Is the upgrade: Xara Designer Pro X v19 ==> v20 (perpetual) worth it ?

[shiphen]

I agree.

The simplest way I know is to use the Erase tool at 100% round and set the diameter and scale the drawing.
Then touch on each vertex and drag out.

This splits the Line into segments where, with the Shape tool you pick the end of one segment and create a new node then drag the node onto the start of the next segment, rejoining the segments in this way until one Line again.

Very manual.

Acorn

TBH, I only half-understand that....
Either way one problem I have is the Eraser Tool diameter units always seem to be pixels not page units.

The other problem is that biting off a corner using either the Erase Tool or in fact using a circle of the desired diameter is that it tend to leave line segments behind at random/inconvenient places.

So what I end up doing is working with a square of the desired diameter and either adding it or cutting it off the shape in question. I then delete the unwanted line nodes and then dragging the resulting line by (roughly) it's middle to form some kind of fillet of roughly the desired radius.

Either way, yes VERY fiddly and manual.

J

[Acorn]

Hopefully, someone will rise to the challenge.

Using a shape to nibble turns the line into a shape as well.
Any intersection results in a shape.

Try centring circles under each vertex.
Manually add nodes where the line crosses the circumference. Delete the original vertex. Bend the Line between the new nodes, adjusting the handles to touch the circle centre.

Accurate, slow and manual.



Acorn

[Acorn]

I poked my memory and rediscovered this method:

• Select the Line.
• Switch to the Contour tool:
  
  • Outer contour, 48px, 1-step, round join.
  • Inset path.
  • Inner contour, same width, ...
  • Inset path.
  
  
• Break at points for all the sharp corners.
  
  • Delete these points.
  
  
• Some may be the actual Line so reattach to the curved corner.
• The Line ends may need attention as well.

Acorn

[handrawn]

if xara alowed you to fully inset a shape outline, instead of it always being half-in half-out, I can see a way with circles; but as it is probanly not worth trying

[shiphen]

I poked my memory and rediscovered this method:

• Select the Line.
• Switch to the Contour tool:
  
  • Outer contour, 48px, 1-step, round join.
  • Inset path.
  • Inner contour, same width, ...
  • Inset path.
  
  
• Break at points for all the sharp corners.
  
  • Delete these points.
  
  
• Some may be the actual Line so reattach to the curved corner.
• The Line ends may need attention as well.

Acorn

Yes, quite clever... !
However you end up with 2 lines - one doing the outer (convex) corners and the other doing the inner (concave) corners.
Also quite a lot of steps.


What I end up doing is:
1. drawing a circle of the required radius

2. moving into position

3. I then use it as a rough guide... to manually add nodes on the line where the circle crosses the line (using F4).

4. then deleting the corner node, so that you end up with a diagonal line



5. ...which can then be dragged by it's middle point to overlap the circle

This creates REASONABLE circular arc.



However, it always seems to undershoot the full circle, so IF I can be bothered I then:

6. add another node in the middle of the arc using F4 (so as to to lock the arc in place).

7. you can then change the nodes at the start of the arc from Cusp Join ==> Smooth Join, which helps smooth out the undershoot of the arc.


....


Definitely not perfect, but visually reasonable...

J


P.S. My real question though is couldn't we get Xara to add a tool that makes radiusing corners a trivial task?
I have submitting this request a number of times over the years...

[handrawn]

if xara alowed you to fully inset a shape outline, instead of it always being half-in half-out, I can see a way with circles; but as it is probanly not worth trying

What I end up doing is....

ah, more patience than I

I was thinking of a circle with required radius, no fill, and an outline of the required line weight - then position it so that it matched up at the right points on the line - break the circle outline so it was just an arc [removing the unwanted piece] - break the line and remove the unwanted piece - join up the arc and the line using ctr+J

problem is: the radius of the circle is mapped to the shape, ie the fill, and the circle outline sits halfway outside of the fill, so it is not precise...

[Acorn]

However you end up with 2 lines - one doing the outer (convex) corners and the other doing the inner (concave) corners.
Also quite a lot of steps.

shipen, not quite. The Contour Out/Contour In manoeuvre produces a Shape.
If you have three vertices, after you select them all and Break at points you end up with 6 Lines.
This is a single operation and you actually combine it with an immediate Delete points and you have two overlapping Lines.
In Shape tool mode, you delete one of the overhangs and move the other to kiss the end of the other Line, re-joining into one.

The point of this exercise is to incentivise Xara into doing better.

As yet, I've not found a simple way to remove the fillets.

Acorn