Instancing artwork?

[zzenn]

I would like to know if it is possible to INSTANCE artwork?

By that I do not merely mean "duplicate". I mean instancing where there is one original/parent object and many instances/children, and if the original or parent is changed - all the instances or children are changed too and immediatedly update.

One example could be a rose. If you move one leaf or indeed add one, all the other rose instances change to reflect this, immediatedly. Keyword being immediatedly. This is great for doing very complicated tiling and seamless patterns.

Illustrator has symbols - but they cannot be edited interactively and be made to update immediatedly.

In many 3d packages instancing objects is quite easy but I find it's a bit heavy handed using such an application for doing intricate vector artwork.

Edit: okay, I downloaded the trial and it doesn't appear to be possible to do instancing. If anyone knows differently or a workaround please let me know.

[Ampa]

This isn't currently possible in Xtreme.

I use instancing all the time in applications such as SketchUp and feel it would be hugely powerful in Xtreme.

Eg: Draw one wheel. Create three copies which are scaled, rotated and positioned. Edit one of the instances to add or refine detail (5 bolts instead of 4) and the other three instances automatically update retaining their correct scale, rotation and position.

It seems fairly straight forward (in pseudo-code)...

A group is defined as the source object.
Instances of the group retain a link back to the source.
Converting an instance to editable shapes breaks the link and makes a unique object.
Transformations to an instance (rotation, scaling, perspective, position, skewing etc etc) are recorded non-destructively so that a change to the source can be carried through.

To my mind this sort of feature would be VASTLY more useful than a sort-of-bitmap-sort-of-vector extrude tool!

I have requested the feature several times via Xara's feedback form, so let's hope that one day the idea sees the light of day.

[remi]

It's called a 'clone' in Inkscape: Whenever you change the original shape or the attributes of the original shape, the cloned shapes are changed in the same way.

Remi

[Giovanni]

+1

I miss this feature a lot in Xtreme, using it often in Inkscape.

[Xhris]

This sounds like what Illustrator calls "symbols"; one parent object can produce child objects. When the parent object is altered, the children also alter accordingly. The child objects can be independently altered, but their contents are determined by the parent. I suspect Xara will implement this soon enough, as it's pretty core and useful.

[Egg Bramhill]

Flash has also had this feature for years. Create a Vector object, convert it to Symbol (graphic, button or Movieclip) Edit the original and all instances on stage are altered. Such an inclusion in XXP would be very benificial and I doubt it would be to difficult to impliment.

[InfoCentral]

Yep, I use that feature in Flash too.

[jclements]

Useing the bitmap gallery to repete objects will save on file size and I think that is about as close to the benefit of symbols/components/sprites Xara can come to. ... Oh, brushes are kind of like symbols aren't they?

If you could link the bitmap in the bitmap gallery to "master" file so that when the master bitmap is updated the Bitmap Gallery could be refreshed, that would be a start towards instancing. That is more or less the way SketchUp handles components.

Maybe Xara could have an "Instancing Gallery". It would save the master symbols/components in the Xara file. If one needed to be revised you could drag it out of the gallery, edit it, and then drag it back into the gallery or right-click on it to update the gallery.

[Egg Bramhill]

Instances or Symbols (call them what you want) can be very powerful.

In the file below I've simulated an Instance. The purple "rosette" is simply created by a repeating instance of the less complicated purple shape on the left, flipped, rotated and resized.

Now suppose this Instance was editable? I edit the instance into the left green shape, notice how all the instances on stage change to the new shape. Could you imagine doing that individually to the whole rosette? Even if you tried you'd never get it to match exactly.

Now edit the Instance again, this time as per the orange one. You should now grasp the value of instances. You're just editing a small part of a shape to have all the shapes on screen alter to the new values instantly.

[handrawn]

so extending the principle of named and linked colors to cover [the] other attributes of an object? - yes that would be useful..