awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas) (06/24/88)
I just (6/17) got my copy of MacDraw II. I guess you could say I'm a power user of MacDraw (I'm an architect from a life before computers), so I've been waiting anxiously for MD II. It's more than I expected, even after I played with a late beta at a computer store two months ago. I'm particularly impressed with the "Rotate mode" in which the cursor changes to an 'X' and lets you free-rotate objects just by dragging them. They did several other things right, like: tools work like MacDraw I, but now you can double-click on a tool to get it to stick instead of snapping back to the arrow. Zoom in/out is a nice feature; I've already started drawing a library of objects (another enhancement) and it's great to double the size while you draw fussy little details and then zoom back to normal--the object seems inhumanly accurate. I've already read one reviewer take Claris to task for their lack of PICT2 support and their quirky 8-color-only support. I guess this will be more of a problem for me when my Mac II arrives. For now, Mac Draw II supports a 6-color ImageWriter II just fine, and it will even do color separations on a pen plotter. (That doesn't read correctly--MDII supports color ImageWriter and pen plotters, and it supports color separations on both as well.) If people are interested, let's pressure Claris to release the file format so we programmers can mess around with it. I don't know if Claris has anyone on the net currently, but Ashton-Tate has been hemorrhaging in Claris' direction lately, and former followers of usenet, such as Andy Felong and Dave Krich, are now at Claris. Worst of all (from Ashton-Tate's point of view), this is Dennis Cohen's last week at A-T before moving to Claris. I'm sure he'll stay on the net if it's at all possible, however, so we'll continue to benefit from his knowledge indirectly anyway. /alastair/
drc@dbase.UUCP (Dennis Cohen) (06/24/88)
In article <387@dbase.UUCP>, awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas) writes: > If people are interested, let's pressure Claris to release the > file format so we programmers can mess around with it. I don't know if > Claris has anyone on the net currently, but Ashton-Tate has been > hemorrhaging in Claris' direction lately, and former followers of usenet, > such as Andy Felong and Dave Krich, are now at Claris. Worst of all > (from Ashton-Tate's point of view), this is Dennis Cohen's last week > at A-T before moving to Claris. I'm sure he'll stay on the net if it's > at all possible, however, so we'll continue to benefit from his knowledge > indirectly anyway. > First, I'd like to thank Alastair for the kind words. Second, yes, I will still be on the net. Brian S. at Claris has already set up my account on the Sun there and mail directed to sun!claris!drc should find me. There will, however, be about a two week period where I will be only sporadically available as I arrange and execute a move of approximately 400 miles. BTW, I will inquire as to the feasibility of publishing the document specifi- cation. I tend to think that Claris will continue Apple's policy of not publishing it, but it can't hurt to ask. Dennis Cohen (on his last day at) Ashton-Tate Macintosh Division dBASE Mac Development Team -------------------------- Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed above are _MINE_! (Any resemblence they have to those of either Ashton-Tate or Claris is purely coincidental.)
mouser@Portia.Stanford.EDU (Michael Wang) (06/25/88)
I agree that Claris should publish their file format WIDELY. Right now I don't know of any program that can handle MacDraw II files. In one painful example, I spent a long time drawing a logo for a business in MacDraw II for their letterhead. Then I found out that I couldn't import the logo into any word processing program or desktop publishing program without the graphic screwing-up. I had to redo the logo in MacDraw (which didn't look as nice). Better yet, Claris should allow files to be exported to some file format standard like PICT2 or EPSF. (I hope this makes it to netland. Somebody send me something if it does.) +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Michael Wang | Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | ARPAnet, CSNET, BITNET, Internet : mouser@portia.stanford.edu | | UUCP: ...decwrl!portia.stanford.edu!mouser | | AppleLink: ST0064 | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
gae@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu (Gerald Edgar) (06/25/88)
In article <387@dbase.UUCP> awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas) writes: > For now, Mac Draw II >supports a 6-color ImageWriter II just fine, It seems that if you have a PICT (not PICT2) in 6 colors, and paste it into MacDraw II, the colors go away. Is there some way to communicate these 6-color images between MacDraw II and other applications? -- Gerald A. Edgar TS1871@OHSTVMA.bitnet Department of Mathematics gae@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu The Ohio State University gae@osupyr.UUCP Columbus, OH 43210 70715,1324 CompuServe
dtw@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Duane Williams) (06/26/88)
I've always thought that the original MacDraw was one of the best programs ever written for the Mac, despite its limitations. MacDraw II is an excellent successor. It has a very large measure of the "look and feel" of the original MacDraw, so fans of the original program will feel right at home. Nevertheless, the designers of MacDraw II did not take the old interface as gospel. The kept the good and replaced the less good with a better design. Double-clicking a tool to freeze it for repeated use is one example. Reducing MacDraw's two line tools to a single all-purpose line tool is another. The redundant Fill and Pen pattern menus have disappeared and are replaced by a single much more accessible pattern pallette within the windows. The "show size" feature no longer puts the sizes next to the cursor, where they are likely to be unreadable--height, width, length, and angle now appear at the bottom of the window. Lots of things are user customizable: (1) pen sizes from 1/10000" to 1.5" (now you can draw LaserWriter resolution lines!); (2) there are two basic arrowhead styles which can be easily edited to produce a large variety of arrows; (3) there are now real dashed lines, with 6 preset types, any of which can be edited to change the length and spacing of the dashes that make the pattern; (4) there can be up to 16000 black-and-white fill/pen patterns and 16000 more color patterns in a document; (5) there can be multiple rulers per document and you can specify the drawing scale; (6) you can set the drawing size as large as 100" by 100". There are some significant new features: (1) the drawing area has doubled; (2) objects, including text, can be rotated in increments of 1/10 of a degree; (3) documents can be composed of layers (the floor plan of a house in one layer, the electrical wiring on another, the furniture in another, etc.), which can be easily rearranged; when you print a document, only the visible layers (those below and including the currently selected layer) get printed; you can also explicitly "hide" a layer; (4) you can name pictures in a document and then treat that document as a library of artwork; the "Open as Library..." menu item presents the pictures in a special window with the names in a scrollable list, together with a "Find" feature; (5) there can be named "views" of a document, which enables one to move around a large document much more easily; (6) you can zoom in/out up to 32 times the original resolution; (7) if you don't like the standard preset options for a new document, you can create stationary documents with your own defaults; (8) and last, but not least, text can have mixed fonts, sizes, and styles, and you can easily edit rotated text. MacDraw II can save documents in MacDraw II drawing format, stationary format, and PICT files. It can edit files stored on an AppleShare file server and will warn you if someone else has edited the file since you opened it. The manual is entirely new, 367 pages, with index, and detailed tables of contents. There are several tutorial chapters, a "Using MacDraw II" overview of all major features, and an extensive "Reference" chapter. It is well written. MacDraw II runs on a 1MB Mac Plus; the default MultiFinder partition is 800K. I really like this program. It is a big improvement over MacDraw and well worth the upgrade fee. By the way, some people might be interested in the fact that MacDraw II comes with a MacPlot driver that supports plotters from Hewlett Packard and plotters from Houston Instrument. -- uucp: ...!seismo!cmucspt!me.ri.cmu.edu!dtw arpa: dtw@cs.cmu.edu
pollock@usfvax2.EDU (Wayne Pollock) (06/29/88)
In article <2045@pt.cs.cmu.edu> dtw@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Duane Williams) writes: > >I've always thought that the original MacDraw was one of the best programs >ever written for the Mac, despite its limitations. MacDraw II is an >excellent successor. It has a very large measure of the "look and feel" of >the original MacDraw, so fans of the original program will feel right at >home. Nevertheless, the designers of MacDraw II did not take the old >interface as gospel. The kept the good and replaced the less good with a >better design. > ... I agree, but one of the things I don't understand is why MacDraw II doesn't understand pict2 format? I thought this was to be the new standard? Wayne Pollock (The MAD Scientist) pollock@usfvax2.usf.edu Usenet: ...!{ihnp4, cbatt}!codas!usfvax2!pollock GEnie: W.POLLOCK
lawrence@iscuva.ISCS.COM (Lawrence Kelly) (08/19/88)
Having a problem with "jumpy" dragging? This is a feature only if you have your caps-lock key down. About the "laser hairline" inconsistancies. This is an inherant feature of the Mac. We have the same problem drawing hairlines in Ready Set Go; some 1-pixel and others 2-pixels wide. Just close one eye.