Problem with selecting objects - wrong objects are selected on click

[Frip]

I've installed Xara Designer Pro X and was frustrated with it's clicking precision (if compare to XDP6; not sure about XDP7). Now, if you click on a small object, XDP selects another object (next to the clicked one), if it was created later. Please, take a look on two enlarged screenshots:

Stripes are ordered as follow: yellow is the bottommost -> blue -> green it the topmost. As you can see, no matter when I click, I can't select yellow stripe without zooming. Alt+click do the job, but it doesn't help in complex cases (i.e., if i need to select a shape inside a group with ctrl+click).

Please, help! I don't know whether it is a bug or a new feature, but it is quite painful to draw icons with lots of small details now. Please, help me to switch it off, I didn't find proper setting in "Options".

[mwenz]

If you are having problems selecting tiny objects that are below other objects, perhaps using the layers gallery would be a solution until such time the developers have a look.

Take care, Mike

[Frip]

Thank you, but I don't see how it could help. For example, now I'm working on four icons. There are about 225 shapes in gallery for now, and number keep growing. More than 50 shapes per icon. Some objects are quite similar and differ in size, position or transparency - I can't distinguish between 'em in gallery.

P.S. My issue is not about objects that are below other objects. I'm talking about objects that aren't covered with anything, but still cannot be selected in new version of XDP.

[mwenz]

Just so I can test in an apples for apples situation, can you upload a test file with say those small lines you show? If I create my own, they may not be the same size. It may also aid the developers for testing in a few versions in their comparison.

You may also consider filing a support ticket and provide the URL to this thread. Else they need to be being active on the forum to see your issue.

Take care, Mike

[handrawn]

+1

[Frip]

Good idea, I should've done this before. The source file: xara-click-fail.xa.xar

Try to select yellow stripe in any set at 100% - it's impossible.

I found that "snap" area is 3px, which means that even 6px wide objects can become unselectable.

[mwenz]

Yep, that's true. But then I wouldn't be trying to select X px wide objects at 100% zoom, either.

Tried XDP7. No joy at 100% zoom

Tried XDP6. At 100% zoom, I could select the yellow strip in each set except the far left.

Heck, there could be a registry setting for this. The default in XDP7 and DPX doesn't affect my work because I would never not zoom in. Blame it on old eyes.

Take care, Mike

[Frip]

It depends on habits, I guess. In XDP6 I can easily select yellow stripe even in the first (the smallest) set at 100%, and I usually do so.

Anyway, thank you for the registry hint. I've found this key:
HKEY_USERS\*user-id*\Software\Xara\XtremePro\8.1\Options\Mouse -> HitTestRadius = 3
Seting HitTestRadius to 0 improves DPX behavior. But it's still not a magic bullet. I mean, it turns off smart-hitting at all, so selecting single 1px wide object becomes quite a challange.

All I want is XDP6 behaviour - smart-hitting if user clicked on empty space and exact-hitting if cursor points on an object. I didn't find such setting in registry. Probably, I will make a support ticket.

Thank you very much!

[Frip]

I'm just curious, guys. This "feature" appeared in XDP7, right? It's more than a year. How it is possible that no one noticed it before?

Because 6px wide line is not so a tiny object. Besides, if you need to select 1px wide object, even 600% zoom won't let you do this. You need to zoom in at least to 700%. And even then "clickable" area is only 1px in the very center of the object - it's still pretty hard to hit, isn't it? It makes Xara very unpredictable about what it selects upon user's clicks. So what's the point of this improvement?

[PhilM]

This feature is intended to make it easier for the average user to select what he clicks on. We found that a lot of users, including experienced users, had difficulty positioning the mouse to the exact pixel to select the intended object. So now the highest object found in a small area around the click point is what we select.

However when we make a change like that we always make sure that the old behaviour is still available and you can get the original click behaviour back by setting the registry entry DebugFlags / AreaClicks to 0.

Hope that helps.

Phil