Vector Object Selection and Drawing: Some Suggestions

[Herbert123]

Last month and this month I am drawing lots of vector objects in Photoline. While I think the overall vector tools are on par with most other applications, some basic omissions and vector object workflow gotchas of Photoline drive me a bit crazy at times doing this type of work.

I'd like to propose some improvements:

1) when there is visually only one object under the mouse cursor, I expect that object to be selected when I click it. Currently, that is not the case: suppose there is a long, curved object of which its transparent area overlaps a smaller, free-standing vector object, Photoline will select that larger object, depending on where it is in the layer stack. Very counter-intuitive, and being forced to holding down the mouse button while hitting the up and down cursor keys all the time, or clicking multiple times to select really kills the workflow. It's maddening, in fact.

I understand when there are a number of stacked objects present under the mouse cursor - I actually like the up and down cursor method in that case - but it makes no sense when only two or three objects are stacked, but not in any visual way (i.e. transparent areas) - in that case the actual object's clicked content should be selected.

2) selecting a vector object with the layer tool results in a overall rectangle of the selected object. In a drawing with many objects, more often than not it becomes very hard to decide which part is actually selected - having the outline of the actual vector object high-lighted would be extremely helpful. Half the time I am unsure which element got selected, and when zoomed in this is even more problematic, since not all corners are visible. Then I am forced to zoom out to get my bearings. Very slow and cumbersome.

3) the edit vector points tool not only behaves like the layer tool when selecting objects (1), but unfortunately does not offer me the option to use the cursor keys to cycle through possible selections. This forces me to oftentimes switch back and forth between the layer tool and the vector points tool to select the proper objects. Again, slowing down the workflow quite a bit.

4) I would expect the edit vector points tools to include an option to high-light the lines of the vector objects I select (related to (2) and (3)).

5) when adjusting points and handles with the edit vector point tool, there is no way to show all handles of a curve, outside selecting all the points. An option to show all the handles irrespectively of whether they are selected or not would be extremely helpful.

6) when I select multiple points, and I use the convert vector points tool, I expect all the selected points to be converted - not just the one line segment.

7) Worse, when I click on the line segment on the left of a selected point, the point remains selected, and a handle is added there. When I then click on the line segment on the opposite side, I lose the selection, and I have to select that point once more to show both handles.

All in all, my main frustrations are the extremely cumbersome vector object selection behaviour in Photoline and lack of visual feedback (highlighted line segments option) - I am not aware of any vector app that responds this way - perhaps the selection behaviour of the edit vector points tools could behave like any other illustration application? As it stands now it almost feels as if selection is broken at times, although I am aware that is not the case.

[Juan]

Hi all,

I would like to add a small suggestion to this as well , the ability to snap the guides to the points of the vector points, right now works only the points to the guides but not the opposite.

Cheers
Juan

[bkh]

Last month and this month I am drawing lots of vector objects in Photoline. While I think the overall vector tools are on par with most other applications, some basic omissions and vector object workflow gotchas of Photoline drive me a bit crazy at times doing this type of work.

I've had a look at the way Inkscape (supposedly imitating Illustrator) behaves in this regard.

1) when there is visually only one object under the mouse cursor, I expect that object to be selected when I click it. Currently, that is not the case: suppose there is a long, curved object of which its transparent area overlaps a smaller, free-standing vector object, Photoline will select that larger object, depending on where it is in the layer stack.

Yes, I had proposed the same a while ago. The objection by the developers was that this made it hard to select thin objects like hairlines. I checked how Inkscape handles this: as far as I could see, it selects the topmost element within some 8 screen pixels from the clicked cursor position (quite a distance, it seems to me). Not perfect, either, because if A is on top of B and you click within B but happen to be within 8 px from A, then A is selected (but of course, this problem cannot be avoided). There are also other questions to be answered: what about semi-transparent objects? In Inkscape, semi-transparent objects work just like opaque ones, while blurry edges don't get selected. What about layer styles (shadows etc.) in PL?

2) selecting a vector object with the layer tool results in a overall rectangle of the selected object. In a drawing with many objects, more often than not it becomes very hard to decide which part is actually selected - having the outline of the actual vector object high-lighted would be extremely helpful.

Inkscape behaves in the same way as PL. I don't see how highlighting should work — imo, a selected object shouldn't change its colour, line width or line style.

3) the edit vector points tool not only behaves like the layer tool when selecting objects (1), but unfortunately does not offer me the option to use the cursor keys to cycle through possible selections. This forces me to oftentimes switch back and forth between the layer tool and the vector points tool to select the proper objects. Again, slowing down the workflow quite a bit.

Sounds like a very useful suggestion to me.

5) when adjusting points and handles with the edit vector point tool, there is no way to show all handles of a curve, outside selecting all the points. An option to show all the handles irrespectively of whether they are selected or not would be extremely helpful.

Inkscape doesn't do that, either. However, it shows you the handles of one vector point to the left and to the right of the one(s) you are currently using. This might be a good compromise, because e.g. in the case of a free vector curve, you'd get to see far too many handles.

Cheers

Burkhard.