you want a new vector tool rather than a rehash ?

[handrawn]

what about this....

you have a raster drawing vectorised and lo ! look at all those nodes



if you want to bow out the cheek to make the face fatter, it's going to be a pita in xara which only allows you to either bow out between to adjacent nodes, or move nodes as a block

what if you could switch to a tool that would allow you to treat this object as a line, even though it is a shape



you could then bow it just like you could if it were a line, without having mess with all those nodes



icing on the cake: you can smooth this centreline adding and removing nodes so you can adjust easily

Harmony does this


i don't think Xara ever will... it has left real graphic drawing behind....

it does not have to be a vectorised raster of course - the ability to treat a shape as a line is pretty powerful all round

[gwpriester]

Not sure if I am reading this right, but with the Shape Tool and selected nodes you can apply Smoothing that based on the amount will remove a few unnecessary nodes or a large percentage.

[handrawn]

yes but then you still need to manipulate it using the nodes; and xara does not let you choose which nodes to anchor the start and finish of the curve... this is a line function, not a shape

[gwpriester]

I'll take your word for it. :-) Just not something I have ever thought about.

[handrawn]

probably not

but if you have a shape that is defined by its perimeter nodes, its a pain to curve is it not.. a centerline function would be much better so it is like a line

[Michael]

Handrawn wrote "Harmony does this"

What Harmony?

[DanFelix]

what about this....

you have a raster drawing vectorised and lo ! look at all those nodes



if you want to bow out the cheek to make the face fatter, it's going to be a pita in xara which only allows you to either bow out between to adjacent nodes, or move nodes as a block

what if you could switch to a tool that would allow you to treat this object as a line, even though it is a shape



you could then bow it just like you could if it were a line, without having mess with all those nodes



icing on the cake: you can smooth this centreline adding and removing nodes so you can adjust easily

Harmony does this


i don't think Xara ever will... it has left real graphic drawing behind....

it does not have to be a vectorised raster of course - the ability to treat a shape as a line is pretty powerful all round

My tactic is to hand trace the bitmap using the Pen Tool. Adding, moving, deleting nodes as I go. Bending when needed. It has worked for me but maybe not what you're looking for.

[handrawn]

thanks dan

in xara you can convert a line to a shape

if you have a shape that is a line-shaped shape, you cannot treat it as a line; it would be nice to be able to convert it [back], or at least as with toon boom treat it, as a line

tracing as you suggest produces a line of uniform width; my wish is to preserve the existing profile of the shape whilst editing it as a line

[PhilM]

The Shape Painter tool does something close to what you want, I think.

With the shape selected, go to that Shape painter and choose "Warp" from the dropdown at the right hand end. Then drag the point in smooth strokes across the shape in the direction you want it to move.

So long as you cross both edges of the shape at roughly the same speed they will move by the same amount, thus keeping the profile.

(Sounds more technical than it really is.)

[handrawn]

Hi Phil - great to see you back on the forum these past months

Indeed the shape painter tool will warp in the way you describle and that is useful thanks, but [you knew there would be a but didn't you ]...

....that is not manipulating the shape as a line

look at it the other way round, if you said: hey guys from now on the only way you can repositon a line is to use the warp tool, what might be the response ?

if I want to switch a character's cheek from sunken to bloated, and it is a line, I just push it out with the cursor; that is what I would like to do if it is a shape;

I would settle for a function that reverts the shape to a line if that preserves the profile; easy enough to convert it back to a shape again