Intaglio
10 replies to this thread. Most Recent
b6 still has arc bug
1) Create arc, use shift key to constrain its stroke to 45 degree increments.
2) Do something else, go back to arc, shift key still constrains its stroke to 45 degree increments.
3) Now drag arc to another location. Shift key no longer constrains arc, it just makes its path go haywire.
This is weird too, and is present in b6
Look at this pdf of reshaped arcs, the ends have gone funny.
privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~mjr/arctest.pdf
Here is the file, have a go at reshaping these arcs (scroll to bottom) with the shift key held down, look at how the funny ends move about:
privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~mjr/arctest.intaglio
Because these save to pdf, I conclude that they are real rather than screen drawing errors, but there seem to be no handles to manipulate.
Any thoughts?
I’m afraid I can’t seem to either reproduce this bug in b6 Nor can I download your Intaglio file either (which doesn’t help)
I appreciate that this is frustrating for you. I also apologise for ‘hijacking’ your thread- It’s the nature of how this list works. I wish Purgatory design would turn it into a ‘proper’ forum (phpbb- that sort of thing).
I also use Microspot MacDraft btw, which is very similar to Intaglio (and hasn’t got the ‘ghastly interface’ that you describe (yes QCAD does have a ghastly interface! :¬) ).
Tom
On 4 Jul 2008, at 12:23, Max Roberts wrote:
Any thoughts?
Not a problem, lets just focus on trying to make a great vector graphics package even better.
Try the following to download the file (from Safari): Control-click on the link to bring up a contextual menu and “Save linked file as…”, delete the .txt from the name and click save, decline the invitation to add .txt
Have had a look at Microspot MacDraft, definitely a better package than the last one, it would be possible to make good maps using it but not the best. The features are good for getting something quick and dirty together, but take away a lot of the control from the designer. Also, align and distribute functions are essential for doing a map, and in Intaglio are great and work really well. In MacDraft they don’t seem to offer as good a range of options. I also couldn’t find a way of getting true zoom on MacDraft: zooming in made strokes thinner. No way could I design a map like that.
The smart guides in Intaglio have enormous potential. If only they could be a little bit smarter, perhaps with modifier keys to help them along. They sew up horizontals and verticals, if only they could sew up diagonal alignments too.
There are two other things about Intaglio that make it incredibly useful for making a map. First, copy and paste, click on an object and then paste, the pasted object lands dead centre of the clicked object. Perfect, interchange circles in the right place every time (amongst other things). Second, the underlying engine seems fundamentally sound. If I abut two objects perfectly at, say, 800% magnification, they will appear be perfectly abutted at all levels of zoom out. You would not believe the number of applications that cannot manage that.
If only the glitches with the arcs and diagonals could be fixed, which they really should be by Version 3, I can see at least one large cartography company switching to Intaglio.
I agree.
I also wish that they had an indicator attached to them which would appear where the mouse pointer is pressed, with an indication of the distance from the border to where the smart guide currently is.
I also wish that the smart guide could be repositioned, rather than having to erase them, and starting over.
(Look at BeLight’s Swift Publisher- to see what I mean).
Try the following to download the file (from Safari): Control-click on the link to bring up a contextual menu and “Save linked file as…”, delete the .txt from the name and click save, decline >>the invitation to add .txt
FWIW, I’m not having much luck with this. I’m not even getting the invitation to add txt. (MBP2, 10.5.4)
On 4 Jul 2008, at 14:06, Max Roberts wrote:
The smart guides in Intaglio have enormous potential. If only they could be a little bit smarter, perhaps with modifier keys to help them along. They sew up horizontals and verticals, if only they could sew up diagonal alignments too.
On Jul 4, 2008, at 7:40 AM, Tom Fenn wrote:
I’m afraid I can’t seem to either reproduce this bug in b6 Nor can I download your Intaglio file either (which doesn’t help)
I clicked on
privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~mjr/arctest.intaglio
which showed some nonsense.
I saved the nonsense but deleted .txt from
arctest.intaglio.txt
Then I clicked and Intaglio took over.
Regards
Ahh- I was getting .dms whatever that means, but no worries, Max and I have been communicating off list, so there isn’t a problem any longer.
There does look like a bug there. I’m sure Max will report back soon.
Tom On 4 Jul 2008, at 16:05, Alain Schremmer wrote:
> >
On Jul 4, 2008, at 7:40 AM, Tom Fenn wrote:
I’m afraid I can’t seem to either reproduce this bug in b6 Nor can I download your Intaglio file either (which doesn’t help)
I clicked on
privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~mjr/arctest.intaglio
which showed some nonsense.
I saved the nonsense but deleted .txt from
arctest.intaglio.txt
Then I clicked and Intaglio took over.
Regards —schremmer
On Jul 4, 2008, at 9:06 AM, Max Roberts wrote:
They sew up horizontals and verticals, if only they could sew up diagonal alignments too.
I had a feeling i had run a couple of times into something involving squares that were not quite squares and that I had thought might be related to the fact that the vertical and the horizontal definitions are different but couldn’t reproduce.
Regards
On Jul 4, 2008, at 11:10 AM, Tom Fenn wrote:
but no worries, Max and I have been communicating off list, so there isn’t a problem any longer.
Ah! I sure prefer it that way.
Grateful regards
Its a funny one that is linked to the shift key, not reshaping without the shift key immediately cleans up the edges. What seems to work best is to adjust the arc shiftless until it is nearly right, then just hit the shift key to lock it in position, not perfect, the mouse still needs to be fiddles with, but it seems to work just about. I am just bemused as to how you can get a change of direction without a rogue handle there somewhere.
Try it, convert one of the dud arcs to a curve and swivel the handel at that end. You see something really odd, possibly a clue to what is going wrong.
When I get home I will open up the pdf with Canvas and see whether it will let me get at what is happening.
It is precisely these little quirks that really annoy me about Intaglio, because actually, Intaglio has huge potential- it is actually a great bit of software, just let down by these weird occasional bugs and blips. It’s a bit like this list too- both in need of taking one step backwards and having a good rethink. The images of the maps are really great, but let us have a gallery so great images like these can be on display properly- something like a phpbb type forum offers. I mean this present system doesn’t even allow Mail to sort Intaglio posts into their own mailboxes :-(
Come on Freeway folk! What do you people think? In fact, what about all you Intaglio users out there? What do you think too??
On 4 Jul 2008, at 16:30, Max Roberts wrote:
Try it, convert one of the dud arcs to a curve and swivel the handel at that end. You see something really odd, possibly a clue to what is going wrong.
