Designer Pro to Xara 3D

[alphacrust]

Hi Guys,

I've been experimenting with Xara Designer Pro and created a multi shape design. What I now want to do is import it into Xara 3D and turn it into a 3D shape / animation.

I can't seem to get any further than Xara 3D importing one of the circle objects (with little in the way of correct colour choices) and nothing more.

I presume it's possible to use both applications in conjunction with each other ? Am I missing something obvious ?

Thanks a lot,

Paul

Who remembers when all this started it's life back on the Acorn.

[steve.ledger]

What's wrong with creating the 3D shape right in Designer Pro 6 using the extrude tool?





As far as DP6 to Xara3D goes, have you tried copy'n'paste

[alphacrust]

Hmmmm, using copy and paste only appears to copy the background object and not the two in front. That and it doesn't appear to retain the colour options.

The extrude option is Designer Pro is great, but I prefer the animation options / flexibility of Xara 3D.

I'll attach the design if anybody wants to take a quick look and see what's going on.

Cheers,

Paul.

[simsmj]

Hello, Alphacrust, and welcome to the forum. Actually, all your objects did make it into Xara3D, but because they were imported in a single operation, Xara3D treats them as a single object, so they all have the same extrusion, colour, bevel etc. Xara3D does not import the colours of imported shapes, just the outlines. Your smaller shapes are buried inside the outer disc.

To confirm this, I ungrouped your four objects, and intersected the blue disc with the white teardrop (CTRL-2), leaving a teardrop hole in the blue disc. I did the same with the two smaller shapes, then regrouped everything (two shapes). On importing the group to Xara3D both objects are now clearly visible.

You will need to import each shape separately into Xara3D, then you can apply different extrusions and colours, or apply bitmap textures to them. I would import the shapes on separate lines, ie, ensure the cursor is on (a|b button) and type a Carriage Return after each shape. If you then reduce the line size to 0%, all the shapes will collapse into each other.

A very useful trick is to create small pixel-sized dots at top left and bottom right of your work area in Designer Pro, and when you export each shape, select the dots as well as the shape. This ensures that Xara3D doesn't attempt to resize the shapes to have the same height.

Mike

[alphacrust]

Thanks for the feedback Mike. Certainly helped me start to get my head around what's happening. Most of it makes sense when you think about it.

What I can't seem to do is get Xara 3D to split the objects though. I've got both in the text editor with a carriage return, but when you go back to the stage they're still treat as 1 object regards to moving around and lighting etc.

Thanks,

Paul.

[Soquili]

Hi Paul,

I'm not sure what has happened on your system.

The way I would do it is to enable the cursor in the normal Xara3D window. In Designer Pro 6 I select the "sizing pixels" and one of the shapes, copy, switch to Xara3D and paste. Then within Xara3D I hit the enter key. Switch back to Designer Pro 6 and select the sizing pixels and then another shape. Repeat until you have all the shapes and sizing pixels on individual lines. See the first attached image.

Starting with the largest shape, I select it and it's sizing pixels. Make the Extrusion an arbitrary value to be smaller than all the other shapes. Apply color to the shape while it is still selected.

Select the next larger shape and it's sizing pixels, give it an extrusion at least 2 pixels more than the larger shape, apply a color.

Repeat the process until you have apply a slightly larger extrusion to each smaller shape and apply a color.

Once you have the shapes all prepared, change the line spacing from the default 80% to 0%. All the shapes should line up. See the second attached image.

You can now work on selecting the animation you want. You may need to experiment with where to place the sizing pixels created within Designer Pro 6. Sometimes it is difficult to keep them out of some of the animation types.

[Soquili]

Another option is to export your original drawing in Designer Pro 6 as a png with transparency.

Use the png as a texture on a round shape that has a round bevel at a depth of 999 and an extrusion of 100.

[alphacrust]

Ooooh, that works!! Cheers!

Slowly getting my head around it all. Think I'm just expecting it to do things a little easier than it is.

Thanks again,

Paul.

[simsmj]

Bill's animation is reminiscent of an animation I was playing about with after a discussion with Gary for an animated eyeball. Attached is a first attempt at something other than a simple spin. It needs some work but it has definite possibilities, I think.

Mike