So.... here are a couple of things that I would like to see in an upcoming version of AS....
1. Make double welding between two points illegal.
This creates a lot of mess especially if you use auto-weld with crossing lines... (try to freehand draw two lines in autoweld mode at a small angle to eachother and you will see what I mean)
The small loops created by double lines between two nearby points are hard to see and you have to zoom in real big to even discover that they are there... make these "double-welds" illegal! That would make welds overall much tidier and reduce a part of the problems using paint bucket on auto-welded shapes.
And if you DO need this kind of welding it could be "forced" (by using the add point tool, for instance).
But it should NEVER happen as a result of any "automated" tools like freehand or paint bucket welding.
2. Option for turning "snap to"-welding between lines off! (auto-weld and paint bucket)
You DON'T always want this kind of snapping to occur !!!
A perhaps more tricky request, affecting basic structure of AS:
3. The need for a separate "line" class...
... to make welding of lines with different widths and curvature values possible.
Some of the information carried by POINTS in recent AS really should be handled by another class,
as I see it.
- points class
- lines class (suggested NEW class)
- shapes class
- POINTS CLASS carries ID number, position and weld info of a specific point in the mesh
(weld info meaning which other specific points, by point ID, is this point welded to)
- LINES CLASS would carry line ID curvature and width, (instead of points doing that, as it is right now)
Lines would be referencing to points class and ID:s of points on a specific line, but things like
curvature and width belongs to the line class.
(A line is defined by a pen stroke in freehand or by starting and ending point of a line constructed
with the add point tool.)
- SHAPE CLASS then carries color, line and shape effects etc.
referencing to line class and ID:s (and thereby also to point class).
WHAT IS THE USE OF THIS THEN?
If width and curvature are unique to each point - as referenced by a specific line ID - then
crossing lines at a welded point could have different width and curvature values, which
isn't possible today.
And.... if you think about it it's very logical... a point as such can't have neither width nor curvature...
EDIT:
oh here is another one (this one is simpler)
4. Peaked curvature when auto-welding endpoints of freehand strokes
When using freehand and auto-weld, drawing a continuing line done with several strokes... the natural thing would be to make the curvature (of the welded endpoint of the previous line to the startpoint of the new one) PEAKED.
Compare to drawing on paper: Normally when you lift your hand from the paper in order to make a new stroke you also change direction, right? You don't normally want to "continue" the line in the exact same direction as the previous stroke... and you don't want to change the curvature of the previous line either. But that is exactly what happens if you try to do this in AS. The welded connected point between the two strokes is SMOOTH, which changes the curvature of both the end of previous stroke and the start of the new one.
Unnatural for freehand use! (though quite natural in add point-mode)
Should absolutely be changed!
cheers
