Cropping an image to a layer.

[Albacore]

Well we are prickly today! In my info panel so long as a you have the marching ants around the object the info panel will give you the info(Select ---- Select All. Ctrl+A) or if it is a vector shape and it is selected that too will give you the info. I was trying to be helpful because you mentioned client and Flash and that means deadlines.

[pauland]

Sorry, I wasn't intending to be prickly at all - It wasn't intended to read like that at all. I explicitly added the last line to make it clear I appreciated your advice. I guess it didn't work. :-(

Select all doesn't really work - it selects the whole canvas on these designs ( possibly because originally they used masks against a solid shape that filled the whole canvas ).

Thanks to all the contributors on the thread - I have now a usable workflow to get the size and position of the panels - it's not a single click type solution, that I anticipated, but fine none-the-less.

I am really grateful that people take the time to help out. My posts are about trying to explain my exact situation rather than have a go at anyone. I completely understand and agree with the suggestions to use vectors rather than raster, etc, but since I don't generate this artwork myself, and I already get the point about Vector, it doesn't quite fit this particular scenario.

So, I don't mean to be prickly at all and I do appreciate everyone's contributions here.

On the flash side, I never use Xara, PS or anything else besides the Flash IDE to make flash projects. My flash projects have a large amount of scripting in them and manipulation that really needs a timeline to organise the more complex manipulations. In this particular project I have a graphic element that scoots across the screen revealing text behind it, so there is masking of the text and co-ordination of the mask with the movement of the graphic and there is easing of the movement - not a linear speed. The client makes comments about the speed so I change the timing. All this would be a major problem with a product like Xara.

I am not knocking Xara - it has strengths and weaknesses and it has always been weak at animation - though people do do clever things with it - because it has no timeline.