FEATURE REQUEST: Xara Designer - Fill Command

[pauland]

a simple request - yes

a simple thing to do - no

Back in the day, flood fill algorithms used to be all the rage for bitmaps, but it might be easier for vector.

For vector it should be about locating line edges surrounding the fill point and using them to construct a fill shape. Xara already has all the nodes, so it's not the big deal you might imagine. Xara are bright enough to do it, Flash did it over ten years ago.

[handrawn]

HI Paul

yes - however I was including unclosed shapes into the equation that is, ones that have gaps - for the very simple work where the lines are not joined and there are no gaps its not such a big deal

but even then, flat colour fill to the edges of the outlines is rather 'painting by numbers' to me - again I am not being dismissive here, just speaking from my own point of view....

[pauland]

HI Paul

yes - however I was including unclosed shapes into the equation that is, ones that have gaps - for the very simple work where the lines are not joined and there are no gaps its not such a big deal

I was talking about the ones with gaps, and indeed areas enclosed by multiple lines.You can find the nodes (regardless of which line is involved) surrounding the fill point. Where the nodes don't form a closed enclosure, you need to find the smallest gaps between connected edges and then those are bridged for the fill shape.

but even then, flat colour fill to the edges of the outlines is rather 'painting by numbers' to me - again I am not being dismissive here, just speaking from my own point of view....

I think some people would consider it a way to enhance creativity by removing a little tedium, but I take your point. Even when doing tedious tasks, it does give us time to think.

[handrawn]

ok - that is fine if you need the fill to follow along the midpoint of the missing piece of the line, but I'd suggest that once you have a gap filling mechanism there will be an assumption than it should fill to the outer boundary of the line and sure, you can manipulate nodes but already our perceived ease of use is slipping

and if the gap be a large one or over a cusp or otherwise 'complex' point, then the notional path of the missing piece of the line may be not at all what you need - I realise this may be academic if the work itself is not complex

yes enhancing creativity by removing tedium is good - so is enhancing creativity by not tying yourself to just one way of doing things

somewhere there is a tutorial by gnurf for colouring line art - I think he used a pencil scan, but whatever - what he did was to quickly run round the line art with the pen to create one closed,and therefore filled, shape and then feather it to blend it to the line art

[pauland]

Perfection is not required. In Flash you can decide the size of gap that it will not bridge. It's always going to be easier to tweak a complex fill shape than make it entirely by hand. The flash fill is rather good I think.

I don't really follow why a fill function is a problem - nobody that finds it less useful than hand filling would be required to use it. I don't think it's a must-have, but I understand why someone would want it.

A fill function may not suit your needs, but it doesn't harm your workflow either, so I see no harm in it.

[pauland]

I wonder if the fill command might prove quite popular. Years ago I made comments about the fact that Xara lacked the finesse of some modern tools and in particular the queues offerred by other tools (cough, Flash, Vellum, etc). It didn't get much of a reaction but now designer 7 has moved that way and our stalwart Gary has fallen in love with a facility ( the smart guides/magic snap) he probably didn't see the need for before.

I think there's a vacum between telling someone why a fill command is pointless and showing them why it is pointless (no pun intended)..

[handrawn]

not saying its pointless - just saying why I may not use it

I am sure it would be popular

in fact I am sure that somewhere there is a reference made by Xara themselves to the filling of unclosed shapes in the program [pre-designer at least] being entirely possible but just not implemented [can't find it of course - it was in a discussion re Ivan's workaround I think - long time ago]

[MarcT]

This feature has been has been requested often, I remember a very long thread on this topic!


I think a paint-bucket/boundary-fill tool would be a good productivity improvement.
I also guess this might not be an easy feature to implement.

It could simply work using the existing paint bucket and clicking in an empty space in between objects, no new commands on menus.


Along these lines a "join lines" command with gap tolerance would also come as handy in my opinion.

Xara shines in many aspects but joining lines out of already created geometry may not be one of its greatest strengths.

Selecting the objects, finding overlapping nodes, moving the node and bringing it back to join it, can become a lot work for a very simple operation when many objects are involved.


Marc

[mwenz]

I think that the double-click as per CorelDraw on the last node to close a shape would be a good enhancement. A right-click context menu with the same command would be a good enhancement.

With either (thought if only one I would prefer the double-click method), one can copy and paste-in-place to obtain the fill shape. Fill the shape behind, unset any line properties and Bob's your uncle.

The page coordinates and path start-end coordinates are known for any line segment. If XDP could simply create the same, but closed shape behind it sans any line attributes, and perhaps group it with the path-shape, one could then select it in the layers tab and fill it.

Any of these would be a worthy addition to the vector side of things.

Take care, Mike

[pauland]

Jon, perhaps (in a new non "Dear Xara" thread), you could take the time to make a small example of something where you think using a fill command would be a real time saver. Then perhaps we'd see some of the existing ways to do the same using xara without a fill command?