News...

[Eric Pousse]

Bonjour,

A new beta version is available for test :
Version Mac OS X
Version Windows

2 main news :
- The highlighting of objects in attraction,
- A modification of the editing pallet.

Example of the highlighting of an object overflown by the cursor with the arrow tool, here the rectangle:


Example of highlighting at an attraction, here the line not highlighted is being created and there is an attraction intersection, the 2 objects between which the intersection is found are highlighted:


The Edit pallet now allows you to delete the edited points of a polygon or a spline and allows you to navigate among the objects of a multiple selection:
Here 4 objects have been selected, the <and> buttons let you choose the edited object that is highlighted:


Here the polygon is edited, the pallet is enlarged and 2 new buttons appear to delete one or the other of the edited points.
The button to navigate through the polygon points has been moved:


Thank you for your feedback and good holidays Christmas and New Year!

[debenriver]

I like it

At first I was a bit wary of the green highlighting but now I have got used to it, it is really useful.

I think it might be good to be able to turn highlighting on or off in the preferences, as in a big drawing with lots of grouped objects etc. it can get a bit overwhelming.

Two oddities have occurred so far:

1. a crash, with multiple crash messages – and each time you click OK, it creates another message. This has happened twice so far.

Screen Shot 2016-12-22 at 17.23.28.jpg (225.91 KiB) Viewed 14035 times

2. Some polygons are a bit odd. They produce a green diagonal that seems infinitely long. I can redraw a similar shape and the problem disappears – I can't quite work out why! I think every polygon that it has happened on has been imported via DXF – so that might be something to do with it – maybe a rogue node somewhere. It's not super important anyway.

Screen Shot 2016-12-22 at 18.27.29.jpg (252.55 KiB) Viewed 14035 times

I REALLY like the ability to delete a node on a polygon or spline – specially with a spline it's so easy to draw more nodes than you want and previously removal (by dragging a node on top of another) didn't seem to work. A big improvement .

I can see that being able to step through a set of selected objects can also be useful – I just haven't actually needed to use that facility yet in practice. on one of my drawings – but I expect the time will come when I do!

Thanks Eric

George

[debenriver]

I experimented a bit more with polygons/polycurves. From the same drawing:

Screen Shot 2016-12-22 at 19.03.17.png (192.9 KiB) Viewed 14040 times

Selecting the blue cove line (which is a polygon), gives this:

Screen Shot 2016-12-22 at 19.03.23.png (209.42 KiB) Viewed 14040 times

As I said in my previous post, it's not important – just curious!

Cheers -- George

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

[debenriver]

I experimented a bit more! The green highlight extensions happen when a polygon goes off to a very sharp point – which makes sense.

Here's part of a new polygon (not imported from anything):

Screen Shot 2016-12-23 at 06.18.06.png (37.41 KiB) Viewed 14039 times

The two nodes before the point are very close, but not quite touching, and not crossing.

Here's what happens when you mouse over the polygon:

Screen Shot 2016-12-23 at 06.18.47.png (146.48 KiB) Viewed 14039 times

If I move one of the points about 1mm further away the effect disappears.

The ends of the blue cove line in my earlier post are made from a half-circle, joining the top and bottom lines and then converted to lines and then converted to a polygon (so it can be filled) as below:

Screen Shot 2016-12-23 at 06.28.40.png (11.69 KiB) Viewed 14039 times

If you mouse over that you get the green extension lines. As I said totally not important

Cheers -- George

[Eric Pousse]

Merci George for this feedbacks!

I will take a look on them.

Merry Christmas!

[Mikerosen]

I will play with the new feature, as well. It looks interesting.

Happy holidays to both of you (and of course, everyone else!)

[Mikerosen]

I must be doing something wrong, or misinterpreting what it does.

If I draw a few objects, and mouse over them with the selection tool, the highlighting goes on.

But, if I draw a rectangle, and want to draw a line (for example) from one side to the other, after I select the line tool, the highlighting only goes on at nodes: corners, midpoints, but nowhere else. This feature would be more helpful to me if it went on as soon as I was anywhere on the starting and ending lines.

I have the snap-to feature "on" for endpoint, intersection, center, and tangent.

[debenriver]

Hi Mike

Best wishes to you for Christmas and the New Year Maybe 2017 will be a more peaceful year than 2016 ...

Squares, rectangle and polygons don't react perfectly to snap and drawing a line from one side to the other.

If 'P' is not selected in the snap pallet, then you can draw a (non-perpendicular) line from one side to the other – the 'in line with endpoint' indicator will indicate a start point exactly on one side and a finish point exactly on the other side.

If you select "P" in the snap pallet instead of, or in addition to, "T", then you will be able to draw a perpendicular from anywhere on, say, a side of a rectangle.

The problem is that you can't continue the line to the opposite side unless you stop drawing it and then pick it up again. If you try to keep drawing it, it flicks about to all the other sides.

And even if you do pick the line up again and continue to draw it to the other side, the "Periphery" symbol (like a small letter 's') doesn't appear to tell you that you have got exactly to the other side. – but the 'in line with an endpoint' indicator will tell you when you are there.

However the 'in line with endpoint' indicator does not cause the green highlighting to come on – which is what i think you are "complaining" about!

If you convert a rectangle (or polygon) to lines, then you can draw a perpendicular from one side to the other perfectly properly – and when your line reaches the other side the little "Periphery" symbol (like a small letter 's') will come on to indicate that you have exactly hit the other line.

Again, on a rectangle converted to lines if you want to draw a line from one of the sides, but not perpendicular (and not from an endpoint of centre), then deselect "P" in the snap pallet. Move the drawing cursor until it indicates it is in line with an endpoint and start to draw the line – the start point will be exactly on the line.

And when you get to the other side the little 's' symbol will indicate that you are exactly there.

But again, the "in line with endpoint" indicator will not cause the green highlighting to come on - though the 's' symbol will.

At least - I think that is how it is ...

I like the green highlighting in general – but on a big complicated drawing I find it is pretty annoying and I think it slows things down – which is why i would like to be able to turn it off if I wished to ... actually it would be nice to be able to toggle it on and off on the little menu bottom left of the screen.

Cheers -- George

[Mikerosen]

I'll keep experimenting...

But, if memory serves me, I have asked many times for a better indication of end points when drawing from line to line.

[Eric Pousse]

George, Mike,

Thank you for your feedbacks!

The highlighting occurs when there is an attraction on an object according the context.
When we start drawing a line from a rectangle without the perpendicular attraction there is only attraction( and highlighting) on vertex and corners.

George, I will add the possibility to switch on/off the highlighting.

Mike, how do you want to have a better indication of end points?
Actually, we have the cursor which indicates that and a small square is drawn.
Some apps display a cross or write on what they have attraction.

And I will try to add the attraction "surface" on all objects... It is Christmas!

Cordialement.