It’s like that film, with those flying dudes.
Ok, two exciting new functions in the latest controller release (v1.1.3).
- Vector scaling and moving. Loaded SVGs can now be moved and resized using the same kind of controls as bitmaps, one to move, one to resize, so that’s nice and easy. Still no way to “select” a particular area beyond changing the page size, and that’s not really what page size is for, so I need to do something about that.
There is a slightly related issue about what happens to the lines that go off the edge of the page. At the moment, if a path goes off the edge of the page and then comes back onto it then there’s a slightly unpredictable line between the exit and the reentry point. That’s marked for fixing.
Another slightly related issue is that the machine will only draw a line segment if both ends are on the page. This is ok for drawings that have lots of little lines, but if there is a long line that only a tiny bit hangs off the page, then the whole line will be missing. Fixing that kind of issue is a little more than I was hoping to get into, but it’s a bit of a stinker so I probably will. - Multiple config files. The main config file is now called default.properties.txt. This is intended to be used as an empty “untitled” document that will always be automatically loaded when the controller starts. But when you start laying out your images and making modifications, you can now “save as” a new config file, that can be worked with from that point, and be reloaded at a later date.
I haven’t had a very thorough test of this stuff, and I know that something a little odd happens when you change mmPerRev or stepsPerRev. I still think it’s easiest to modify those settings by changing them directly in the txt file.
A word about testing and releasing.
When I’m putting in new features, or fixing issues, I do try to do some testing, but it’s often fairly rudimentary. For issues like the multiple config files (above), while I know there are some things in it that don’t quite work, I’m still releasing that, because it doesn’t change the old behaviour. You can still use the app like you always could. If it required you to change lots of things, then I’d be a bit circumspect about letting it out.
For something like moving and resizing vectors, this is such a useful thing that it’s better that it’s out there and not working properly than it’s not available at all, at least, that’s my reasoning. (And I think it is working properly, anyway!) It might not be very proper development practice, in fact I know it isn’t, but I think the elite band of folk who choose to use this software would prefer to have something you can muddle through with rather than something that’s absolutely perfect but can’t do anything. At least that’s what I’m looking for, ha!
As ever, new precompiled version available from the code downloads page and the source available from the head of the controller trunk.
Cool, Thanks.
worked out perfect for me on win7 ! this was the most wanted feature for me and probably many others. this makes the polargraph an incredible powerfull machine. thank you!
Good stuff!
I wont be able to test this for a while, but still wanted to say thanks!
I found that the if I select a specific area of the image that I have loaded in, the config file will not remember the cooedinate of the area that I have selected to draw. If Now I have several pictures that I want to draw the same part of them, so I have to preprocess these picture using PS etc, and I have to load the picutres for n times if I want to draw n picutres.
Yes the config file does not save the selected area. However, it does save the current “frame” – which is the set of alignment marks on the preview. You can modify the frame by pulling a selection area and pressing “set frame to area”, and then save the config. When you restart, then you can press “select frame” and it will select the area inside the frame. This is a bit hard to explain, and I don’t think it’s that clear, but that’s how it’s meant to work. It was a feature for exactly your purpose – producing multiple drawings the same size.