Pen Tool

[Evilemil]

This is my first post in this forum - i will also post this one in the suggestion forum. but i think it fits here very well.

To get my feet wet with Xara and its tools, i tried the Shape tool for a simple B&W tracing of a hand drawn logo.
The Shape tool for my taste is very good for organic freehand work, but for tight tracing, it feels too loose and 'artistic'.
It felt strange to place the points of a shape first and then adjust the smooth shapes afterwards.
Oh Boy, I tried 2 characters with the Shape tool and finally found the Pen tool, to do the other 9 in the same amount of time.
The Pen Tool saved my life in this job (did not want to switch back to AI), but there is a some room for improvement.


1. Add the ability to move an already placed path point by keeping a certain key pressed - in Illustrator this is Space. great too quickly move a point to a different position, without changing the tool.
2. Make it possible to break the tangents while dragging them. This enables the user to adjust the incoming shape and create a sharp angle.

or short: SPACE + drag moves the point, just drag moves the tangents, SHIFT + drag brakes the tangent and moves the outgoing tangent

Xara itself seems to be a robust tool and although I mainly purchased it because Adobe did not want to keep me as a loyal customer, I am sure it will soon replace AI 10 in my workflow.

Have Fun,
Michael

[gwpriester]

I recommend this for freehand tracing with the Shape Tool. Select the Make Line option on the Infobar. Zoom in close. Drop control points then drag the straight line segments into curves. Edit the Bezier control points as needed for more control.

[Evilemil]

Gary,
certainly you are right.

But like the old Pinstriper who lay the bodylines on cars with their brush, i like to put down the line with one stroke and move on.
It seems counter inuitive to come back and tinker with the line afterwards for every smooth point.
Once in a while tinkering is needed...and I admit the Shape tool is excellent for that. better than anything i have seen so far.

Seems like it just depends on what one is used to.

btw, thanks for the picture with the explanantion.

[Big Frank]

It seems counter inuitive to come back and tinker with the line afterwards for every smooth point.

Yes, I agree with that, and I hope somebody can come up with a Pen/Shape tool that can effectively combine the actions of both tools into one tool so that drawing freeform can be reduced to fewer steps. Were this ti happen I suspect we'd have the best vector drawing tool of all graphic design software!

[Albacore]

Yes a certain amount of keyboard hopping used in Illustrator when using the Pen Tool can be good however it is still can be a pain to edit say something like a cartoon. That's why VectorScribe is such a success by Astute Graphics: http://www.astutegraphics.com/software/vectorscribe/ They give users in Illy the ability to very quickly edit the drawings without going near the Direct Selection Tool which can be a very slow process. That's why the Shape Tool is such a powerful tool to use in Xara products where quick editing is required. I have spent the last 14 years working in a Scottish National newspaper and in a large regional health board producing all sorts of graphics. Where & when I was allowed I constantly produced drawings faster and quicker using a Xara product over Illy. Not I am not saying that Xara is the best product to use but what I do say is that when manually tracing a drawing that the speed of the Shape Tool will be faster than using the Pen Tool in Xara. It is not the case with me that if you start using a programme it can be difficult to have the same speed in another as I started in C/Draw which uses the bezier curves as Illy. Do I use the Pen Tool in Xara but it is used for simple shapes and I don't use it for manual tracing.

[Evilemil]

@Albacore
Interesting view.
I hate the way, the tangents and points are accessed in AI. too many 'fails' make it clumsy. This is definitely better in Xara.
Perhaps i will give it a try and get something traced to get used to the tools....
With a little effort the PEN Tool could work the same as in AI - would not disturb the SHAPE tool gurus but would give an easier access to the converted AI users.
I will give the tool a shot before i give more feedback on it. seems like i need to get an educated opinion first

[JET]

...I hope somebody can come up with a Pen/Shape tool that can effectively combine the actions of both tools into one....Were this ti happen I suspect we'd have the best vector drawing tool of all graphic design software...

That was done about a quarter-century ago by Altsys in FreeHand. Adobe acquired it when it acquired Macromedia, and discontinued it. Its one Pen Tool can do the "bendomatic" method (like Xara's Shape Edit Tool) and/or the ubiquitous click/drag method (like Xara's half-baked Pen Tool), and it provides all the appropriate momentary keyboard shortcuts to let you go back and edit pre-drawn segments without breaking the ability to resume where you left off. FreeHand also provides Connector Points, which are used to ensure tangency between a straight and a curved segment, and Connector Points are also integrated in the Pen Tool behavior.

It is by far the most fluidly efficient and elegant Bezier path drawing tool ever to see the light of day in mainstream PostScript drawing programs.

JET

[Albacore]

That's why so many people want to save it and they tried to get the code from Adobe through the American courts. All they got from Adobe was an extra 10% over they upgrade price to go with Illustrator, super-doopy! They have teamed up with another company with a programme called Stagestack but that has run into funding problems.

[chasventre]

Rebooted my Laptop, a number of times.

I don't have any registry protection software installed, that I'm aware of?

I also have the same problem on my laptop x64, I lose the Pen Tool once I log off and restart DP 9X?

[Evilemil]

That was done about a quarter-century ago by Altsys in FreeHand. Adobe acquired it when it acquired Macromedia, and discontinued it. Its one Pen Tool can do the "bendomatic" method (like Xara's Shape Edit Tool) and/or the ubiquitous click/drag method (like Xara's half-baked Pen Tool), and it provides all the appropriate momentary keyboard shortcuts to let you go back and edit pre-drawn segments without breaking the ability to resume where you left off. FreeHand also provides Connector Points, which are used to ensure tangency between a straight and a curved segment, and Connector Points are also integrated in the Pen Tool behavior.

It is by far the most fluidly efficient and elegant Bezier path drawing tool ever to see the light of day in mainstream PostScript drawing programs.

JET

+1
I worked with Freehand for a few years and did a cross grading at some point to AI10.
Unfortunately, i made the mistake and sold my copy of Freehand back then.
Perhaps some of the devs might consider revisiting the tool at some point.