New to Xara and the forum

[cazza42]

Hi everyone,

Just joined the forum and ordered Xara X and wanted to post a quick intro.

I am on day 4 of my trial and already addicted. Help!

I wonder if anyone can help with a project I have been trying to do. I am a needlework designer and need to produce a vector file that looks like woven fabric that I can then overlay with various stitches. Basically an over and under lattice I guess. Any clues on how to go about it would be really great. I have tried in other programs such as Paint Shop Pro and DrawPlus but not been satisfied with my results.

Thanks

Carol

[cazza42]

Hi everyone,

Just joined the forum and ordered Xara X and wanted to post a quick intro.

I am on day 4 of my trial and already addicted. Help!

I wonder if anyone can help with a project I have been trying to do. I am a needlework designer and need to produce a vector file that looks like woven fabric that I can then overlay with various stitches. Basically an over and under lattice I guess. Any clues on how to go about it would be really great. I have tried in other programs such as Paint Shop Pro and DrawPlus but not been satisfied with my results.

Thanks

Carol

[michaelward]

Welcome to the forum Carol!

I'm sure you're going to get a lot of joy out of Xara X, and you'll find things that you can do with it that you never thought would be possible. My biggest tip is to experiment iwth everything and try out the tips that people post on here.

As for the lattice problem, I'm sure someone will post a tip or a link to one (I think it has been discussed in the past). I would, but I've not got enought time at the moment - but expect help soon (these guys n gals on here are v. good).



Michael Ward
http://www.leythers.co.uk
http://www.metalandplastics.co.uk

[gwpriester]

Welcome to the Xara Conference Carol.

Try this thread This was a thread from several years ago that addressed what I think is your question.

If not, let us know and we'll work in it with you.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person


<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


<a href="http://www.xaraxone.com">
The Xara Xone </a>

[cazza42]

Thanks Michael and Gary,

Wow. What a wonderful lot your are. That discussion you pointed me to about cross stitching was great, really helped with drawing the stitches.

However the purpose for my illustrations will be showing people how to do more complex stitches, stitch by stitch. There will be a lot of background fabric left exposed that I will need to draw. I have been trying to think how I can explain what I need better.

If you take some strips of paper and lay some side by side, then take more strips and "weave" them in horizontally, under one and over the next you would get an idea of what the base fabric illustration needs to look like.

I'm sorry I don't know how to upload a picture to givce you a better idea, just yet.

Thanks so much for your help.

As an extra, is there somewhere I can learn a bit more about brushes?

Carol Leather

[rheaton]

http://talkgraphics.infopop.net/1/Op...312#7901981312

I think what you are trying to do is similar to the technique Egg used to do his read on the Celtic knot.

Welcome to Xara & Good Luck.

[Su Lawrence]

Welcome to the forums.

I don't know if the attached is quite the sort of thing you are looking for ie what level of realism you are going for, but this is fairly simple to create in XaraX, albeit a bit fiddly.

If you go into file -- Page Options -- Units and set your page units to pixels.

1. Using the rectangle tool (shift+F3) create a rectangle that is 20 pixels in width x 4 pixels height. Remove any outline (right mouse click on the set no colour icon - crisscrossed square at bottom left of your screen). I gave this a pale cream colour (RGB: 255 245 186).

2. Clone this rectangle and give it a darker cream colour (I used RGB:171 159 89). Click on the transparency tool (wine glass F6). In the drop down list select diamond transparency. With the transp tool click on the center transp node and using the slider in this tool's infobar make this 100% transparent, hit tab to select the outer transparency and make this less transparent (I used 51%).

3. Select both rectangles and group them (Ctrl+G). Go back to page options menu click on the General section - at the bottom - key in a duplication distance of X : 24 pixels, Y:0, change the nudge size to 12 pixels and click ok. Select your group and duplicate (Ctrl+D) until you have a line of spaced rectangles. Select all these rectangles, drag your cursor using the selector tool (F2) until the red box surrounds all rectangles. Group them all. This is your basic single thread template.

4. You then just need to do some more duplication to create the weave. Select your group, clone it and nudge down once using the down cursor key (12 pixels nudge). Nudge this clone once to the right or left. Back into page options and change your duplication distance to X:0 and Y:-24. Select both thread groups and duplicate them down the page.

5. Select all your groups, group them all again and clone them. Rotate this 90 degrees, in the selector tool (F2) infobar is an 'angle of selection', type in 90 and hit the return button. Hopefully this should be aligned correctly. Then group the whole thing and you can then apply a small shadow using the shadow tool (Ctrl+F2). Settings I used were shadow blur 1 - 4 pixels, shadow transparency between around 30% - 40% and shadow offset -1 pixel for both X and Y. I then changed the shadow colour from the default black to RGB: 95 89 49.

If you want to create a double or triple thread pattern, it is the same method, just use two or more rectangles in the first thread line. But as the thread is then 'thicker' you need bigger spaces in the first line across and a bigger nudge/duplication distance downwards to create your pattern.

The colours and sizes I used were arbitrary you can use any size of rectangle of course, but it is easier to add stuff up with whole pixels etc. In retrospect I think I made the weave a bit loose with the main example, but to make it a tighter weave use a smaller ratio than 20 x 4 pixels, perhaps something like 12 x 6.

Let me know if you have any problems following anything and I can explain a bit more.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards

Su

P.S. The stitching in the attachment is just rectangles with rounded corners, with another diamond transparency overlay, plus shadow etc.

[This message was edited by Su Lawrence on June 13, 2003 at 07:09.]

[cazza42]

Hi,

Hey thats exactly what I am looking for! I have to go pick my son up from school but I'll have a go at this when I get back. On second thoughts I could leave him there are try right now . . . .

Thanks again

Carol Leather

[joroho]

Su, You presented a fantastic alternative that I never would've thought of. Great job.

RealDraw Pro has a very unique feature called "Push To Back" that would easily accomplish what you're trying to do. It sure would be great if Xara had a similar tool.

.joroho.

http://www.joroho.com/initials.gif

[Christine Farrelly]

I will certainly be using this idea.

Christine