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ToolShed adds Fade function for path object coloring

Fade Fill and Stroke dialog

ToolShed has a new function to fade the fill and/or stroke of a path object. Its appearance would be similar to an object whose opacity has been changed except that the opacity remains unchanged. Only the colors are lightened.

If the object had previously been faded, you can check “Invert fade” to darken the colors , equivalent to undoing a previous fade long after Undo no longer appeared in the Edit menu. Fade is added to the FREE functions of the plugin, and will continue to work even if the plugin is never activated.

This function can be called by selecting Fade… from the Object menu.

You can download it here. Each trial period includes 1,000 free uses of all features which you can use at your leisure, with no time constraints.

Tangent Arc Tool update

The Tangent Arc Tool in the ToolShed plugin has just been updated with a simple, but important improvement. Now when you begin drawing an arc, it can begin at any angle you want. Just click, and a guide line will be drawn from the clicked point to the current cursor location (press Shift to constrain to an increment of 45°). Once you press your mouse or stylus and begin to drag, the arc’s start angle will be locked in and your cursor location will determine the arc’s endpoint.

ToolShed 16.2.2 also adds stability improvements and is recommended for all users.

If you haven’t tried ToolShed, you can download it here and enjoy 1,000 free uses spread out over as much time as you need.

New Stabilized Pencil tool for ToolShed

stabilized pencil demoStabilized Pencil tool adds a “leash” to a pencil to smooth its motion, similar to Photoshop’s smoothed brushes. Keep sharp corners where you want them and smooth the broad strokes. Pulling the pen point begins with a slight buffer, and a ring around the pen point indicates that there’s “slack” in the leash, so your stroke won’t start with a jerk. The new path is simplified according to settings you choose. If the new path is drawn at the endpoint of another, it’s then automatically concatenated into one continuous path.

Customize its behavior by double-clicking the Stabilized Pen tool icon to access its Preferences. There, specify a leader length (or 0 for none) and path smoothing settings to match Adobe’s Object > Path > Simplify option. You can also choose whether to display the onscreen help text and annotations. Press the Alt/Option key when releasing the mouse button to skip the path simplification — the “high res” path can then be simplified later.

The ToolShed plugin has three tools and seven functions. I hope you find it useful. There’s a pretty good chance I’ll be bringing more tools to the shed in the not-too-distant future, which will make it an even better value.

Tangent Arc tool added to ToolShed

Adobe’s Pen tool is great for smooth free-flowing lines, but sometimes the curves we draw need to be real circular arcs. One could, of course, create an ellipse, constrained to equal width and height proportions, then trim and place it into position. And if the paths need to be tangent, well, it just takes a little patience and careful prodding.

Using the Tangent Arc toolNow there’s an easier way. The new Tangent Arc tool in the ToolShed plugin creates circular arcs of any radius, from a minimal curvature to nearly a complete circle, with lines that are constrained tangent to another path, or to the end of another path. Arcs are automatically concatenated to each other, so there’s no need to go back and join them later. A guide line shows the trajectory of an arc’s endpoint to guide your positioning for a smooth transition to the next arc, or for a tangent straight line you make by pressing the Alt/Option key. If you press Shift, the angle of the straight line or arc is constrained to increments of 15 degrees.

The ToolShed plugin is priced at only $15 for a collection of 10 tools, and with more tools coming soon it’ll become an even better value.

This tool has made parts of my work easier, faster, and more fun. I hope it does the same for you. Download the plugin and try it before you buy it.

Open Offset Path added to ToolShed

Have you ever needed to offset an open path in Adobe Illustrator and after running Illustrator’s Object > Path > Offset Path… function, needed to clean up a lot of extra paths? It happens to me, too, several times a day, sometimes several times per hour. Or at least it used to!

Graffix offset open path dialog

The ToolShed plugin now includes a menu item Object > Offset Open Path… that lets you offset an open path with another open path, just as it did through about version 6, and on nearly all other illustration or CAD software. Create additional offset paths by increasing the “Number of offsets” and see the result of your settings with the help of a live preview before you commit to the changes. Fine tune your values by pressing the arrow up or down keys along with shift, Alt/Option, and Ctl/Cmd modifiers for larger or finer steps. You can even customize the values of those steps to save in your preferences, working in points, mm, inches, whatever your preferred measurement among Illustrator’s options.

There’s even an option to choose “Offset mirroring” to add offset paths to both sides of a path.

Graffix OffsetOpenPath demoFor even quicker results, try the Path Offset tool to drag an equidistant path and use the up and down arrows to add intermediate steps or Alt/Option to mirror offsets to both sides of a path. If the modifier keys are too cumbersome to remember, optional context-sensitive help text following the cursor can remind you of your options.

It also works on closed paths, so it can serve as your all-purpose path offset tool. Of course, this is in addition to the six other functions already bundled in ToolShed at the same insanely low price!

It’s only $15 for an individual license for all tools in the ToolShed plugin, or free for Productivity Pack licenses.

All plugins are now CC 2019 compatible

All Graffix plugins for Adobe Illustrator are now compatible with Adobe Illustrator CC 2019. Updating the icons and cursors for ultra high-res screens is a project in progress, but for now the plugins are compatible and the UI scaling works.  If you have any trouble loading or using the plugins in CC 2019, please let me know and I’ll do everything I can to get you running ASAP.

New ToolShed plugin

ToolShed adds an assortment of functions (including some free ones):

\"radiant

Radiant creates a group of lines fanning out like a pie chart at equidistant angles. Again, a preview allows you to adjust the number of divisions to match your art.

\"Latitude

Latitude Lines creates a series of parallel lines distributed as though they were evenly spaced and wrapped around a cylinder (or globe). Use the live preview from the settings dialog to check your art before committing with the OK button.

\"Proportional

Scale Proportionally scales an object based on the proportion between two values. Say you have a map and you know that the distance from one point to another is 16.7783 miles. You can draw a line between those points and enter the distance you’d like your scale of miles to be, and the selected line will be scaled accordingly.

\"UnscaleUnscale Art can be used when, say, you’ve scaled a bunch of objects and one of them shouldn’t have been scaled. To return it to its original size, the plugin will figure the inverse of the scaling factor to restore it to its original size (or at least very, very close).

\"Minimum

Scale Stroke Weight will quickly scale the line thickness of selected paths by the percentage you enter without having to futz with settings in your Scale dialog.

\"Minimum

Minimum Stroke Weight will find all paths with a stroke thinner than your minimum and set the width accordingly.

More functions will likely be added to this plugin over time.

Please download it to try it out. There are 100 trial uses, and the Scale Stroke Weight and Minimum Stroke Weight will continue to work for free after the trial of the other functions is used.

\"\"

Download ToolShed

More Information • Purchase License

All CS3-CS5 plugins now FREE!

Graffix plugins for Adobe Illustrator CS3, CS4, and CS5 are no longer supported, but can be activated for free!

Just download the CS3-CS5 plugins you want, install them, then when prompted to register any of them, enter the following.

Name: Creative Suite User

Code: 5F-2474

Until you’re ready to move on to CS6 and the Creative Cloud, this ought to make work in the older versions a bit easier.

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