Custom lines

I could really use a custom line style (my own "novel" design, if you like), but my experiments to date have not been successful.

I am drawing maps, and want to represent railways with a solid black line, crossed at frequent intervals by short lines, like this (if it works...): Attachment 131006

I can pre-build a series of components with fixed widths and curvatures, but it would be so much easier if I could just draw a line, and have all the "sleepers" appear, normal to the central line drawn.

Can anyone advise?

your image does not seem to work

but I would suggest you try making a scatter brush like in this XAR file:


Attachment 131007


Attachment 131008

EDIT - if you use the shape tool to draw the lines you may need to increase the line width somewhat before you start to get the effect

I was thinking of something more like this.


Attachment 131009

I f you need my xar just ask.

Andy - I have moved this thread to the Xara Graphics Chat. The other graphics chat is for non-Xara products.

Thank you.

That looks like just what I am after, but what is a scatter brush? There is no mention of it in my help. Is it a later feature? It might be time for me to upgrade at last : )

More like this than...?

Sorry about my image not working - it should have shown something similar, but with the equal-length "sleepers" equi-spaced. Yes, if you could give me a .xar (and any instructions necessary to get the effect) that would be great.

if you have an old version of xara that only creates one kind of user defined brush then that will be a scatter brush

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy B

More like this than...?

if you could give me a .xar (and any instructions necessary to get the effect) that would be great.

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Andy to whom are you speaking?

Andy, handrawn already provided a XAR.

As far back as XX5, you use would create a cross and with the Brush Tool > Create Brush.

Acorn

you will find the brush in line gallery > document brushes when you open the xar file

note it will not persist if you save the file again with no instance of the brush in use [ie if its not used in the file somewhere you lose it]

Handrawn, that looks really promising, but I can't quite make it work. I can use your brush, but when I try to create a new brush from your base graphic, even without any modification, and then use it, I get the message "Unable to create bitmaps for brush stroking, you may have your zoom setting too high, or you are using a brush that is too big". The brush is set to 2pt. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wizard509

Andy to whom are you speaking?

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I was speaking to you, Wizard. I expected the forum platform to nest responses - that it doesn't makes the conversation a little hard to follow. Now I know.

Andy it's way past my bedtime will get back to you later with a mini xar tutorial.

andy - you are using an old version of xara and so it might not quite work the same way

you can try approaching the issue the other way round and resize the base graphic [make it smaller presumably ? - it could be a 32bit limitation]

if, in line gallery, you right click on the brush and select copy brush graphic to clipboard it may give you an idea of the base size your program is working at, but you may just have to experiment; make sure you keep your base shape is all vector and grouped

once the brush is made you should be able to resize it for drawing

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy B

Handrawn, that looks really promising, but I can't quite make it work. I can use your brush, but when I try to create a new brush from your base graphic, even without any modification, and then use it, I get the message "Unable to create bitmaps for brush stroking, you may have your zoom setting too high, or you are using a brush that is too big". The brush is set to 2pt. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong?

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Andy, I have the same issue with handrawn's presentation in XX5. I suspect that as a Line in Xara always ends up as a Bitmap, using two Grouped Lines as the master shape is the wrong starting point. When you delete his example tracks, you can create another Brush afresh.

Instead of working from handrawn's lines, create your shape from thin boxes with the Rectangle Tool.
This should keep the resultant line composed shapes (sadly, not boxes).

This works all the way back to XX5.

Acorn

thanks for that acorn - i no longer have the older versions installed to check how it worked before the intoduction of the art brushes...

OK, Andy here ya go I used XDP18 if you do not have a similar version All Is Not Lost you can simply copy and/or export what I have done for you, and if need be make a scatter brush GOOD LUCK.

Attachment 131012

Attachment 131013

Oops, the wrong png for this tutorial should be

Attachment 131014

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wizard509

OK, Andy here ya go I used XDP18 if you do not have a similar version All Is Not Lost you can simply copy and/or export what I have done for you, and if need be make a scatter brush GOOD LUCK.

Attachment 131012

Attachment 131013

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Thanks for the tutorial, Larry. How you create your track shape is clear enough, but there is no brush...

When I use your shape to create a brush I get the same error I did earlier with handrawn's example. I tried Acorn's suggestion of using rectangles rather than lines, though, and that seems to have worked : )

I could not make a brush because the image is too large so I will remake a smaller one so I can create a brush.

OK, Andy I remade this so I could make a brush, save the brush somewhere you can find it, for me I usually use the desktop although I do have a special folder for xar brushes.
























i call brushesI do not know how you intend to use it so I made an art brush but if you need a scatter brush let me know, I hope this is satisfactory although I am not thrilled.

Attachment 131020Attachment 131021.

Here's the way I'd go about it using an Art Brush:

Great, Egg, good on you.