Small Bug / Iritation: Can't remove clipview if shadowed

**Ampa** · 27 February 2009, 08:12 AM

1. Take a photo and apply a clipview.
2. Now add a shadow to the clipview.
3. Now try and remove the clipview...

Xara will not do it.

Obviously I can get around the issue by removing the shadow, and then removing the clipview, but shouldn't this be possible in a single operation?

**Albacore** · 27 February 2009, 09:25 AM

I maybe a small bug I wouldn't know but please remember that the shadow tool is a bitmap effect and it is not vector and why would you want to remove Clipview after putting on a shadow? I cant see the time when after putting on Clipview then a shadow why I would want to remove then the Clipview it make no sense.

**Ampa** · 27 February 2009, 08:56 PM

Why would you want to remove Clipview after putting on a shadow?

I agree that the situation described above is unusual - the steps I provided where to illustrate the bug, rather than to illustrate normal workflow.

The real situation was that I was given a file to update, which included a clipview object. I tried to remove the clipview, so that I could use the bounding shape, but Xara wouldn't let me remove it. No error message or explanation, just no option to remove the clipview.

The reason: the clipview object had a tiny shadow, which was 99% transparent, so took me quite some time to discover!

Sure, this isn't a common scenario, but it was rather frustrating when it did occur.

Ampa

**Burpee** · 27 February 2009, 11:15 PM

Ampa, frustrating indeed. I think it makes sense to remove a shadow before removing the clipview but if you don't know it's there to begin with, then it's an aggravation to figure it out and locate it.

I believe there's other functions that won't work until the shadow is removed because I ran into the same situation. I don't remember the tool but I had to remove the shadow first before I could remove it.

I liken it to adding borders in PSP. Once you've added a border to an image, it flattens it. You can not apply a border to an unflattened image. Just my thoughts on it. Not too sure how accurate they are to your situation.

**Egg Bramhill** · 28 February 2009, 01:07 AM

Ampa, I believe that there is an error message that warns you of such problems but it also has a tick box that says "always show this message". If you've unticked it previously then obviously you wont see it.

Just working from memory here though and at my age it often throws me a slide ball.

**Egg Bramhill** · 28 February 2009, 01:13 AM

Just tested that and it's totally untrue. So you just have to remember to remove the shadow prior to removing the clip view unfortunately.

**Ampa** · 28 February 2009, 10:36 PM

Egg: Yes you understood exactly the scenario I described.

It would seem to me the easiest solution would be a message on the status bar that simply said "You must remove the shadow from this object before removing the clipview".

**Ampa** · 10 June 2009, 01:12 AM

Bug has not been addressed in v5.1

Just came across it again today - is pretty irritating.

**steve.ledger** · 10 June 2009, 08:02 AM

I don't think it's a bug, it's a requirement.
Adding a shadow is often the last step, if you need to remove a step which happened before the last step (clipview), you must undo the last step first.
However in testing I find that when a shadow is applied BEFORE the clipview the shadow in fact remains, this then allows for the clipview to be removed.

**Ampa** · 10 June 2009, 12:29 PM

Hmm... I sort of see what you are saying, but the clipview combined with effects such as shadow and bevel seems a bit clunky compared with the rest of the Xtreme interface.

Here's an example...

1) Draw a couple of overlapping ellipses
2) Draw an irregular mask over them, and apply clipview
3) Select one of the clipped ellipses (any method will do: a double click, ctrl click or using the inner clipview symbol and then clicking)
4) Apply an inner bevel.

You will see, visually and in the object gallery, that the bevel is incorrectly applied to the clipview, rather than the inner ellipse.

5) Move the clipview

You will see that the bevel vanishes, although it is still listed in the object gallery!

6) Select one of the inner ellipses (using any method)
7) Apply a drop shadow

Again the effect is incorrectly applied to the entire clipview object.

8) Try to remove the clipview (Alt+Q)

You can't because the clipview is shadowed. Compare this behaviour with a pair of grouped objects...

9) Create two more ellipses, and group them
10) Select one ellipse within the group
11) Add a bevel - it works as expected
12) Select the other ellipse and add a shadow - again it works
13) Ungroup the ellipses - you end up with two objects, one shadowed and one bevelled

The way that groups work seems far more intuitive and useful than the behaviour exhibited by clipview.

One further inconsistency...

14) Create a pair of ellipses and group them, apply a shadow to the group.
15) Ungroup - the shadow vanishes without warning.
16) Create a pair of ellipses and group them, apply a bevel to the group.
17) Ungroup - you can't, but you get a warning telling you to remove the bevel manually.

To summarise: this all seems a bit of a mess, and rather inconsistent.