How to use the fill tool with opened pdf file ?

[cct]

Hi everyone, new user here.

I am trialling Xara designer and I would like to know if the following is possible with the software please?

1. I open up a pdf of a design consisting of a drawing done with a CAD program, the drawing is my test case of a simple house, front view with door, windows and roof etc., very simple, just for testing purposes!

2. I wish to use the fill tool to be able to colour in as it were (much like a colouring book with coloured pencils) all of the individual shapes.

3. So far when I select an area of shapes all I am able to achieve is changing the line colours, but I am trying to add a fill to the inside areas.

4. I don't know how to change this - do I first need to select everything in the drawing and change or group or something else to the lines/entities or do I need to first change the whole state of the drawing somehow?

I would very much appreciate any help with this, I am only used to a basic CAD program and have not used an illustrating program before. I have tried out Adobe illustrator and I can do this in that, I can open up a dwg or a dxf file and use the live paint bucket tool and it works like a charm, this is what I'm trying to achieve with Xara Designer ... because I'm not going to use Adobe Illustrator with their ridiculous subscription method, anyhow Xara looks and feels better to me, so If I can do this with Xara I will very pleased indeed.

Regards and looking forward to any help that can be given to me

Clive (cct)

[PhilM]

Hi Clive,

I suspect your PDF doesn't contain any filled or fillable shapes, just lines. Adobe's live paint tool is just a way of creating filled shapes by looking at the lines in a document. Xara Designer doesn't have the equivalent tool but there are lots of other ways of creating filled shapes to match your lines.

E.g.
Draw rectangles and use "Put to back" to push them behind the lines.
Use the shape painter tool (for more organic designs).
Use the Shape Editor tool to create non-rectangular shapes matching your lines.

I'm sure other TG stalwarts will be along to offer their suggestions and maybe go into more detail.

Phil

[cct]

Thanks Phil

Would it make any difference if I open up my file as svg?

The shape editor tool sounds interesting, where is it please ?

Thanks again

Clive

[cct]

Don't worry Phil, found the tool, using this would take a lifetime to achieve what I need to do!

Never mind, I'll keep looking for something else, just seen Drawplus too.

[PhilM]

Sorry, I meant the "Shape Tool". It's in the flyout group with the Freehand tool (hover over the Tool buttons down the left hand side of the window and watch the popup tool names). It's keyboard shortcut is F4.

I don't think exporting as SVG will make any difference - I guess that the CAD design just doesn't have filled shapes in it in the first place.

Phil

[PhilM]

Ho hum

[Albacore]

It would be far easier to learn Xara if you experimented with Xara standard tool set to draw your own house. That is unless you use CAD all of the time and want to apply better colour to your drawing. We have loads of video tutorials to help new users in Xara along with others which use static web pages to help you do and understand Xara's tools. You can view the tutorials here: http://www.xaraxone.com/us/tutorial/ more here........ http://site.xaraxone.com/tutorials/

[Ron Duke]

Clive,
If you could provide a picture of the house or a portion of the house, I could show you how I would approach it.

Regards,
ron