Angle of Selection

[Acorn]

Here's the problem and I hope Xara/Magix can do something about it.

Item 1: I've drawn a wind turbine blade.
Item 2: I've now moved it to a vertical position.
Please don't ask me why I didn't draw it in a vertical position, in the first place. I could explain it to you, but, that's not the point I'm making.
Item 3: I've drawn a circle, around which I will need two more blades. 360 divided by 3 is 120.
I will need to clone the first blade and rotate it 120 degrees.
You can see that when I select the blade it is showing an angle of -15.24 degrees. WHY? WHY? WHY?
I now have to work out; do I add -15.24 to 120 or take it away from 120?
How stupid is this?
Then I need to clone again and then somehow work out some other maths. WHY? WHY? WHY?
Item 4: I've simply drawn a vertical line. When I select it, it show an angle of 90 degrees. WHY?
It should be 0 degrees.

This is THE MOST STUPID FEATURE I've ever seen.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me a way of turning this off.

Rik, no maths. Clone and input #120. Clone and input #240. No need to rotate to vertical either. You can do it from any start angle.
The use of the # was explained in the Release Note.

For Lines:

• With the Shape Tool, click and then move to the right and Ctrl+Click: Horizontal line at 0^o.
• With the Shape Tool, click and then move up and Ctrl+Click: Horizontal line at 90^o.
• With the Shape Tool, click and then move to the left and Ctrl+Click: Horizontal line at 180^o.
• With the Shape Tool, click and then move down and Ctrl+Click: Horizontal line at -90^o.

Xara starts angles along the X-axis and increases them through a rotation that is anti-clockwise (maths convention), flipping from positive to negative when it crosses the X-axis (left and down).

Acorn

[Rik]

Thanks for that, Acorn.

But, I have no need for Xara to tell me what angle I've rotated something to.
If I've rotated something, then deselected it. Then I'm happy for Xara to tell me that it's 0 degrees now.

And why does Xara think that it's OK for a vertical line, that's just been drawn, not drawn horizontally and rotated: Just a line that's drawn vertically to have a 90 degree angle on it already???

But, your answer is appreciated, Acorn.

[handrawn]

it would be so much better if xara allowed us the option to define our own origin point for rotation, eg the angle when created, instead of forcing us to use the one that is hard wired in

that said there may be issues with other functions if that were done, in which case a legacy option would be preferable

[Acorn]

I understand the logic Xara has used. Each Point Handle has to have an orientation. Xara chose the set-up I described before so when you draw a vertical line upwards, it is just following the convention. Ditto for a Smart Line, it is presented horizontally left to right. However, I also felt a Challenge swell inside me.

I present Three Upright Straight Lines.xar.

Each was made in a different manner. All are Vertical with 0^o orientation.

Can you come up with any of my three different solutions?
All approaches must allow a Line to be created at any angle but the resultant angle for that orientation must still be 0^o.

Acorn

P.S. The Lines can be saved and reused for any purpose.

[ernie-f]

I find out, when I draw a straght line with the shape tool „Make Curve” is the rotationpoint zero.

[Acorn]

I find out, when I draw a straght line with the shape tool „Make Curve” is the rotationpoint zero.

Great ernie. You found one I didn't! It actually remembers what angle it was made at as when you rotate it with the Ctrl key down it no longer aligns up-down or left-right. We'll call this the Yellow solution.

I included a cheat: make it in an earlier version and copy back. This was my Green solution.

Two to go.

Acorn

[ernie-f]

Draw a rectangel, convert to editible shapes and delete two pionts of them.



The same with a triangle.