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.
Isometric or axonometric artistsWhether 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!
When 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.
The popular free Select Menu plugin is now faster! I guess one could say it’s a speed bump in that its speed has been bumped up. Then again, its speed bump has been the result of removing (unless you want it) a speed bump, as in those bumps in the road intended to make you slow your vehicle down.
One recent improvement, or so I believed, was when the plugin checked for the existence of various types of objects in the current document and disabled unneeded menu items so as to save users from looking for something that’s not there. In a very large or complex document, however, that search can take a second or two, or longer, so the feature didn’t necessary save much time. With version 16.0.6, the default behavior is to enable all menu items whether needed or not. If you decide you’d rather have the menu parse the current object types, just press the Alt or Option key while selecting the Select > Object menu and the plugin will diligently search like Yoda examining the contents of Luke’s food case.
Did I mention that it’s free? Yup, still free.
In addition to drawing at isometric angles, the plugin now includes a tool to move selected art along the isometric axes. Since it’s no longer just a line-drawing tool, it has a new, simpler name.
For those occasions when you need a different projection, just double-click the tool’s icon and enter preference settings for the angles of your X and Z axes. Since it’s not just isometric anymore, perhaps the name should reflect axonometric instead… but there are other axonometric tools in the works, and that could get really confusing later on.
If you use Hot Door’s awesome CADtools plugin, you can define your axonometric settings there and IsoTool will adjust accordingly.
IsoTool is still free. I hope you find the updated features useful!
All Graffix plugins have something in common, whether it’s a module of code to add an About Box, handle preferences, or other functions. All of these shared libraries have had improvements made to them, making the plugins more stable, more reliable, and with better memory management. Every plugin available for CS6, CC, CC 2014, CC 2015, CC 2015.3, and CC 2017 (all 132 variations) now has an update available They’re recommended for all users.
And once you’ve downloaded those updates, you may notice that the read-me doc has been updated, as well, with clearer instructions on where to place the plugin. There’s also a link to the support area of this web site, which has been updated with an FAQ section and will see more frequent and meaningful help topics.
Many thanks to all users who have shared their questions, comments, and observations, which led to these improvements.
All the best,
If you’ve been using Graffix plugins for a while, you may have noticed a few of them are missing from the current lineup. I’ll explain why you shouldn’t miss them. The story behind the apparent demise of the Proof Block plugin is explained in this post. There’s actually a much better way to accomplish what this plugin did, so it would actually be a disservice to continue to offer and encourage the use of this plugin (albeit, as Obe Wan said, “from a certain point of view”).
Another is Arrowheads. Again, there’s now a better way to do this, as explained in this Adobe blog. To add the white halo, I just apply a graphic style that adds a white stroke behind the black, offset a bit to the upper right. Rather than offsetting the highlight, you may want to just use a heavier stroke to apply equal white all the way around.
The last to disappear is the Trackplan Tools plugin. I wrote this one specifically for use at my day job, and given it was so specialized, I’ll apologize to its four users for taking it off the list.
Over the past few years, there have been many times I’d wished I had another plugin to do some task. Now that I again have the time and tools to write current-version AI plugins, I’ll be adding them. Those who already bought the Productivity Pack will find new plugins automatically added to their suite of licenses.
Thanks for your support. I promise more plugins are coming soon.
Some of you may recall a plugin called Proof Block. It ranked even below the Alien Palette in popularity, although I’ve used it myself at my day job for over 20 years. For the most part, it was little more than a small form to be initialed by people proofing various drafts of artwork prior to publishing. I was inspired to write it by the recurring problem we had of a copy-and-paste version that would sometimes peek back at us from a QuarkXPress graphic frame. My solution was to create a “proof block” layer, place the form on it, then the plugin set it to printable when opened in Illustrator, but non-printing and not visible when closing the document. Crisis solved!
Perhaps you’d still like something like that. It’s really not that difficult to write a script to draw the lines, boxes, and text, but I’m a staunch advocate of using a script, not a plugin, for that now. My proof block script today does everything that the plugin did, and much more. First, we have a document naming convention so the script can discern the magazine name, date, story code, and even look up the editors on its staff. It handles dates, keeps track of proof iterations, and even stores a record of the revision history in the document. When I save the document to the art server, the script saves a copy to the correct folder on the editorial server. If it’s a first draft, it fetches the illustrator’s name from Outlook, looks up the designer’s email and alerts her that art is available to place in InDesign. When the art is approved, it’s marked as such and the related editors, art director, and designer are notified.
In addition, scripts check for missing fonts, placed art that should be embedded, look for RGB colors in a CMYK document, and more. It’s also much easier to revise than a plugin. Since everybody’s needs and workflow are quite different, it wouldn’t be useful to anybody to share my script, but I will share my enthusiasm for scripting it as one component of a larger process. I promise that once your custom script is used, you won’t look back.