Got an idea for Illustrator???

With Smart Guides turned on, the Rotate tool snaps to the angles set in the Smart Guides preference, but relative to the position of the mouse click. This would be much more useful if it snaped to the pref angles relative to the center of transformation.

For example: I set the Smart Guides angles to 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 to facilitate isometric drawing. Then I try to rotate an ellipse to align correctly with an axis. But when I use the rotate tool, Smart Guides references the point where I first click to initiate the rotation, which is useless for my purpose. If it referenced the center of transformation point, I would know when I have ROTATED THE OBJECT 30 degrees, rather than merely when I have moved my mouse around the point where I clicked. But instead, the Smart Guides only indicates the default 45 and 90 degrees relative to the origin point about which I am rotating the object.

JET

It's a constant mystery to me why no PostScript vector drawing tool has any more capable an ellipse tool than every ordinary office application.

Similar to a set of ellipse templates, an ILLUSTRATION program should at least offer this:

Double click the ellipse tool to invoke a simple dialog in which is a field labeled "angle." If one keys in 35, he gets a 35 degree ellipse (scaled by the cosign of 30 degrees) when he ShiftDrags an ellipse, rather than a circle. Greatly needed for tech-ish illustration. The dialog should also have a check box labeled "isometric." This would ShiftConstrain the ellipse to 35°16' and scale it aproximately 124.24% so that its true measure would be across it's 30° (isometric) diameter.

Frankly, all LBOs and polygon tools should have this funtionality, but it is first and most sorely needed for ellipses.

This is a cross post from one I put in the discussion threads. Someone said I should put it in this thread, too.

In AI, the Constrain function is less accessible than it is in FH,
because it is a preference setting. Besides being much less convenient
to get to, it also means you can't utilize it in AI's Actions. If you
COULD use it in Actions, it would be very useful in tech
illustration--moreso than FH's Constrain--because changing AI's
constrain also rotates the grid (!). So using Actions, you could set up
one-click buttons to rotate the grid to the axis you are drawing on, and
you'd be able to use the grid to measure along the axis.

If anyone pertainent at Adobe is listening here, I sure hope this would
be considered as a modification for the next version. Make the Constrain
function immediately accessible as a simple menu selection instead of a
preference. (In FH, it's a command under the View menu. There is a
Constrain Xtra that basically just lets you access the Constrain dialog
by clicking on a "tool" icon. So, for example, when you are drawing in
isometric, you can simply put the Constrain Tool in a convenient place
(mine stays in the main toolbar). You click it, key in either 30, 150,
or 0, and hit return. Don't even have to look at the screen, so it's
fairly quick. Of course, this is nowhere NEAR as good as it would be in
AI, if only the Constrain could be built into an Action. You could
create 3 buttons, (one for each X, Y, and Z axis) and one click would
give you a measurable grid on the appropriate axis. Besides FH not
having a macro capability like AI's Actions, FH's Constrain does not
rotate the grid. So making the Constrain funtion in AI a menu selection
instead of a preference would result in a significant advantage for tech illustration.

If you REALLY want to blow FH away in this regard, do the same thing
with the grid. The user definable Grid is similar to FH's Rulers in that
you can set the increment you want. But in FH, again, it's a menu
command/dialog, not a preference setting. And you can create as many
custom rulers as you want (they are then selectable from a popup at the
lower left of the document window). If AI allowed for multiple
user-defined grids, then made them accessible as menu items rather than
as prefs, you could switch them with Actions. Then, you could, with one
click, measure along your three drawing axes EVEN IF THEY HAD DIFFERENT
SCALES (facilitating dimetric and trimetric, instead of just isometric
drawing.)

JET

Most if not all of the graphing (that is, charting) tools have an OK button
that applies the changes, but also closes the dialog.

When you're experimenting with different graph settings, it would save loads
of time to be able to Apply (and thus test) your settings before closing the
dialog.

Donald,

To include an image within a forum message you need to upload the image to a web server and then use the < img src= "yourimageURL.jpg> tag within the body of the message.

However, we would prefer yopu just make a link to the image rather than embedding it within the message then folks that don't want to see it needn't be saddled with bandwidth overhead

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Bring in a completely revised vector optimization palettes. We use a vertical market program called FlexiSignPRO ($5000) which has some incredibly intuitive vector control features. The website is http://www.amiableworld.com

If Illustrator could somehow utilize their vector tools then you guys would have it all!!!

1. The ability to set the Layers Palette functions to 'Show layer only' and 'Thumbnails off' as the default for all new and opened drawings.

2. Make the toolbox capable of docking as a single row of icons at the periphery of the screen with fly-outs for the tool options ala version 5.5(?).

3. Make functions for the right mouse button selectable and constant.

4. Return the selected color dot to the layer line so that color coded layers can be selected without having to select an object on the layer to see the layer color assignment.

5. Make the snap-to more accurate and stable.