Have you ever needed to change the stacking (drawing) order of objects and used menu commands like Object > Arrange > Bring Forward or dragged them up or down in the Layers panel? Every once in a while, the order you need corresponds to the objects’ position on the page. With the latest version of ToolShed (16.3.7), there’s a new feature in the menu Object > Stacking Order… that addresses that.
Your alignment choices are, obviously, listed in the dialog shown above. The default stacking is bottom-to-top, but the checkbox in the dialog changes that to top-to-bottom. As you work, it helps to keep in mind Illustrator’s coordinate system, which is by default that positive values grow to the right or down. This may be confusing when stacking by the bottom edge, which is again measured from the ruler’s origin, not from below.
The following plugins are now compatible with Adobe Illustrator 2021:
AxoTools
Cleanup Tool
Concatenate
Cutting Tools
Nudge Panel
Select Menu
Square Up
ToolShed
Other plugins may work as well. Just copy them into into the Plug-ins folder of Illustrator 2021. There’s no guarantee, but they probably will work. The first time you launch Illustrator with the older plugins present, you’ll see a dialog like this for each plugin:
Click the button “Yes, load it” to load the plugin. Illustrator will remember your choice, so you will not be asked again.
If you have trouble with an older plugin, simply remove it from Illustrator’s Plug-ins folder.
It’s an known issue that the panels may be larger than their contents. It’s easiest to fix this by setting the UI scaling to its smallest settings in Preferences > User Interface. More information in this post regarding UI issues in Windows may apply.
As always, please let me know if you encounter any problems with the plugins, or if you care to offer suggestions for improving them. I like feedback!
The process of doing isometric/axonometric drawings in Adobe Illustrator really hasn’t changed much since the mid 1990s, or even since the late 1980s, something I hadn’t fully realized until doing the first AxoTools video. How many of you can relate to this?
Working in Illustrator 88, I would project art to isometric by manually doing the scale-rotate-scale method. When the QuicKeys keyboard macro utility came out, it automated that process and also allowed me to change the constrain angle by pressing an otherwise-unused function key.
In 1994, when Illustrator 5 added support for plugins, I wrote one called Isometric that I shared free on my web site. It added menu items to project art to and from isometric planes, and to create box and cylinder primitives. Does anybody recall using this? I also wrote a free companion plugin Isometric Line Tool to draw straight lines in isometric, which was around quite a while and later merged into AxoTools.
In 1998, Illustrator 8 added recordable Actions, which was easier to maintain than updating the plugin as Illustrator’s API became more complicated. It also added Smart Guides, which I relied on when QuicKeys had compatibility issues with operating system changes.
About this time, Adobe had a simple 3D app called Dimensions (not the same as their current Dimensions product) that exported shapes to a file Illustrator could open. This app was the origin of the “Off Axis” projections I use in my Actions and in the current AxoTools presets. I used Dimensions in my first locomotive cutaway rendering. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. Some of you may use SketchUp in that same way today.
Has anybody found Illustrator CS’s 3D effect actually useful for scale isometric drawings? I had high hopes when it appeared, but it never proved truly useful to me.
Hot Door’s CADtools has had support for isometric for several versions now, and in recent years supports axonometric views. I’ve found CADtools indispensable for technical drawing, but knew there had to be an easier way to assemble the pieces.
So for over 30 years, the process has been to project a shape to an isometric plane, then manually move it into position. This worked OK when one plane served as a sort of floor plan that other shapes could be snapped to, but it didn’t work well for most things I drew, like vehicles, machinery, and electronics. In order to get objects positioned correctly, I often drew a temporary “armature” with projected lines along two or three axes.
I’d actually envisioned today’s AxoTools plugin decades ago, using virtual armatures to position art and tools with custom constraints to move art along any defined axis. Using geometric formulas by Ron Kempke, it became possible to add support for any axonometric projection showing the left, right, and top views. Why it took so long, I’m sorry I can’t answer. I hope you agree that doing axonometric drawing in Adobe Illustrator is significantly easier than ever with AxoTools.
Schools and colleges may be eligible for a significant discount on the Productivity Pack set of plugins. For example, the University of Wisconsin would qualify for at least one free corporate license covering 25 students across all UW campuses in the state. A private school such as Marquette University High School would qualify for at least one studio license covering 10 students at their Milwaukee campus at 50% off.
To apply, simply fill out the form on the main menu at Support > Educational Discount.
It’s now even easier to create technical illustrations and infographics with AxoTools for Adobe Illustrator. The new Extrude tool in this free update turns a flat path into a simulated 3D view of the art extruded along any of the axes defined in your Axo Projection panel. There are several options for using the tool.
Freeform drag:
Simply drag a selected path along one of the axes to add the extruded sides. Press Option or Alt while dragging to also project the art to the corresponding axonometric face. The result is not real 3D, and can’t be further rotated as in complex and expensive object modeling software, but it is Illustrator artwork that can be edited without first being expanded. Press Alt/Option while dragging to also project orthographic art to your axonometric plane before extruding for a quick one-swipe operation.
Scaled from orthographic views:
When doing technical drawings, you can add depth to objects based on flat views you already have, without guessing, or calculating or transferring measurements.
When drawing complex shapes like gears, let the Extrude tool do the tedious work of adding connecting lines and applying detail and outline stroke widths. AxoTools’ Extrude can also fill your art with white or other color, allowing you to rearrange pieces without manually removing lines from objects behind it.
When creating extruded art, choose how you want the art filled:
Wireframe (no fill)
Fill with white
Fill with object color (retain the fill color of the original art)
Fill with shaded object color (lighter on the top face, darker on the right)
Extrude numerically if you’d prefer.
Enter a distance in points, mm, cm, or inches
Select whether to foreshorten the distance relative to the axis it’s on
Enter an angle or click an arrow to choose an axis and direction to extrude
Choose whether to project the art to the axonometric face
The Axes here relate to the current view defined in your AxoTools Projection panel, so you’re not limited to isometric.
Click the Extrude button to draw your axonometric art.
Repeat
If you have other art to extrude to the same settings, whether you dragged the tool or used the Extrude panel, select the other art and click. The art will be projected, if needed, anchored at the point clicked, then extruded.
Enhanced primitives
Now when you create a cube or cylinder primitive, it will apply the detail and outline stroke weights. Of course, the primitive reflects the current projection, not just isometric.
Enhanced Line tool
The Axo Line tool now draws with the stroke weights defined in the Axo Draw Settings panel, and allows you to change line weights or pick up stroke properties from other paths with just a click.
Both the Line tool and primitives will continue to function for FREE after the trial uses have been used, as a replacement for and upgrade from the old Isometric Line Tool.
With 500 free trial uses of the tool, you can try it out at your leisure and likely even finish a job or two with it before making a commitment. It’s available now for download in the Adobe Illustrator Plugins page under the Downloads menu.
I was recently contacted by Iván Gómez about doing videos on my plugins. Iván is a certified Adobe instructor in Columbia who has done many other videos on various aspects of Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, which are available on YouTube. He chose to do a video on AxoTools, which is very informative. I have an AxoTools video in progress also, but it won’t be available until after the next AxoTools update featuring a few new tools.
If you’re interested in AxoTools, please watch this as it demonstrates some important concepts:
Overview of isometric, dimetric, and trimetric projections
Setting and changing the orientation of your projection
Placing and moving common reference points
Projecting using buttons in the panel, using menus, or custom keyboard shortcuts
Moving objects in the axonometric view by dragging in an orthographic view
Using the AxoDraw tool to draw constrained lines
Using the AxoScale and AxoRotate tools to modify projected art
Viewers can also benefit from a coupon code shown in the video, good for 20% off any Graffix plugins during August 2020.
Thanks, Iván, for doing the video I must confess I should have done months ago!
The newer, larger, higher-resolution displays are certainly a wonderful development for every illustrator and designer. For plugin developers, it also means we have to create icons and images used in the UI at several sizes including 100%, 150%, 200%, 400%, etc. Unfortunately, there’s no direct support for displays running under Windows that work at 125%. The problem is that panels display at 125%, but the controls within it are still scaled at 100%.
One workaround is to simply set your display to 100% in the Windows Setting > System > Display. This makes the few problematic panels display correctly, but this probably isn’t the setting you want for everything you do on your PC.
Another option is to override the DPI setting only for Illustrator. To do this, locate the Illustrator.exe app in the Programs folder, right-click its icon, and select Properties. In the Properties window, select the Compatibility tab, then click the button to Change high DPI settings. In this window, check “Override high DPI scaling behavior.” The interface isn’t as sharp as it would otherwise be, but some users may find this an improvement until a better method is available.
A better option for many is to let Adobe Illustrator take care of it. This dialog usually has a slider for UI scaling, where the smallest setting usually works best. If yours has the two radio buttons as shown here, set Illustrator’s User Interface preference to Scale to Higher Supported Scale Factor. With this setting, you won’t have to mess with the compatibility settings or deal with a blurred interface. If you normally have your display set to 125%, this can be very helpful.
If you have any tips to share, please submit them!
Coercing one shape to fit over another is fairly simple when everything is at right angles, but too often I found that’s just not the geometry we’re dealt. For those times, I added some new functionality to the Transform tool in the ToolShed plugin collection.
Say you need to add more detail to an object and have a scanned image to trace, but the image is out of proportion and your art is at some random angle. No problem! First, move the scanned image so some point matches the art you’re aligning it with.
Rotate the scanned image so that the centerlines align, then Option- or Alt-click the anchor point to set a custom anchor for ToolShed’s Transform tool.
Holding down the Option or Alt key to force scaling to use your anchor point, adjust the bounding box’s horizontal and vertical handles so that your images align.
If the bounding box of your raster object isn’t aligned with the axis of the image itself, no problem. Hold Option or Alt and rotate the axis where you want them. Now you can size the object without the hassle of measuring the angle and setting a custom constrain angle in Illustrator’s preferences.
And it works on any Adobe Illustrator art object that can be scaled or rotated, not just images. Now it’s easier than ever to get your geometry to align! Download ToolShed and try it out with the 1,000 free trial uses. That’s right, a thousand, and they don’t expire after some too-short period that seems to expire just before you have time to really test it! It’s only $15 for more tools than you can count on both hands.
