Corner editor results and usability

[Ingolf]

@VectorStyler said in Corner editor results and usability:

@Ingolf
3) Would making the center corner have a different color work here?

No. There can be many similar controls in play, they can have different colours + another colour when selected, and if we imagine a scenario where work is being done in a colourful detailed design, then it all gets lost in colour. I definitely think we need a symbol here.

Serif chose a nasty little red circle as they seem to work in microscope with their love for small UI elements, while Adobe for once has hit a sweet spot that I recommend following:

Or resized:

Video of Illustrator and corners (YouTube)

I definitely find Adobe's corner tool the nicest to work in of all the programs I've tried. The results are excellent and the user interface is simple and unobtrusive.

So if in VS we have a circle and Adobe has a circle, there's no reason for VS' to be any different if all it takes is a little dot. It also makes it easier to understand for people coming from Adobe.

[Ingolf]

@VectorStyler said in Corner editor results and usability:

@Ingolf

1. the corners are assymmetric if there was a scaling or some shape effect added on the shape (scaling is nondestructive). The only way to get rid of this issue is to convert to curves before adding the corner.
   I will try to change this to allow symmetric corners for scaled shapes also, but the issue is that this is not always possible, since the corners are also scaled.
   A workaround would be to use the "corner" shape effect (Shape Effect panel), which is added as a shape effect on top of scaling (ads corner to already scaled shape). But this effect is not editable interactively, only by adjusting the numeric parameters (corner size).

Yes, I thought it was not trivial.

Circumstantial workarounds are possible, but in this case not really suitable, as I experience it in handtraced drawings, where I round a lot (!) of corners spread out over the whole drawing, and want to do it quickly, so that the drawing looks natural, organic.

It's not that important, the main problem with it is probably that people won't really understand why it's happening with a specific corner and what they should or can do.

The danger with e.g. the video I linked to and examples, is that they are always the simplest scenarios, but that users actually get the programs into completely different complex and diverse use scenarios.

[fde101]

@VectorStyler said in Corner editor results and usability:

the issue is that this is not always possible, since the corners are also scaled.

Why doesn't performing a "Reset Transform" before using the corner tool fix this?

[VectorStyler]

@fde101 said in Corner editor results and usability:

Why doesn't performing a "Reset Transform" before using the corner tool fix this?

That would mean a convert to curves, just because the corner tool is activated.
Can be done now manually.

One workaround would be to make the corner tool aware of possible scaling, rotation and skewing and adjust for that. This would retain the nondestructive mode.

[Ingolf]

@VectorStyler Now we are talking about corners and code... just curious, not feature request: is it possible code-wise to finalize one corner of several you have made corners on, i.e. convert just one to curves? I can't remember what I was doing, but at one point I was working on something where I wanted to continue working on the corner with other tools, and wanted to keep the others with the corner rounding effect for at bit longer.

No one would use it but me, and it would be overcomplexity, but curiosity just got the better of me

[VectorStyler]

@Ingolf said in Corner editor results and usability:

possible code-wise to finalize one corner of several you have made corners on, i.e. convert just one to curves

This would be possible, but only if the shape has already been converted to curves, and the corner added to the resulting path.

[Ingolf]

@VectorStyler said in Corner editor results and usability:

@Ingolf said in Corner editor results and usability:

possible code-wise to finalize one corner of several you have made corners on, i.e. convert just one to curves

This would be possible, but only if the shape has already been converted to curves, and the corner added to the resulting path.

Ah, in my case it would be in a monster of an object I had hand traced, where I first draw something quickly and then return to beautify or clean up.

Aha now I remember. This is exactly the scenario. Let's say I've hand traced something complex, and have rounded a few corners too with the corner tool in the first stage. A path drawn with pen tool with many, many nodes of different type.

Then comes the phase where I finish the curve with precision. Here I have sometimes needed to use the curve I made with corner tool as a starting point and then work on it with shape editor. But I have not been ready to convert to curves yet, as the other corners processed with corner editor are not ready for conversion. I still have to process them.

So my use case - which is not important at all. But that's what made me think about it once.

Thanks for the reply

[VectorStyler]

@Ingolf said in Corner editor results and usability:

in my case it would be in a monster of an object I had hand traced, where I first draw something quickly and then return to beautify or clean up.

then it is easy.

[Ingolf]

@VectorStyler said in Corner editor results and usability:

@Ingolf said in Corner editor results and usability:

in my case it would be in a monster of an object I had hand traced, where I first draw something quickly and then return to beautify or clean up.

then it is easy.

Hm, I'll handtrace some more and see if it makes sense to consider implementing. It just adds complexity to no avail if it can't be implemented in a way that the UI offers it at your fingertips.

I'll have to see the improved context toolbars and other things before I dare and should say more.

[fde101]

@VectorStyler said in Corner editor results and usability:

@fde101 said in Corner editor results and usability:

Why doesn't performing a "Reset Transform" before using the corner tool fix this?

That would mean a convert to curves, just because the corner tool is activated.
Can be done now manually.

I was seeing this behavior with a random shape I created with the pen tool in order to try it out, so it should have already been curves?
Not sure now, maybe I just wasn't looking at it right...