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Adobe Illustrator

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 “Cleanup Tool” plugin

The new Cleanup Tool plugin is available now!

You’ll probably find this most useful if you sometimes need to clean up CAD or GIS files, or tidy up artwork done by “other” people.

modifying an ellipse

Click:

  • On an endpoint or intermediate anchor point to delete it
  • On a path segment to add an anchor point

Shift click:

  • On an endpoint or intermediate anchor point to make it a corner point and collapse its handles
  • On a control point to make its anchor a corner point (no change in the location of the control points)
  • On a path segment to make the adjoining anchor points corner points and collapse the control handles for that segment

Option/Alt click:

  • On an endpoint to extend its control handle
  • On an intermediate anchor point to make it a smooth point and rotate the control handles to become tangent
  • On a control point to rotate it to become tangent to the adjacent segment’s control handle
  • On a path segment to make its anchor points smooth, extend the control handles, and rotate the handles to become tangent to adjacent beziers

Shift-Option/Alt click:

  • On an endpoint does nothing
  • On an intermediate anchor point toggles it between a corner and smooth point
  • On a control point toggles its anchor point between a corner and smooth point

Don’t want to memorize modifier keys? No problem, just select the option to display help text showing your options for whatever you’re doing!

So, essentially, clicking adds/deletes points, shift clicks make things angular, Option/Alt clicks make things smooth, and shift-option toggles them.

assimilate paths

When the tool’s cursor is over a selected path, its control handles will be highlighted even if Illustrator currently doesn’t display them, and anchor points will be marked with a square for corner points or a circle for smooth points.

Dragging a control handle adjusts it, constrained to its original angle.

Dragging a selected anchor point will move it, constrained to the path’s tangent angle, even if it’s under other art objects.

Shift-drag a control point or anchor point to constrain its movement to each increment of 45 degrees.

adjusting control handlessmoothing control handles

Drag a segment to find another path to assimilate and a smoothed segment will be added connecting the two paths.

Available now for Adobe Illustrator CS6 through CC 2018, Mac or Windows. From $10, or FREE for Productivity Pack licenses.

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.

Technical Illustrators’ input needed

Isometric or axonometric artists

Whether you do line drawings or color renderings, you know it’s an art form like no other. Your audience knows it’s much more than a picture. It has a purpose. It tells a story. It enlightens the heart as well as the mind.

Getting there is of course largely a technical matter but it has to be done, and done well, to provide a convincing framework for the finishing touches that blend art with science.

Adobe Illustrator is an excellent tool for technical illustration, and much better with the addition of plugins like CADtools. The process is about to get even better. If you’re a demanding technical illustrator with a desire for better, faster, more intuitive tools and a willingness to test, suggest, and comment, please leave your contact information and a summary of your experience. I look forward to hearing from you!

Concatenate’s newest path simplification option

Concatenate dialogWhen concatenating a number of straight paths placed end-to-end, there’s often no need to keep the anchor points that once separated them. It’s also often worth simplifying the path just a little to reduce the number of anchor points. This is especially true if you plan to edit the path afterward. Now Concatenate for Adobe Illustrator CS6 and CC has been upgraded to version 16.1.5 with a setting for merging these straight segments. Even a very small value such as the default of 0.0001 (one 10,000th of a degree) will remove points when combining straight paths that were cut and rejoined. For the most hands-off handling of paths when concatenating, just enter 0 in the settings for curves and straights. This update is recommended for all users.

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