vector result if a) all shapes only have simple flat fills and or flat transparencies, and b) the vector path does not contain sharp corners or cross it's self, or have too much of a curve.

I haven't got the time right now to figure out how much of a curve it takes but I don't think it's very good this way. I have submitted this to Xara support but I'm not holding my breath as TPTB at Magix are the ones that would need to be persuaded.

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A grouped vector brush definition object should yield a vector result if a) all shapes only have simple flat fills and or flat transparencies, and b) the vector path does not contain sharp corners or cross it's self, or have too much of a curve.

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I agree & that's exactly the problem Frances. Converting Line to Shape can either create a group (which is ungroupable) or a Clipped Photo which is next to useless as it can't be unclipped. As you state this all seems dependant on sharp corners or overlaps (even without closing the shape).

No use to Man nor Beast.

These problems are known to the dev. team as they were brought to their notice when Ver. 11 came out. To my mind it is only the Shape Painter Tool that works as it should although no said line profiles can be set with this tool as it is a "shape". Having said that you can develop great brushes by changing the Roundness, Angle and Softness in the brush. You can get real vector shapes that have a great Calligraphy style by changing basically the angle but I do the roundness as well. So if you're exporting your drawing have a look at this tool as it will give you what you want.

I have used it a lot when I was doing cartoons for newsletters it's a good tool to try cos. It's easy once you have drawn the say a head for a cartoon to edit and emphasize depth, as I like to do, the thickness of a line on an outlined shape. Like all Xara brushes when and this includes the Shape Painter Tool you get too many control points even after using Smoothing Slider.

as you guys probably know - if you draw a line with a vector art brush and then intersect it with a rectangle shape, you do not get a result that is the shape of the brush line, all you get is a uniform path shape

this applies in my experience to all the brushes, whether they convert to vector groups or bitmaps, and it indicates to me that they are built with overlays rather than being a pure vector line/shape.....

"overlays"?

You should get the intersection of the brush-stroked outline with the rectangle. If you do not that is a bug.

Phil

Hi Phil

ok panic over -think I may have forgotten to convert brush stroke before intersect

... although having said that [now I have doubled checked] - if you intersect a stroke shaped normal line with a rectangle you get a shape the same as the line ; ditto pressure sensitive normal stroke - in neither case do you need to convert line to stroke before the intersect, as you do with an art brush...

Yes, I get the same... I think this is a bug - I'll record it.

Phil

ok thanks Phil