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ThosG · Joined: 24 May 2008 Posts: 1

I love the easy access to fonts and many other features of Zeusdraw, but I haven't bought it - yet.

For me, the two new features I need are:

1. Setting object size and orientation easily. At present this is significantly harder than in Lineform, where you just grab the handle and resize, using modifier keys for rotation and for changing the bounding box without rescaling. I use this feature all the time.

2. Text along a path. I use this more rarely but when you need it you need it - it's hard to find a good workaround.

I would buy Zeusdraw at once if those were provided. Until then I shall wait and see.

Thomas Green

rclair · Site Admin Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 122

Command_F · Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 4

stuartleitchoakpark · Joined: 18 Jun 2009 Posts: 2

Mostly I love ZeusDraw 1.3.2. I would love to use it instead of Adobe Illustrator, but I need a few more features before I can make the switch.

If these new features would require building a more expensive ZeusDraw Pro, I would pay a good price for it, say $200 (the price of an Illustrator upgrade). In that case, a competitive upgrade would make a big difference.

You could even charge $300 for a ZeusDraw Pro version, with a competitive upgrade around $150 or a little less.

Here are my ZeusDraw needs and some problems that I found:

—I need Global swatches. I use them a lot when I design the elements of a board game, and when I assign colors throughout other utilitarian designs that I often need to change globally later on.

—Design Colors palette
——When I click on an object, I want to see its stroke or fills color (or both) highlighted here.
——I want to name these colors.

—Selection tool
I want the option to select objects by just touching them. I use this a lot in Illustrator. For instance, I often need to select a row of aligned objects without selecting other objects that partly cover them.

—Invisible objects
The page Intro to Drawing says: “Objects that you can't see are a bit pointless, so you can't turn off both the stroke and the fill at the same time”, but actually I use them a lot. For instance, I group an invisible object with a visible one to control its position in grid snapping.

—Hide Selection
I use this Illustrator feature a lot. For instance, when I’m grouping an array of game pieces from several elements each, I hit Command-G, Command-3 for each piece to confirm that I actually grabbed all the elements. I use it other times when I’m separating things that are close together.

—Move to another layer
ZeusDraw lets me do this, but only if the payer is visible. When I move an object to an invisible layer this in Illustrator, I have visual confirmation that I moved it.
Also, I prefer Illustrator’s elegant method for this: simply moving a marker in the Layers palette to another layer.

—Outline view
I use that a lot in Illustrator, to check alignment and to the see invisible objects that I find so useful for aligning grouped objects.

—Direct Selection tool?
I forget: does ZeusDraw have that? I use it a lot in Illustrator.

—Show Edges
I often use this command in Illustrator, to confirm that I have selected one element of a group with the Direct Selection tool.

—Paste in front
I use that a lot in Illustrator.

—Distribute Spacing
I use that a fair amount in Illustrator.

—Multi-Copy Fan Tool
It’s very nice, but it needs a better preview. ZeusDraw Help says “A copy of the selection will appear under the cursor”, and that does happen, but I need to see the first piece of the fan as well, and preferably also the other new pieces. After all, the Multi-Copy Full Circle and Multi-Copy Along Path tools work that way.

—Snap to Point sometimes doesn’t work when I use the Pen tool: no bulls-eye at least half of the time. It works fine with the Measure Distance tool.

So why not a ZeusDraw Pro?

rclair · Site Admin Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 122

Some of what you suggest could be done - at the risk of making things more complicated for the bulk of users. As for a "Pro Version" see below.

We are going to be adding some more advanced features - text boxes and text along a path for example.

Command_F · Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 4

patricksnead24 · Joined: 29 May 2010 Posts: 1

Hi All,

It is right that the text on a curve was my particular request but text boxes would be good..............

Thanks,
Kaffeevollautomat

nikwolf · Joined: 07 Jun 2008 Posts: 3

rclair · Site Admin Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 122

I'm sorry for the delay. I had a bit of a disaster with another project - a book project that wound up taking a year longer than expected. But the book went to the printer on June 29 th which should leave some time for working on ZD this summer. I hope to have a new release out before the end of the year, hopefully in mid- fall.