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AxoTools Quick Tips videos

Today I released the first in a series of short videos covering topics relating to AxoTools, both using the plugin and doing technical illustration in general. The first video briefly describes different types of projections for the benefit of those who don’t come from a technical illustration background.

The next in the series will cover how to begin an isometric drawing in AxoTools. Other possible topics may include:

  • Using multiple line weights (including dashed break lines for curved surfaces) to suggest form and mass
  • Filling art with white to overlap parts
  • Using flow lines
  • Fill modes and other Draw panel options
  • What is that option to rotate ellipses when projecting?
  • Using the line tool to draw straight lines and to toggle line weights
  • Entering simple equations in text fields, plus auto-entry of measurements
  • Use the Extrude tool to draw a drop shadow (but never for an oblique projection!)
  • What’s the difference between the Transformations panel and Auxiliary projection panel?
  • Using the Measure tool
  • How does Project-in-Place work?
  • What are the Axo Zone tool and Projection Zones for?

If you have other suggestions for short video subjects, please leave a comment below!

AxoTools Qukck Tip: Projections

 

I’d like to thank Ron Kempke, AxoTools’ co-author, as well as Matt Jennings of Industrial Artworks, and Greg Maxson of Greg Maxson Illustration for the use of their illustrations and advice in getting this video series started.

Tag72a plugin from Worker723a now available

Tag72a automates the process of reporting information about your files by automatically creating and updating text objects that remain part of the file itself. Each of these properties have options allowing you to customize it to best serve the needs of your workflow.
Each time a document is saved or printed, the selected items will be automatically created or updated.
Reported properties of the document include:
  • User name
  • Document name
  • Document file path
  • Date saved
  • Date printed
  • Spot colors used
  • Fonts used

You can download and try Tag72a for free from the Worker72a product page. For detailed information, please see the Tag72a online documentation.

This is the same Tag72a plugin you’ve known from Worker72a, updated for Windows and Apple M1. Evaluate with 500 free trial uses.

Worker72a Locked or Hidden detector now available

Locked or HiddenThe Locked or Hidden Detector (LorH) is now available in the Worker72a collection. This plugin for Adobe Illustrator scans your documents for art objects that are locked or hidden. You can run it with a menu selection or set it to automatically scan every document you open.

This update now runs under Windows and on Apple’s new M1-series processors. You can download it and evaluate it with 500 free trial uses.

AxoTools improves CADtools integration

works with CADtools

If you use Hot Door’s CADtools plugin for Adobe Illustrator, you already know how AxoTools complements its extensive set of tools and features with additional options for axonometric drawing. With CADtools to quickly and accurately create orthographic art and AxoTools to project and finish axonometric views, you’ve got the best set of technical illustration tools available for Adobe Illustrator.

AxoTools has improved its integration with Hot Door’s CADtools plugin to share axonometric projections and document scales. To enable this, first select one or both of the CADtools options in AxoTools’ Preferences dialog.

The preferences dialog can be called by double-clicking any of the AxoTools tools or in the menus at Illustrator > Preferences > Graffix Plugins > AxoTools… (Mac) or Edit > Preferences > Graffix Plugins > AxoTools… (Windows).

preferences for CADtools

CADtools offers an extensive array of options for formatting values, but in AxoTools you’ll have to choose from the presets in the Scale units menu in the Preferences dialog.

To import CADtools’ scale or axonometric settings as set in its CADaxonometric panel, first ensure that you have CADtools installed and have checked the AxoTools preference to use CADtools axonometric view. Next select “Load CADtools settings” from the flyout menu in AxoTools’ Projection panel. The first time you do this, it may take a few seconds to make the connection from one plugin to another, but subsequent calls to CADtools will happen very quickly.

AT/CT projection settings

If you change the scale or axonometric settings in CADtools, AxoTools will not be alerted and so cannot automatically import the new settings. In that case, you must manually update AxoTools by selecting “Load CADtools settings” again from the Projection panel’s flyout menu. Every time you open or change your current document, AxoTools will look for CADtools to import its settings. If you don’t have CADtools installed, it’s recommended that you uncheck these two settings.

For more information on Hot Door’s excellent CADtools plugin, please visit https://hotdoor.com.

AxoTools adds tools for arcs, ellipses, and rectangles

AxoTools 23.1.2 adds three new tools to create axonometric arcs, ellipses, and rectangles. Each tool draws directly on either the left, right, or top axonometric plane, or can be created numerically with a dialog box. As with many other tools in the AxoTools plugin, tap the Alt or Option key to toggle between different planes. dimensions will be scaled and formatted according to the new Preferences settings for the document

arc toolAxo Arc tool

arc tool usageAs you drag with the Axo Arc tool, the arc will appear highlighted. You can drag the arc forward or backward, left or right. Guide lines will appear to show the location of the arc center as well as a tangent line of the arc’s exit angle. If your preferences select Help text, the tool will also display the current arc’s extent angle and radius.

As you drag, press the Alt or Option key to adjust a fixed radius, or press the Ctl or Cmd key to change the arc’s starting angle. Press the shift key to constrain the arc’s extent to increments of 45°.

Click with the tool to display a dialog box to create an arc numerically. The Start angle represents the angle before projecting the arc to its axonometric plane, so you won’t need to hassle with converting angles on the screen to simple flat art. For example, a Start angle of 0° in the dialog would be drawn at 30° in an isometric top or right side view, and a 90° extent makes a quarter of a circle, regardless of the angles on the screen. Here, too, you can specify the radius of the arc with dimensions given in units you specify, such as feet or meters, and scaled to the current document ratio defined in your AxoTools preferences. Finally, choose whether the arc should curve to the left or to the right.

arc dialog

arc toolAxo Ellipse tool

ellipse tool usageAs you drag with the Axo Ellipse tool, the ellipse will appear projected onto your current axonometric plane. If your preferences select Help text, the tool will also display the current width and height using the units specified in your preferences and scaled to your document scale.

As you drag, press the Alt or Option key to anchor the ellipse at its center point. Press the shift key to constrain the ellipse to a circle.

Click with the tool to display a dialog box to create an ellipse numerically. Enter a height and width, which will be scaled according to the document scale in your preferences. You can also enter a depth to extrude the ellipse to create a cylinder. Stroke widths and shaded fills will be adjusted according to your Axo Draw settings if you have that options set in your preferences.

ellipse dialog

rectangle toolAxo Rectangle tool

rectangle tool usageThe Axo Rectangle tool works similar to the Axo Ellipse tool, except that it draws a rectangle. Like the Axo Ellipse tool, pressing the Shift or Alt/Option keys work as they do in Adobe Illustrator’s built-in Ellipse or Rectangle tools, only the art is drawn on an axonometric plane.

Click with the tool to display a dialog box to create a rectangle numerically. Enter a height and width, which will be scaled according to the document scale in your preferences. You can also enter a depth value to extrude the ellipse to create a box. It can be styled according to your Axo Draw settings and preferences settings.

rectangle dialog

These three tools have been among the most requested features, so it’s exciting to now make them available. Tutorial videos will be coming to demonstrate how to use them.

AxoTools adds new Measure tool

measure tool Axo Measure tool

info panel
AxoTools 23.0.2 adds a new tool that acts as both an axonometric ruler as well as a protractor. It allows you to measure distances and angles in any of the three axonometric axes, scaled for the foreshortening factor of that plane, whether its projection is isometric, dimetric, or trimetric. Measurements are displayed for all axo planes as well as orthographic.

The tool is automatically constrained along your current axonometric axes, or press Shift to constrain to the nearest 45°, or press Alt/Option for no constraints at all.

In the Info panel, choose a set of measurements to display, or choose “Auto” to let the tool guess what you’re measuring based on the direction you drag the mouse. Choose “All” to see all results in fields where you can copy values to paste elsewhere.

To use the tool, simply click and drag to measure a distance and an angle. To measure the difference between two angles on an axonometric plane, click once to set an anchor point, then drag an arc from one point to another.

The free update is available for Adobe Illustrator CC 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Enter measurements your way in AxoTools

With the latest update to AxoTools, you can enter measurements in whatever units you’re comfortable with. Here’s an example:

extrude units in mmextrude units in inches

Say your document ruler units is set to inches, but you need to extrude something to a distance you have in mm. Illustrator supports that within the app, but it’s not automatically there for plugins. Measurement fields in AxoTools now do that conversion for you. I really hadn’t planned at first on adding that — there’s a back story here.

First, all art in Adobe Illustrator is measured internally in points. Fortunately, Adobe’s interface for plugins includes a function that takes measurements from text typed by the user in the current ruler units and converts it to a numeric value calculated as points. Then another function converts numeric point values used within the plugin to text that plugins can give back to the user, calculated and formatted using their current ruler units. That’s great, but there are a lot of users in other parts of the world that use a comma as a decimal separator. Fortunately, Adobe added a variation of these functions that support international number formats. Unfortunately, the one that parses text with commas in decimals doesn’t see the commas, and the values get multiplied by ten, a hundred, or a thousand! Adobe’s bug became my bug.

To support my European customers, I wrote a function that parses the numbers typed, and honors commas as decimal separators, and wondered “Why not look at the units specified, as well?” All values need to be converted to points anyway for the plugin to work with, so it wasn’t a great leap code-wise.

draw settings units

As an extension of that, I wrote a function to convert values back to text with a caveat of my own. In AxoTools’ Draw Settings panel, users can specify standard stroke weights, but we don’t all use points for strokes — many use mm. Stroke measurements have little to do with our current ruler units, so the plugin lets you specify pt or mm, does the math when needed, then remembers your preference to always display it your way.

It can be frustrating dealing with bugs, but sometimes bugs can become butterflies!

Plugin version changing from 16 to 23

Here’s why it’s important (to some of us)

The CORE developer libraries used for the 2022 version of all Graffix plugins for Adobe Illustrator no longer support Illustrator versions older than CC 2019, so new and updated plugins will require CC 2019 and above. Plugins for CS6 through CC 2018 will remain available so new users with older systems can still use the latest legacy releases, then update whenever they’re ready.

  • CS6 – CC 2018 (Legacy) = plugin version 16
  • CC 2019 – AI 2021 = plugin version 16, will be replaced with version 23 as updates are made
  • AI 2022 = plugin version 23

All v.23 plugins honor v.16 licenses, so simply install as always, no special steps are required.

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