Version 4.1.1 October 10, 2011

Outline Mode. When in Outline Mode: only the outline of graphics is shown on the drawing screen, the outline is drawn with a thin line width that is independent of zoom. Images are not drawn and shown as a rectangle with crossing lines. Gradients, Patterns, or Solid fill is not drawn in Outline Mode. The menu command to toggle this mode is on the Format main menu. The Outline mode may be applied to a full drawing or to individual layers. There is a simple user interface element to adjust the "thin" line width for the outline mode. The colors use in Outline mode are checked against the background color and adjusted if necessary to always be visible when in Outline Mode. There is a customizable toolbar button to toggle Outline Mode, it is a two state icon to provide an independent visual clue for the Outline state. Cmd-Shift-O is assigned as the shortcut key, this toggles Outline Mode for the full drawing (not individual layers). Documentation is complete, use Help search phrase "outline mode" to learn more.

New Toolbar buttons for Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete. Use customize tools action to find these new tools and add to the main drawing window toolbar. There is also a new smart toolbar menu for these actions.

Improved Associative Dimensions with respect to application of changes of attributes multiple Dimensions. Before, when changing multiple Dimensions at one time, most attributes (arrow shape, color, witness lines, ) were changed to match the lead Dimension. Now this action only changes the specific attribute. For example, now with multiple Dimensions selected each with different color, a change of Arrow shape will not change the various colors.

Improved behavior when changing between Full Screen and Mult-Window mode on Lion. The Canvas Margin parameter (Page Setup palette) was supposed to have independent values for each mode. There was a problem when returning to Multi-Window mode the Canvas Margin for that mode would reset to zero. It now returns correctly to the user setting, providing two independent settings, one for each mode.

Several improvements for SVG import. Corrected issues related to support for colors with transparency. Several improvements for better import of SVG's created by Canvas. Added support for several classic (older color conventions) bitmap formats. Added a bitmap reconstruct for SVG exports where the bitmap images were tiled into an array of bitmap images, this would result in an array of small tiled images upon import. EazyDraw now senses this situation and combined the tiled array into a single bitmap image.

Corrected problem of possible crash when ungrouping EPS or PDF images. Problem could happen if the images contained text with fonts not present on the host system. This is now corrected. EPS import benefits from the additional bitmap formats described in the SVG import improvements.

Improved LinkBack support. Full series of testing and verification of LinkBack content exchange with other OS X applications. 64 and 32 bit support for LinkBack. Corrected one possible crash situation that could occur on re-edit of an embedded graphic.

Corrected display bug on Page Setup, when inspecting multi-layer drawings. The layers were drawn in reverse order on the Page Setup preview panel. This now displays properly.

Better presentation of the Attributes Bar, it is no longer "clipped" when the window is adjusted to a small size. Now the attribute groups are not shown if any of the groups buttons extend beyond the right edge of the window.

Corrected problem zooming with gestures on a trackpad. The problem happened when a graphic(s) was selected. Then the focus of the zoom would be unpredictable. Normally the point of the cursor is held constant when zooming with the pinch or anti-pinch gesture. Now all is correct and this is the behavior for all situations.

Corrected problem working with Pivot and Free Transform Interactive graphics, when more than one drawing window containing Pivot or Free Transform graphics are open on the desk top. Problems would not surface with all graphics, but exhibits if the Pivot or Free Transform contained rectangles.

Corrected issue with selecting graphics when the selecting action causes the drawing to scroll and causes selected graphics to scroll out of view. The graphics that scrolled out of view were then omitted from the selection. They are now included. This problem has been present on recent versions of EazyDraw, an optimization caused the out of view graphics to be dropped from the selection. All is proper again.

Corrected problem running on older versions of Snow Leopard, such as 10.6.4 or 10.6.5. EazyDraw would not launch unless Snow Leopard updates of 10.6.6 or newer were installed. Now EazyDraw 4.1.0 will launch on 10.6.0 and newer.

Corrected possible (rare) issue with corruption of the display of the Graphic Details drawer.

Corrected problems encountered when adding a gradient fill to a weld-group. This did not apply correctly and could cause EazyDraw to hang (not crash). This is now handled correctly.

Further improvements on Lion when using the time-machine-like Versions interface. All parameter palettes and the layers and graphic details drawers are restored and displayed correctly when returning from the Versions interface.

Version 4.1.0 July 20, 2011

Paid Upgrade

There is a $35 upgrade fee for EazyDraw version 4 for users who have purchased an earlier version of EazyDraw. There is a 2 year grace period which allows full use of EazyDraw version 4 with your current version 3 license. You may purchase the upgrade from the online Store , the upgrade is at the bottom of the store web page. The electronic / download upgrade is $35, the upgrade with a new printed manual and CD with the Additions Pack is $55.

Runs on 10.6.0 and newer. EazyDraw 4.1.0 runs only on Intel. Support is provided for both 64 bit and 32 bit computation (select mode from Finder using Get Info panel). EazyDraw 4.1.0 runs on Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.x) and Lion (OS X 10.7.x). We still have support for import of the classic mac drawing formats (AppleWorks, ClarisDraw, MacDrawPro, MacDrawII, and MacDraw) - but EazyDraw 4 does not directly import these formats. You will need to download a companion version (EazyDraw 4.0.0) (EazyDraw_Retro) from the support page in order to recover these drawings. EazyDraw_Retro will run on Lion, but only in 32 bit mode. EazyDraw_Retro does run on OS X 10.4 and newer (including Lion). See the support page for all the details.

User interace localization for 4 languages in addition to English. This is the initial release with support for German, Japanese and Spanish. The French localization has been fully re-done with significant improvement and depth of support. All is included with the download, no additional installation steps required.

Lion Only Feature: Support for Lions new "Versions" technology. Now when you save a drawing, a hidden snap shot of the drawing and all contents is archived. The Revert to Saved command is significantly enhanced, it presents a "Time Machine Like" interface for convenient review of all previously saved versions of the drawing. This is a powerful recovery tool and one that will quickly find use in the normal design work flow. Documentation is found in the Help pages, use search phrase "Save" or "Revert".

Lion Only Feature: Support for Lions new "Full Screen" mode. The upper right hand corner of the drawing window now has a Full Screen / Multi-Drawing mode switch. EazyDraw has integrated two Toolbar collections and two independent canvas margin settings. These change when switching from Multi-Drawing to Full Screen presentation mode. This allows customization for both modes to get attain the most productive working environment for any project. Documentation is complete and found in the Help pages, use search phrase "Full Screen".

Snow Leopard and Lion Feature: Multi-Thread computing for improved utilization of systems with multiple CPU's. There is now a third native EazyDraw file format, the EazyDraw Bundle format. Use this format for large drawings that have multiple layers. This format saves each layer in a separate file in an OS X Bundle. A Bundle is a special folder that the operating system treats as a normal disk file. Since each layer is saved in a different disk file, multiple CPU's can be used to read and write information in parallel. EazyDraw also keeps track of the state of each layer, since each layer is in a separate file EazyDraw can skip reading or writing of layers that have not changed since the previously write or read.

Case Sensitive volumes. Full support for OS X disk volumes formatted with case sensitivity.

Corrected rounding error for associative dimensions when using Feet and Inches (also Yards and Feet, and Miles and Feet) display when. The rounding was 12 times too large and caused a consistent "one" in the last decimal place. This is now correct and rounding applies at the correct decimal place location.

Fixed problem with the Export Shortcut button. Double click of this (just to left of drawing name in title bar) button causes an automatic re-export (exporting with same settings as last formal Export action). The export was not being saved in the correct folder. The save was going to a system temporary folder. Behavior is now correct, the export is found in the same folder used for the last export; note: this is not necessarily the same folder as that of the originating drawing.

Fixed the Center Mark property so that it prints to printed drawings. Previously it was shown only on the screen and not printed. Documentation indicated that the mark was always printed and that was not the case. Now the Center Marks are drawn on printed and exported drawings, when Hide Dimensions (a Layer property) is not checked.

Fixed some issues with tab stops. Some tab parameter (such as position: left, right, center, or decimal) were not accepted from the Tab panel popup menu. These problems were introduced with recent (last 4 months) versions. All is correct now.

Corrected a problem entering User Library element names when in the Element view. In some cases clicking Return or Enter would cause the element name to inadvertently change. Now it stays as entered.

NOT SUPPORTED IN 4.1.0

This version of EazyDraw support for AppleWorks, ClarisDraw, MacDrawPro, MacDrawII, and MacDraw classic drawing formats. This version of EazyDraw does NOT support these formats. Go to the EazyDraw Support web page for more information and a solution for converting these drawing files on your current version of OS X. EazyDraw version 4.0.0 is provided as a solution for importing these drawings on OS X version 10.4 and newer, including OS X version 10.7 (Lion).

PowerPC processors are no longer supported beginning with EazyDraw version 4.1.0. EazyDraw 4.0.0 is provided on our Support web page, it still supports PowerPC on OS X versions 10.4.x and 10.5.x.

Version 3.6.4 June 13, 2011

Enhanced the Advanced Duplicate capability. A new tab view was added with support for saving a set of duplicate parameters and managing user defaults for the Advanced duplicate settings. Added full numeric formatting and numeric-math input for all duplicate parameters, the display precision and format are now under user control following the settings for the Graphic Details drawer - these parameters follow the drawing's scale settings (not a Fine Scale setting for the panel). Help documentation is complete, new features should be self explanatory.

Corrected a few bugs and expanded the capability for convert to Filled Shapes for free form Bezier paths. Previously a few degenerate cases that can result from ungroup PDF or other import techniques would cause problems with the convert to Filled Shapes, these are now properly supported.

Corrected issue with converting RGB images to CMYK. The problem happened when converting using the Graphic Details popup menu and when automatically converting for EPS export of an embedded image. Also improved the speed for converting RGB and CMYK to Gray Scale, this is now table driven and several thousand times faster.

Added an Option Duplicate action for the Rotate tool. Now if the Option key is held down during a rotation tool operation the target graphic is duplicated in place before rotating. This behavior mimics the automatic duplication of Option Drag that is common procedure for most drawing applications.

Fixed another issue with SVG, correcting the issue noted on the EazyDraw discussion board by Grandadpete . The SVG import of the Ball_14 graphic no longer hangs EazyDraw.

Corrected issue with Angle Associative Dimensions. The problem could arise when more than one Angle Dimension needed to use the same reference line, such as when dimensioning all interior angles of a rectangle. The Angle Dimensions would become confused and attach to each other and the reference line hence trying to dimension a zero span angle. This is now handled properly.

Corrected bug importing MacDrawPro drawing with a smoothed variant of Bezier path that actually represents straight line Bezier. This construct was not seen before, it is now handled and imported as drawn.

Version 3.6.2 March 22, 2011

Added new feature to calibrate the size of graphics on the display screen. The new command is found on the Drawing Zoom popup menu, located lower left of the drawing window. The "Calibrate" command queries the system for the physical dimensions and resolution setting of the display screen that contains the center point of the drawing, then computes an average (average of horizontal and vertical pixels per unit length) zoom factor that will match screen lengths to the real world. The "Calibrate" selection is user driven, there are no automatic updates if a drawing moves to a new screen, if a new screen is added to the system, if the resolution of screen is changed, or if the drawing is opened on a different system. If zoom setting matches the calibrated setting the Drawing Zoom popup menu indicates the match with a blue value color.

Added new user preference to draw Circles and Squares from a center point out to a radius or side dimension. The preference is found on the main user Preferences panel. Two settings, the new Center Out setting and the bounding box (corner to corner) setting.

Added a customizable toolbar button for Fit Text menu command. It is available for user customization, it is found near the other text buttons, bluish icon.

Fixed possible issue with Dimensions, when content for the Dimension is set Nothing for use as a user comment. The crossing dimension line could be drawn through the text after the drawing was saved and re-opened. Now the crossing line has a break for the text in all cases as it should be.

Fixed several SVG issues. Please continue to send in svg files that have problems. Improved SVG import to handle SVG drawings exported from CorrelDraw. Support for extended CSS style specifications was required. EazyDraw now supports CSS styles nested in CData blocks. CorelDraw SVG now imports properly into EazyDraw.

Solved a possible problem with exporting EPS to CMYK color space when the exported content contained an image (either bitmap, EPS, or PDF) and that image was larger than a few inches and the image did not use CMYK color space (in other words the drawing contained a large non-cmyk image that required automatic conversion to cmyk).

Improved functionality and corrected problems with Group Edit. There were a few graphic forms that were not responding properly for interactive in situ editing of group graphics. All is working properly now, problems were introduced with recent revisions.

Fixed Guide-Snap for lines with the center pinned.

Worked on problems of a pdf graphic being flipped when color modification is applied to a layer. This may be fixed, ultimate resolution may not be possible until the release of Lion. With Snow Leopard the operating system added several internal optimizations for processing of pdf images, the vertical orientation of the pdf when displayed no longer seems to be processed in an absolute consistent fashion. If trouble is noted, use the Flip Vertical button to get correct display.

Version 3.6.1 February 18, 2011

Enhanced and made corrections for Kerning functions. The Kerning settings in the Graphic Details drawer now have full professional capability, one may kern across different font and attribute runs, adjust single character kerning all with reliable detailed undo and redo. Previously the numeric Kerning setting applied primarily to full text boxes and uniform text runs. One should now be able to accomplish any kerning action.

Corrections to the SVG import, support for non-comma separated point lists was added.

Improved EPS and PDF ungrouping. Several additional text constructs are now properly supported including kerning specifications.

Improvements for DXF import.

Added support for dimensions for suppression of leading zero for Fraction form. The Leading Zero checkbox on the Dimension Palette (Datum Tab) controlled inclusion of the leading zero for decimal dimensions. It was not controlling a leading zero when fractions (rather than decimal format) was in use. Now it controls both as one would expect.

The menu commands "Make Same Width" and "Make Same Height" were not keying off the correct graphic. The "master" graphic should be the first one selected. This is now corrected.

Made several improvements and corrections for the Numeric Entry feature. If, during the creation of a graphic, the letters (o,d, x,y, a, or L) are typed: the Numeric Input pops-up to accept numeric values for (over, down, x-across,y-down, angle or length). The inputs were mostly "raw" and would not work for scaled drawings. Now the inputs (and values shown) are all interpreted and presented correctly according to the drawing's scale and the settings on the Graphic Details drawer for numeric display. For example if you have angles set to Radians - the the "a" numeric input will be Radians rather than Degrees.

Changed response of text graphics that are copied and pasted between drawings with different x or y axis directions. The copy and paste now does not flip the text, this would normally be the intended behavior.

Corrected issues with grouping for groups that involved connectors. In some cases connectors were sent to the back or the front of the group. Now the appearance of connectors is precisely maintained when groups are formed. Connectors that attached to elements involved in a grouping operation were sometimes disconnected. Now all connections are consistently applied to the new group.

Fixed a few issues with editing text that contains Overlines. All editing situations now follow standard text editing conventions for insertions and deletions adjacent and across ranges that include Overlines.

Corrected issue related to graphics created by welding. The new resulting welded graphic would accept a Connector but the Connector (or Dimension) would not remain attached and follow movements of the new graphic. This would correct itself upon save and reopen of a drawing so it was in this sense temporary. All is correct now.

Corrected possible crash when applying Factory default to the Page Setup palette.

Cutting all the way through a rotated oval would sometimes result in 3 resulting paths rather than 2 as one would expect. This is fixed now and works as one would expect.

Version 3.6.0 January 14, 2011

Version 3.6.0 ... Improvements and Corrections

Improved the SVG import to include support for SVG symbols. Corrected a small group of rare parsing bugs.

Added support for PDF and EPS ungroup of images that incorporate use of indexed color space. This is the older technology color table usage where and image is drawn using 2, 4, 8, ... up to 256 colors. This is needed for importing and ungrouping eps images from MathLab. Improved PDF ungroup for text encoded with 2 byte Unicode schemes. Test case involved Gentium font with ancient Greek glyphs.

Axis Labels (Technical Tools - bottom row) now support Center and Right Justify. This was requested by several users and overlooked for last release. All works now without any hacks the printf format or splitting label runs.

Corrected an accuracy problem when entering values in the Graphic Details drawer, when the values contained a fraction computation. These computations were rounded to the nearest Point and fractions of a Point values were lost. Accuracy is now maintained at the full 32 bit floating point computation limits.

Expanded the capability for using Function keys as keyboard short-cuts. Previously the Function Key (F1, F2, ...) could be used but a modifier key (Cmd key for example) was required. Now Function keys are accepted with no modifier key. In other words: a function key such as F1 may be assigned as a shortcut for any menu command. Note that one must type the letter "F" then a number "1, 2, ... , 11, 12, ...) into the Menu Keys field to assign a function key - it is not possible to type the actual function Key as these keys are blocked to the text field on the Menu Keys palette.

Added an inspect / entry field for Diameter of circles to Graphic Details drawer.

Corrected issue the Grid Reference point for graphics when the graphic is flipped. Previously the Grid Reference point would remain constant and not change with the graphic orientation. Normally it is desired that the grid reference point remain constant with respect to the graphic hence the grid reference point should reflect the orientation change. This is now the behavior. For example if a graphic had an arrow with a tip at the right center of the graphic and if this point is chosen as the grid reference point, now if that graphic is rotated 90 degrees and the arrow tip is now at the top center - the grid reference point is also changed to top center.

Corrected issues with the Library main menu, library names were not being updated when saved with a new name. It is now refreshed properly.

Corrected issue with maintenance of the Grid Reference point for graphics installed to a User Library. When using the library graphic the Grid Reference position would revert to default if the interaction level of the destination graphic was different than the original graphic. Grid Reference is now faithfully maintained for Library graphics. The error was at the time of use, so it is not necessary to rebuild libraries - the Grid Reference information was installed in the user library correctly.

Improved interactive resizing of Text Boxes. The minimum size is now computed with respect for the font size. Minimum size will now exactly fit one row or one column of characters. Before is was a constant small value and the text box could reduce to less than a character. Also in some cases the text box would inadvertently grow when resizing to a negative rectangle size - this is now fixed.

Changed the behavior of Free Transform and Pivot interactive graphic when added to a Group. Now these special case interactive elements are "applied" before the graphic is placed in the group. Often a Free Transform or a Pivot would have problems when nested in a series of groups, this approach will convert these back to normal graphics for more reliable behavior for modifications to the host group.

Corrected the Wall Specification palette, when interactively changing the wall thickness and other wall parameters the palette was not updating. Now it updates live as changes are made.

Corrected issues with conversions of Pivot graphics. In some cases the conversion would revert to the un-rotated state of the core graphic.

Corrected issues with conversions of Pivot graphics. In some cases the conversion would revert to the un-rotated state of the core graphic.

Corrected problem for groups that include dimensions. It was possible that filled graphics would draw over the dimensions.

Corrected issues with conversions of Pivot graphics. In some cases the conversion would revert to the un-rotated state of the core graphic.

Added the ability to export individual graphics as individual image files. This is supported for PNG, TIF, JPG, GIF and CSV. Then new option is found for the Export Contents (middle) popup menu on the Export panel. Selected graphics are exported, each to an individual image file. The file name from the export panel is used as a base, an underscore followed by an incrementing number.

Fixed bug with user libraries. When closing a library with a partially edited element name, a crash was possible. This is now fixed.

Fixed bug with Walls, if new defaults were set from a wall that was auto-mated to another wall, then newly drawn walls could have a bad end shape that extended up to the drawing origin. This is now corrected and the situation is prevented.

Fixed bug with the Center Mark checkbox on Graphic Details drawer. This was introduced at final stage of the 3.5.0 release. It was possible to turn Center Mark on, but not off. This is now fixed.

Version 3.5.0 August 24, 2010

Version 3.5.0 continued ... Improvements and Corrections

Expanded the capabilities for Gradients. Bitmap gradients are now supported. There are 4 new gradients available on the Gradient Fill panel, Effect popup menu - they are at the bottom. Previously all EazyDraw gradients were drawn with vectors, this implementation technique has many advantages but in some cases a traditional bitmap gradient can have advantages. The bitmap implementation will often have better behavior for gradients that use transparency with colors. Vector gradients will often have banding when working with transparency. One caution: transparency is not supported with bitmap gradients when printing to PDF - transparency is supported for vector gradients when printing to PDF. The primary use for the bitmap gradients is for the design of PNG and TIFF icons such as those used for iPhone and iPad user interface elements.

On-screen adjust for Gradients is now available. This is an option found on the Gradient Fill panel, the new default "factory" setting is for the "on" state. Gradients that have a direction and/or position will show an new adjuster handle when the hosting graphic is selected.

Added a new export format, CSV (comma separated values). This is a simple text format compatible with spread sheet and database applications or for use with any text editor. The values in the table are Bezier vertices and control points for all line art found in the drawing. Text and images are not included in the export. The vertices and control points of each graphic are presented on one line in the export destination text file. Documentation is complete, use search phrase CSV to learn more.

Made several improvements to Export for the TIFF, PNG and the other bitmap. PNG now has support for gray scale colors. TIFF export for CMYK was optimized and is about 70 times faster now (a text export that took 1 minute 10 seconds before now completes in less than 2 seconds). All bitmap exports may now be larger in size, previously most systems would fail at around 100 meg for export image size, now most systems should be able to create 1 gigabyte images without crash and rather quickly as well. TIFF export now supports more color space options including alpha (opacity) masks.

New options available on the Layers drawer. It is now possible to Lock a layer, this is a lock against move and delete. This is set with a new check box column on the layers table list. There is a new option to show the active layer above all other layers. Copy and Paste to and from the layers drawer has been expanded to accept graphics dropped on a layer and allows more fluid copy and paste between layers - previously one often needed to explicitly click back on the drawing or the layers drawer for different paste actions.

This version has improvements to the color accuracy for TIFF, PNG and the other bitmap exports. Recent versions of EazyDraw would have small changes to some colors (out of gamut colors), when the bitmap was generated. Now the RGB and CMYK components are faithfully passed to and saved in the export bitmap. This allows matching of colors for web graphics; for example, saving a web graphic with a particular rgb component set will now match the web page exactly when the same rgb components are specified as a CSS background color. These issues relate primarily to the operating system, ColorSync technology, and ICC profiles. There are basic problems in this area for OS X versions 10.4 and 10.5. The small color variations will still be present for EazyDraw users on 10.4 and 10.5 - there is no solution possible. EazyDraw users on Snow Leopard (OS X version 10.6) do now have precise calibrated color bitmap exports for TIFF, PNG, BMP, GIF (note that JPG's compression algorithms can be expected to introduce slight color shifts). Test have been conducted on all the current popular web browsers to verify that background colors of EazyDraw export graphics do match exactly with CSS hex color specifications on all browsers (but only when using EazyDraw on Snow Leopard). A test pattern is found at the bottom of this web site's Web Graphics page, follow the link and go to the bottom of the page to view the tests in your browser. When checking colors with the Color Picker spy glass or the utilities application Digital Color Meter: ICC corrected colors are reported for the EazyDraw drawing window but uncorrected Calibrated colors are measured for exported bitmap images viewed in Preview this discrepancy is unavoidable at this time, options to this behavior will need to await further operating systems advances.

Expanded the Select Special submenu (Edit main menu) to include selecting graphics with Patterns, Gradients, Arrows, and Dashes.

Documentation was added for the Services menu. Details on the use of EazyDraw with the LaTeX utility LaTeXiT were added. If the core TeX utilities and LaTeXiT are installed, the services menu allows one to enter LaTeX mark-up plain text in an EazyDraw Text Box and convert the mark-up to fully typeset pdf vector content (a mathematics expression or equation). The implementation uses LinkBack technology to exchange the content with the LaTeX utilities, thus one may edit the source markup by double clicking on the typeset pdf content.

Improved the Vertex Insert tool. It now will do multiple inserts with a single invocation. The key point is to allow detection of intersections and insert two vertices exactly at the intersection of two graphics. Another advantage is that a series of vertices can be added on an exact straight line. The documentation has been updated to reflect the new capability, use search phrase "insert tool". The new behavior is obvious from the indicators. The command key modifiers work in the same fashion as defined for the knife tool, these are useful for inhibiting the intersection detection.

Improved the PDF and EPS ungroup. A new parameter is found on the Images submenu of the Format main menu. This menu controlled setting is named: "Auto Combine Text". When ungrouping PDF (and EPS) images, EazyDraw applies algorithms to attempt to reconstruct the higher level ordering of text characters. The PDF format does not actually define things like a text block or paragraph (nor even a word or line of text). In many cases the combined text generated by EazyDraw will be convenient for editing but the typesetting will not be faithful to the placement of the characters on the PDF page. Turn this option off to get an ungrouping that favors precise placement of text characters over automatic assembly of paragraphs and text boxes.

Fixed problem on Advanced Duplicate / Linear Duplicate - when using a scale with non-default axis direction. The sign of the offsets could sometimes change each time the linear duplicate was used. This is now fixed.

Corrected several issues with the special Select Tools palette. Several of the options had various problems, the select back first cursor was not changing as it should and the settings for the radio buttons at the bottom of the palette were not always respected for selecting behavior. All the special select functions have been extensively tested and are quite robust.

Improved and corrected a few things with Graphic Details display of Bezier control points. Previously a closed Bezier would show too many vertices or segments, now the display computes these correctly as they appear on the drawing. Now when a Bezier control is simply clicked the focused segment is changed to the appropriate clicked segment, previously the control point would need to be moved in order to change the displayed focused segment. Continuous Bezier Graphic Details now shows values in yellow that are not actually "smooth" at the vertex, implying that any change here will adjust both vertex controls to satisfy the smooth continuous constraint. Leading and Trailing control designations for the Continuous Bezier details display were logically reversed, these were switched.

Fixed problem with refresh of Morph panel. If the panel was over the drawing area (not in Graphic Details drawer area) and to the right of the actual working drawing area (window was wider than the drawing area), updates were not correct and old static images of the panel could appear after a scroll.

Fixed further issues using a Dimension with Form set to Nothing. If Nothing was in use and no additional text was used (nothing and nothing) the bounding area of the dimension would erroneously include the drawing origin. This is now corrected.

Fixed problem using morph on multiple graphics, especially likely when morphing several (10's or more) graphics. The morph would be correct on the first graphic but could have problems on others.

Fixed problem on Graphic Details reporting the position - when using a scale with offset origin and when the selection included multiple graphics. The location is now reported correctly.

Corrected a bug in the SVG interpreter - a very specific issue relating to paths whose value string ended with a single number and no decimal point. This occurrence is now fixed and should have been quite rare.

Corrected problem with Free Transform graphics contained in a Group (in particular in a Uniform Interaction special group). If the outer group was scaled in size (such as a change in size with the Uniform Interaction graphic) then subsequent moves of the outer group would have problems - the embedded Free Transform graphic would move more than it should ("scooting" out of the enclosing group). This is now fixed.

Corrected rare problem using connector with cloaked vertices. This could cause an unexpectedly quit. This combination is not typical for a connector or dimension. The situation is now stable, will not crash and will default back to a reasonable behavior.

Corrected problem flipping arc graphics by 90 degrees. The flip was in the wrong direction. The bug was introduced with version 3.3 when Arc flips and rotations were improved. The problem was not particularly noticeable unless the arc was included in a group and the group flipped. All is fixed now.

Corrected problem with the Line Weight toolbar buttons and Line Weight toolbar menu button. The "thicker" and "thinner" line weight actions were reversed with respect to the icon indicators. Those are now switched and will work as expected.

Corrected problem changing a dimension from the special form: "nothing", when there is no additional text. Then switching back to a normal form, such as Decimal, the dimension value would not appear. This sequence of events now works properly.

Corrected Advanced Duplicate - when using "inverted" axis directions. The duplication values (+ and -) were offsetting the new graphics in the wrong direction. Now the axis direction is reflected properly in the duplicate's offset.

Decreased the minimum allowed distance between tab stops from 0.2 inches to 0.08 inches.

Corrected several typing errors and a few broken links in the EazyDraw Help pages.

Corrected updating of check-marks on the Font Panel and Colors menu items on the Font submenu (Text main menu). This were often "out-of-sync" with the actual open state of these panels. Now their check-marks reliably reflect the open / closed state of the respective panels.

Corrected problems with Option-Drag duplicate of various (but not all) kinds of graphics. After the Option-Drag the new copy could have trouble updating on the screen. This was introduced at 3.4.1, all corrected now.

Corrected possible problem reading multi-page PDF. If your setting for page numbering was "across-first" then the multiple pages were added "across" which is not correct for a multi-page pdf. Then only the first page of the multi-page PDF was shown. All is fixed now, numbering is changed to "down first" for the multi-page PDF.

Corrected a possible problem with Annotations, in particular rotated annotations. If several were in use, in close proximity to one another it was possible that CPU usage by EazyDraw would climb dramatically for a few seconds. For larger drawings on older CPUs this spike could cause a lock-up of EazyDraw. All is corrected now. And CPU usage in these situations is now cleared back to normal amounts for this situation.

Corrected problem with the refresh and updating of the Easy-Look panel. The problem related to inspecting of multiple drawings and use of the drawing selection popup menu on the Easy-Look panel. The root cause of the problem likely starts with drawings that were made by a copy of a full drawing or "Save As". The panel then would not update properly when switching between the to copies - even after changes were made to the drawings. In other cases of normal random stack of drawings all would probably work fine. All cases now update correctly. The bug was present since the introduction of the Easy-Look capability.

Version 3.4.1 April 20, 2010

Added new virtual paper sizes for iPad development support. On Page Setup when using the Buttons and Icons virtual printer, new sizes for iPad launch screen in both landscape and portrait orientations. There are now virtual paper sizes for required graphic elements for iPhone and iPad development: main icon, iTunes store icon, small (settings and search) icon, iPhone and iPad launch screens - both orientations. These are all accessed from the Page Setup panel, choose Buttons and Icons for the virtual printer then select from the Paper popup menu.

Corrected a bug with Copy and Paste. The problem appeared with EazyDraw version 3.4.0. In some cases of Copy-and-Paste ( on the same drawing) and Duplicate With Offset, a Group graphic would have an incorrect bounding box indicator and perhaps misplaced graphic locations. This somewhat rare but a serious problem, making 3.4.0a a recommended upgrade. There will likely be a follow-on version 3.4.1 soon to address this issue.

Added a control checkbox for showing the leading zero of a Dimension. In the case of a fraction value less than one it is sometimes desirable to not show the leading zero (save drawing space). This is now possible using a new checkbox found on the Dimensions palette, Datum tab. The checkbox should be self explanatory. Documentation is complete use search phrase Dimension to learn more.

Corrected proper save and open for the setting on Page Layout of "Number Across First". This parameter would not always save and restore properly with the close and re-open of a drawing. All is correct now.

Fixed problem saving a new default snap sound on the Grids panel. Normal setting of temporary or permanent default snap sound (other than nothing) did not work. Now all works properly.

Version 3.4.0 March 31, 2010

Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) import is now complete and available for use. SVG Export has completed over 2 months of testing and debugging from beta tester's input (thanks). Exchange of SVG drawings between Adobe Illustrator (CS4) and EazyDraw, both directions, has been tested extensively. The SVG open format provides a reasonable workflow to and from ai-CS4. A large set of the W3C SVG test suite was tested for proper import into EazyDraw, this test suite is provided with the Contributions Pack download. Performance is optimized for importing very large drawings. Output of SVG from EazyDraw was tested and confirmed with Safari and Opera which seem to be the two best SVG supporting browsers, two were used because some esoteric situations are not properly supported by one or the other of the two browsers. The export SVG is accessed from the Export menu command, SVG drawings are imported with the normal Open command - select SVG for File Type. Documentation is complete, use search phrase: svg. EazyDraw provides high quality 512 icons for SVG files, if you have other SVG authoring applications their icons may take precedence, set up your preferences with the Finder Get Info panel. A double click on an SVG file will open and import in EazyDraw, this behavior depends on Finder settings and the presence of other SVG authoring applications - use Get Info from the Finder to manage SVG Finder opening and Icons display behavior. The Contributions Pack has a SVG folder with a set of test files from the W3C archives, these are also useful templates or examples if you wish to author drawings with XML code.

Added new custom Arrows for drawing Entity-Relationship diagrams. These new arrowheads conform to the conventions for "crows-foot" notation of one-to-many, one-to-zero-or-one, etc relationships. A new user library with simple tool buttons for all possible relationship connectors is available - contact EazyDraw support if this is of intreats, it will be included in the next release of the Additions Pack, it is now available on CD and Boxed versions of EazyDraw. The new arrowheads are accessed from the Arrows palette, Custom Tab, the Name popup menu. These are installed automatically for new users. Existing users (those who have ran EazyDraw and accessed the Custom Arrow Tab) will need to remove the Arrows.plist file from the EazyDraw Applications Support folder ( ~home -> Libraries -> Applications Support -> EazyDraw ). One must quit EazyDraw then remove the Arrows.plist folder, then restart EazyDraw; the Arrows.plist file will be re-created by EazyDraw with the new custom arrowheads. If you have custom arrow heads - then keep the Arrows.plist file and move your custom arrows into the new file (contact EazyDraw support if you need help with this).

The Additions Pack has been expanded again. The main new component is a full complement of Venn Diagram templates and symbol tools. Venn Diagrams depict the similarities and differences of groups of 2 or more entities or conceptual classifications. The templates provided cover many arrangements for 2 to 5 concepts including the traditional constructs with circles and tubes as well as other creative arrangements including the interesting Edwards Construction and Symmetric designs. If you have purchased the Additions Pack in the last year email for new link and password - no charge.

Added capability for Line-Over for Text. This will add a "Bar" over characters or a range of characters, the "Bar" is the common mathematical notation for the Average of a variable. The Text -> Style submenu has the menu command for this attribute and it is found on the Attributes bar with a - "Oh with line over" icon (note the use of the attribute must be verbally described in this Text Edit file because Apple's standard text technology does not support this text attribute).

Improved AppleWorks drawing import. Corrected issues relating to strings with embedded graphics. These graphics caused the import to crash, now the import does not crash. The embedded graphics are not imported as EazyDraw does not support strings with inserted graphics.

Corrected issues with inserted JPG images that contain meta-data size transformations. These had trouble when rotated and cropped, the problem related to opening a saved drawing. Now Rotate and cropping of these graphics works properly, saves properly and reopens properly.

Significant improvements for PDF ungroup. Improvements were in the area of reconstructing and formatting text content. Several new text encoding constructs are now understood by EazyDraw. In general the improvements relate to pdf's created on Windows and Windows Vista.

Improved performance when typing and entering text. Some users with large numbers of fonts and a slower or loaded processor would experience performance degradation when typing quickly. The issue related to updating the font menu on the Attributes bar. This process is now optimized and rapid typing now introduces negligible load on CPU computations.

Corrected problem resizing different forms of rectangles using the Shift and Control keys. These now work to constrain the aspect ratio (CMD key) or constrain to equal height and width - square shape with the Shift key.

Improved behavior for creating polygons. There are several modes for creating polygons, to accommodate users from users familiar with other older drawing applications. The problem happened when the polygon was completed with an extra double click at the originating first point of the polygon. Of course we don't need to do that as it is a tedious extraneous step. EazyDraw would mistakenly take this as an error and the polygon would disappear. Now this method works correctly if used.

Several performance optimizations for User Libraries were dropped in favor of improved image quality. These optimizations involved cached images of library elements. Recent years improvements of hardware, OS X core technology and EazyDraw graphic display performance allow this improvement.

Corrected problem with Text Bubbles, the radius rectangle version. If the radius was changed from default, and the drawing closed and re-opened the changed radius was lost. This is now fixed. There were undo-redo situations where the text bubble pointer would not properly undo an interactive change - all works now.

Corrected problem with Move Image setting (main Preferences panel). The selection Live Graphic was not persistent across a quit and restart of EazyDraw. Also dragging from the drawing to another drawing or library did not work when Move Image - Live Graphic was in use. Both of these issues are corrected now.

Corrected problem exporting PDF with White Background. The popup menu would show a blank entry and the exported pdf would still have a clear (nothing) background. Now the White Background setting is respected with a PDF export.

Corrected problem printing with x or y mirror. The mirroring option inherited problems with recent (beta) changes. This is now operational again.

Corrected problem adding libraries in the icon-button mode to the menu system. This would cause a crash of EazyDraw - all is corrected now.

Fixed problem entering negative angles, on Graphic Details drawer, for Lines and Paths, when using Y-axis plus down. This combination now works properly.

Corrected problems related to flipping radius rectangles by 90 degrees. There was a problem with the 90 degree CCW flip, if in a group the flip would distort after the file was saved and re-opened. All is correct now.

Corrected problems with Graphic Details entries for Text Graphics when using Comma as decimal delimiter for Region settings such as Germany. Some of the numeric entries and sliders were not working, causing very large values upon entry. Also many of the text fields did not respect the system settings and displayed numerical values with the period as the decimal delimiter. All is correct now.

Corrected anomalies with Send command, when multiple graphics were selected for a single Send To Back. The drawing order of the selected graphics was reversed by the send. Corrected problems related to Send to Front with graphics containing inserted text. Corrected problems sending graphics forward or back over a graphic with inserted text. And corrected some issues of the above cases that would not undo or redo-of-undo correctly. All seems to be working properly now.

Corrected problem with move of a shadow applied to a Uniform Scale graphic of an image. The shadow would remain fixed on the drawing. All is correct now.

Corrected a small extraneous white border that was added to images in groups with a bitmap shadow applied to the group. This was only noticeable in the above situation when the edge of the image or photo was not white.

Corrected issue with a Free Transform of an image in a Uniform Scale interactive state with a Flip (90 deg. cw etc) applied. A subsequent move of the graphic did not execute properly (the graphic moved in a wrong, unflipped direction). This situation is now handled correctly.

Corrected problem with the reported size of a group that contained a rotated text box positioned near one edge of the group. The rotation was not applied to the size and position calculation. All is fixed.

Corrected problem converting Flow-Around Text to Bezier paths. This would only work right after a resize of the text box, most of the time the Flow-Around layout was not respected on the converted glyphs. All is corrected now, the converted text should be positioned exactly glyph for glyph as the flowed-typeset text.

Corrected a few esoteric cases for the newly optimized Annotation text, relating to shadows on the annotation and colored annotation text.

Corrected a few issues with converting Annotation to Bezier paths, when the text style for the annotation used outlines or colored fill.

Fixed problem converting Annotation to Bezier paths on PowerPC running OS X version 10.5 (Leopard). This problem was present on the last release (EazyDraw 3.3.0). It now seems corrected as tested on a PowerPC mac-mini running OS X 10.5.8. Please report any problems in this area as our available PowerPC hardware is limited and the root cause of this issue is still somewhat in doubt.

This version included performance improvements for drawings with heavy usage of Annotation Text. The responsiveness of EazyDraw is now significantly improved when working with Annotation Text. Beta testers should keep an eye on the drawing of Annotation Text, as with all optimizations there is the possibility of missed refreshes of the drawing or misplaced graphics, thanks.

Corrected problem setting default font from the main system font panel. The "Set Current as Default" operation was setting color and other text attributes (bold, italic, ...) but not the actual font family and font point size. All is correct now.

Fixed a conflict in the menu short-cut keys for Ungroup Graphics. There was a duplication of the key selection on the Format->Images submenu. The caused problems for some (but not all users?) - now corrected.

Version 3.3.0 --- Snow Leopard Follow-up ---- October 22, 2009

EazyDraw version 3.3.0 is the follow up Snow Leopard release. This version has had extensive testing, performance improvements, and bug fixes on Snow Leopard. EazyDraw 3.3 is a highly recommended update for Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard users. It runs native on Intel and PowerPC processors.

Expanded and improved Additions Pack. Larger Network Diagraming library.

Text Bubbles, or Text Call-Outs. 4 new tools on the Technical Tools palette. A combination graphic with all the properties of a normal text block plus the Bezier properties of the enclosing "bubble" graphic.

New direct ungroup of EPS for editing. Found on the Images submenu, Format main menu.

Improved PDF export with new capability to export layers as pages with optional master page.

Improvements and Bug Fixes

A new contextual attributes toolbar for Dimension graphics is now available. The primary focus for these contextual tools is the text formatting for the dimension's numeric values with prefix and suffix text. Operations like Bold, Underline, Kerning and typeface changes are now conveniently available with single click access.

Added the ability to insert Soft Returns in text. This is a Shift-Return which will insert a line break but not a paragraph break. There is a reference menu command now found on Text main menu, Typing Aids submenu. But normal use will be via keyboard entry of Shift-Return. Note this is a new combination of accepted keyboard entry and not a menu key shortcut. The Shift-Return menu key shortcut is blocked by the operating system. Net result is that all should now work as expected with text focused applications. Documentation is complete for the new feature, to learn more follow Help menu links to the Typing Aids submenu.

Added the capability to interactively adjust the position of Annotation Text. Previously the position of an Annotation along a path was set with the Position parameter (numeric and slider input) found on the Annotation panel. This worked fine but the adjustment sometime was too coarse forcing use of the numeric input. Now there is an additional interactive adjustment handle provided, when selected, for graphics with annotation. simply slide this control handle along the graphic's path to position the Annotation. The normal parameter inputs are still available on the Annotation panel. Documentation is complete, use search phrase "annotation" to study the full specification for this new capability.

Added the capability to provide a center dashed line for the Walls, Roads, and Ribbons tools which are found on the Technical tool palette. Now the Dashes palette will apply the dash pattern to a central path that is drawn along the center line of the Wall graphic. This is useful for drawing roads, different dash patterns may be used to signify different types of roadways. The addition dashed line path will have the same characteristics (color and width) as the main outline path of the graphic. If more capability is needed to apply a different color or pattern, use the Arrow Along capability which now works with Walls, Ribbons, and Road - see release note on this addition below.

Added the capability to apply Along Arrow designs to Walls, Ribbons, and Roads. This capability is managed on the Arrows Palette, Custom Tab. These functions allow the ability to apply decorations along a path as a sequence of graphics attached to the main path. Some applications refer to these as "Brushes", an older term from '90s, in EazyDraw these are all fully vector graphics (as opposed to bitmap images) so they are managed as generalized "Arrow Heads." This capability is well documented in the PDF manual, the Help documentation, and a few tutorials specifically dealing with the topic. The addition is that these are now supported for Walls, RIbbons, and Roads. This is a rather powerful technique useful when drawing detailed visually rich maps. The Along-Arrow graphics may be used with solid fill, gradient fills, and now dashed lines to provide highly illustrative schematic representations of road ways (or rivers, hiking trails, rail-roads, .) for maps. There is a new tutorial (Roads_And_Maps) that covers this new somewhat advanced capability - the tutorial can provide useful "cook-book" instructions for those not experienced in the Arrows-Along capability.

Improved and expanded the Fillet and Chamfer operations. They now are more intelligent in forming a complex shape from a group of individual lines and paths. Before it was normally necessary to build the shape by selecting only two elements at a time and building the shape with a series of Fillet commands. Now one may simply select all the individual elements and execute the command a single time. The automatic logic now analyzes the relative positions of the elements, decides which should be the start and ending element, then orders them automatically with start-to-end ordering based on relative nearness of end points. Finally the logic analyzes if a new closed path graphic is indicated and automatically closes the graphic with a rounded (or chamfered) closing curve. The new automatic intelligence applies to Welded Bezier and Welded Group actions as well.

A new "center mark" capability. This will draw a traditional center-mark/cross-hair graphic at the logical center of graphics that have a defined center point (such as arcs, circles, ovals, etc ). There is a checkbox on the Graphic Details drawer and a menu command on the Guides submenu (Format main menu). When the new center mark is showing the associated graphic has a full snap vertex at the center mark allowing vertex snapping and attach for connectors and dimensions. When showing the center mark will print - it is a normal part of the drawing. Documentation is complete, search phrase "center mark". .

Improved the cursor control for the zoom feature with the short-cut keys "i" and "o". Previously the cursor was positioned at the "point of interest" and the "i" key was hit, but then for the next zoom in it was often necessary to move the cursor to the center of the screen. Now if you hit the "i" key a second time (or multiple times) within a few seconds, and the cursor has not move much, the next and subsequent "i" key hits will zoom in on the same new center defined by the cursor when the initial "i" key was hit. The same behavior is works with the "o" (for zoom out) key. This logic is of course much harder to put in words than it is to use; the easiest way to see the improvement is to do a few practice zooms with "i" and "o" by clicking the key a few times quickly. The sensing time interval is about 5 seconds so there is time to view the new zoom and decide the next action before the repeat state automatically clears.

Corrected problem with copy and paste and drag and drop of graphics between EazyDraw drawings of different scale. Graphics should paste with their proper "project" dimensions respecting the different scales. This worked in EazyDraw 3.1 but was broken with version 3.2, it is now working properly again.

This version has several enhancements to the ClarisDraw import. Full support for embedded EPS vector images is now working. Several cases for this construct are now supported with EPS version 1 and 2 inserts both with and without preview data (EazyDraw only displays the vector image - not the preview from the the EPS header). And issues related to drawings created with the Japanese version of ClarisDraw have been resolved, these related to Japanese fonts that were working properly before the Snow Leopard transition - all are back working correctly now.

This version has several enhancements to the AppleWorks import. Additional embedded graphic types are handled. Added support for additional clip-art pasted graphic formats for the AppleWorks Import.

Added the Send (Front - Ft, Forward - wf, Backward - bw, and Back - Bk) buttons to the Attributes bar (which is turned on and off with menu command near bottom of View main menu) for Text graphics. This has been requested by many, sorry it was not done that way in the first place, thanks to all for the input.

Added 3 new toolbar buttons for the viewing control of Charting, Stellate, and Math tool palettes. These were "missing" on the available tools for customizing the main window toolbar. They are now available for addition to the toolbar - use the Customize button or selection at the bottom of View main menu to add them to your toolbar.

Added the capability to have both a major and minor arc for the Flat Circle graphic, the one found near the bottom of the Technical Tools palette. The selection for the new option is found on the Graphic Details drawer, a new check box is found there. When creating, hold down the CMD key to switch between Major and Minor Arc choice. This only applies to the Flat Circle, not the Key or other Cut Circle tools.

Added several new error messages for Save and Save As, these will provide more detailed information should there be an error when saving data.

Fixed the cut circle tools when used in a user custom library tool palette. These tools were not working in the the mode that is driven from custom user menu, the kind installed on the Library main menu. Now these create proper default tool graphics which means they now work properly when assigned to a key board shortcut. The new text bubble tools also are now debugged and work properly for this use.

Fixed problem selecting a new Pattern list on the Patterns panel - when there is no graphic selected on the drawing. The list would not change to the new selection, unless a graphic was selected. Now it works properly and a new list and selection will work both with and without a graphic selected on the drawing.

Fixed problems with small circles. There was a mode where they could collapse to zero radius when moving when a drawing was zoomed out far enough to make the circle about the same size as the adjusting handles. Another problem was that undo would not correct this and undo would not work properly if the small circle was re-sized. Now all works for even the smallest of display circle size.

Further testing of the public beta on OS X version 10.4, zoom with "i" and "o" now work again on 10.4; the new export pdf capability is now operational on 10.4. Both of these had problems on the recent public beta versions.

Fixed live resize of complex graphics, such as group graphics that contain a large number of graphics. The graphic was shown at the original size during the interactive editing of the size of the graphic (adjusting with the resize handles). The problem was introduced at Snow Leopard change-over. Correct now, original fast-responsive resizing is working well as in previous versions.

Fixed problem when typing a prefix to an automatic dimension. In some cases the measurement number string would overwrite the prefix. This is back working correctly now.

A slight change was made to the dragging behavior. The change applies when a floating palette is positioned right over the active drawing area. If the floating palette has working area that can accept a drop of the moving graphic the drag and drop sequence is initiated. This rather specific set of events has given problems to some users when trying to drag an EazyDraw shape to the Custom Arrow shape area on the Arrow Palette. Previously one needed to drag the graphic off the drawing window then to the floating palette, this would be a problem sometimes on smaller screen systems where the palette was likely to be over the drawing area. This is somewhat non-standard Mac behavior but should not present a problem.

Fixed ClarisDraw import for Japanese text from the Japanese version of ClarisDraw. This worked properly before Jan 2009, an error was introduced correcting import of Japanese text from AppleWorks. Now all should be working.

Fixed Edit for text that is contained in another graphic. The Edit menu command on Text menu did not properly enter text editing mode when the selected text was contained in another graphic.

Corrected problem with Walls, they could not be re-sized by clicking and dragging the end point handles.

Corrected problem with Ribbons, they were very slow and sluggish to edit - all back to normal.

Corrected problem with Text used in a graphic added to a user library, the Text was flipped up-side-down. This is now back to normal. This bug also flipped text graphics converted to Images.

Corrected problem with Classic PICT graphics, pasted into EazyDraw. In some cases, depending on the application that created the PICT, the image was shifted in the bounding rectangle - all back to normal.

Version 3.2.0 --- Snow Leopard Release ---- August 30, 2009

EazyDraw version 3.3.0 is the follow up Snow Leopard release. This version has had extensive testing and debugging on the production release of Snow Leopard. It is compatible back to OS X version 10.4.3 (Tiger). It runs native on Intel and PowerPC processors.

EazyDraw version 3.2.0 is the initial Snow Leopard release for EazyDraw. Snow Leopard is OS X version 10.6. This version of EazyDraw is optimized for OS X version 10.6 and newer with compatibility back to OS X version 10.4.3.

Easy-Look: This release introduces a new drawing inspector Easy-Look. Easy-Look presents the hierarchal organization of a drawing's layers, groups and graphics with sub-group investigation capability..

Pivot Interaction level. This is found on the Format main menu, Interaction submenu. This graphic form provides convenient rotation of a graphic about a user defined pivot point.

Improvements and Bug Fixes

Added 3 new shapes for Cross Overs. These are "Line Break" indicators, with variations on the rotated Z shape to indicate a longer line than is drawn. They are found on the Cross Over palette.

Improved error messages when problems are encountered with saving a drawing to the disc drive. Previously there were situations where no or perhaps the delayed fail-safe error message would present. Now we have nearly every issue properly reporting with a OS X provided message concerning the cause of the problem.

Corrected problem of possible interaction of text color of annotation with the host graphic (or possibly other color attributes). If the Color and Style palette was open and one of the Color Wells active, then editing and or changing the color of an associated annotation would change the Fill or Stroke color of the main graphic as well as the color of the annotation text. This is now.

Corrected an annoyance that would cause the grid snapping to sometime revert to off. The situation related to editing an existing text box and oddly enough related to the number of times the letter "g" was typed in the session. All fixed now, so one should not see grid snapping randomly reverting to "off".

Made a change to allow the Layers Drawer's table of layers to have a larger height. Before the height was limited to provide esthetic balance for the typical drawer and window size. But the limit reduced the number of allowable layers that could be visible at a time, for users with large screens. Now you can grow the layer table height by making the drawing window have a larger height on larger and higher resolution monitors where this is possible.

Fixed export of rotated text annotations to JPG and other bitmaps. Last public release these became "fuzzy" with a sometimes noticeable degradation of quality. Recent public beta versions had worse trouble with the annotation not showing at all. All is fixed now and quality is restored to the proper level as provided prior to version 3.0.

Fixed problem with opening and closing the Preferences panel. When Preferences panel opens, all open parameter panels close, when the Preferences panel closes the previously opened parameter panels were supposed to re-open. Problem was that these open states did not restore properly, typically several other panels would open unexpectedly. Now this is back to normal. Problem was introduced recently.

Fixed a potential crash / unexpectedly quit situation when using the Orthogonal-Radius path tool as accessed from a user library custom menu, or from a library in the drag-n-drop mode. The problem is now corrected. The situation was isolated to this particular method of accessing the tool, normal access from the Technical Tool palette did not have the problem.

Changed the behavior of Flip for group graphics. Previously if the group graphics were symmetric upon flip, the flip of the group was disabled - for example a group containing a square and a circle. Now Flip is enabled for the group and flipping proceeds as.

Fixed several issues with dimensions, especially when dimensions are embedded in groups. There were cases where snap points would jump unexpectedly and the dimension text would move position, and duplicating a dimension would create a new dimension with larger default set-back. All of these are corrected now. Extensive testing was completed on grouping, ungrouping, moving and snapping complex groups containing dimensions. All seems in good order at this point.

Improved error detection and messaging when saving data to disk. Situations where a save might fail without any warning or a vague poorly worded error message have been addressed. Saves to disk should be more reliable and error messages more specific as to cause in the case of failure.

Improved several issues related to closed paths and curves. In many situations an extra handle would be present at the closing vertex and this would need to be cut or edited if changes were needed to the shape at that point. Now closing a graphic avoids the extra handle. Joined closed paths now have proper handles and editing at the closing positions. Closed Continuous Bezier curves now edit properly with continuous constraints at the closing vertex handle.

FIxed dimension formatting for reported lengths when using feet and inches. There were cases where values would report as 5' 12" rather than 6'. These are now corrected.

Fixed non-standard file saves when compression is in use. Exports of PDF and other formats would be compressed but the .gz extension was not added when the Save-As setting for the normal EazyDraw file type was compressed. This now works properly.

Corrected possible "unexpectedly quit" situation. The problem related to changing a drawing's scale after deleting an autoline of automatic dimension graphic. There was a coding bug in this situation, in most situations the bug would not cause a fault so this was a rare crash. All corrected now.

Corrected problem with Undo of forming a welded group. In many cases one graphic of the welded group would become corrupt after the undo. Resizing the corrupt graphic would fix the corruption. Now all is fixed, Undo and Redo of the Undo work properly.

Corrected problems with fill color for welded groups. There were situations where the welded group graphic would not apply color to the full enclosed area of a welded group graphic. All is correct now.

Corrected problem applying the new Instant Alpha command to gray scale images. This situation was not handled with the new Clear Color command. It is now handled properly. Gray scale images are automatically converted to RGBA images then the clear color process proceeds in the normal fashion.

Improved the method for inspecting and setting the thickness (width) of walls. The Walls parameter palette (found on Tools main menu) has a parameter for Wall Thickness. Like most parameters it was defined in terms of the Palette's Fine Scale (inches, mm, or points), and the value was an unscaled value much like the thickness of a line. For Walls this is not the best choice of units and numeric format, at least for architectural use. In this representative situation the thickness of the walls would be defined in scaled project units. For example a wall constructed of 2x4's would have a logical nominal thickness of 4 inches, in the scale of the drawing. This is now changed, settings for numerical format and precision are derived from the drawing's main setting for Graphic Details. Documentation is complete, use search phrase "wall thickness" to study the details and background discussions.

Corrected an issue with adjusting the thickness of "long" walls. If a wall was very long the interactive thickness adjuster was "slow", requiring long drag motion to get a small change in thickness. This now works properly.

Further work on commas in use as decimal delimiter. Changed the display height on several parameter palettes to provide room to see the full comma. Some of the numeric fields were slightly short and the comma was cut off and appeared as a period.

Further work on exporting graphics with live dimensions via Copy and Paste. Corrections were not complete as problems persisted with graphics embedded in groups and values were not exported for report dimensions that called out specific positions on a drawing. The "positions" issue relates to the fact that a Copy and Paste of a selected group of graphics will have not have a defined drawing origin. The export now maintains these callouts as they were on the originating drawing.

Fixed problem with Scale popup menu (found on Scale palette). It was showing blank when non-standard scales were in use and the selection for the scale worksheet was missing. This bug was introduced late in the 3.1.0 revision cycle. It is now fixed.

Added a warning panel when printing or exporting a drawing with miss-spelled words highlighted. Previously the drawing would simply print or export, the faint red highlights appear on the output. Now a warning message is presented with 3 options: print with highlights, clear highlights and print, or cancel - presenting an opportunity to correct the spellings.

Fixed problem flipping and transforming connectors and orthogonal connectors embedded in groups or nested groups. These would not always transform correctly and would remain connected to incorrect positions rather than releasing and re-connecting to the proper flipped location of target graphics.

Fixed problem on Graphic Details drawer when viewing size of a PICT image graphic. Graphic Details was reporting "zero width" now the proper width is reported.

Corrected problems using localized conventions for regions that use comma "," as the decimal delimiter (and period ".") as a numeric marker for thousand interval marking - for example Deutchland. The values on the the Guides palette were not showing correctly and they were not accepting input correctly, values would be multiplied by 100. This problem had the potential to occur for certain formats of entry on the Graphic Details drawer. All is correct now values are displayed with the comma as the decimal delimiter and entries with or without commas are accepted correctly now.

Fixed Align issues with rotated text: align left, align right, ... . The alignment was based erroneously on the unrotated text box. Now the proper rotated text box is used for all the Align and Distribute functions for proper results.

Corrected problems with nested group graphics containing interconnected connectors. Problems found were with flipping, copy and paste on the same drawing and moving the group with snapping enabled. There were various issues with connectors jumping to incorrect positions. Extensive testing of nested groups with embedded connectors under actions of copy and paste, duplicate, transform, flip, and move, all seems to be working properly.

Corrected problem adding an outline (stroke) to an image, the outline was offset down and to the right by 1 or two pixels. This was introduced with version 3.1 and the Clear Color tool. It is now corrected and back to proper operation.

Fixed issue with Dimensions and use of Hide Dimensions for specific layers. There were a few specific kinds of Dimensions that did not "hide" properly when exporting the drawing. This is now fixed. The issue did not apply to normal printing of a drawing, only the export of drawings. All correct now.

Corrected problem rotating and flipping PICT image graphics. They were rotating in the reverse direction and sometimes moving off the drawing with the bounds becoming separated from actual image. This correction may correct other issues with PICT graphics as well. Rotating and flipping are working properly now for all forms of images.

Corrected a few problems with Dimensions that have their form set to "Nothing", this is the "user comment only" dimension form selection; where the automatic length or other report values are not shown. The issues related to having a "Nothing" dimension with no text entered which could result in an incorrect save and re-open situation that would then lock out text entry. Several variations of "Nothing" dimensions were tested and all work as expected now.

EazyDraw Version 3.1.0 ---- May 4, 2009

Major Revision. New Tool: Corners, Bind Group, Clear Color (Instant Alpha). Support for Gestures with new Glass Trackpad notebooks. Snow Leopard (OS X version 10.6 - developers only, pre-release) support - now fully operational on 10.6. Ability to set and manage a default text color. Improved stability on Tiger, OS X version 10.4. Numerous stability and performance improvements and enhancements.

Improvements and Bug Fixes

Added a way to set the DPI (Dots Per Inch) for TIFF images copied to the system pasteboard. The main EazyDraw preferences panel, the Copy Paste Format section, now has a "Copy DPI" parameter. Nominal value is 72 DPI, don't use large values over about 300 DPI. You may need to test before using values other than 72 DPI as receiving applications are probably expecting 72 DPI. This parameter is needed primarily when working with the new Microsoft Office 2008 as this version no longer accepts Classic PICT data from the pasteboard, and has stability issues when provided PDF data (these reported issues will likely clear in the near future); thus one needs to copy TIFF but the increased resolution will be needed for better quality representation in the Microsoft application.

Added a few new presets to the drawing scales popup menu. The added settings are probably most useful for metric users.

Improved behavior of Flipping of Arcs and Math functions. Previously an Arc (or Pie shape) was converted to a basic Bezier path then flipped, thereby loosing the convenient arc controls. Now the Arc remains an Arc of a circle (or oval) with appropriately adjusted angle and axis settings. Previously several of the Math function curves (such as the Sine wave graphic) flipped in a mathematical sense rather than a geometrical transform. This would move the math function graphic in a manner different than other Bezier graphics, causing problems for groups containing the Math function curve. Each math function's performance under flip has been adjusted and tested to perform precisely in the geometrical sense thereby insuring consistent performance when included or nested in groups with other non-math graphics.

Corrected bug with Dimensions that were reporting Area and set to provide Alternate units. The Alternate unit value was scaled linearly and therefore did not report the proper scaled area.

Fixed problem entering size values for rotated images in the Graphic Details drawer. Previously the entered values interacted with the rotation angle of the image confusing the width and height values. All is correct now, width and height entries correspond to the "pre-rotation" dimensions of the image rather than the width and height of a bounding rectangle of the rotated image. This should be less confusing and is now internally consistent.

Fixed problem with Burst gradient fill. Crash was possible when adding a custom burst shape. All is corrected now.

Fixed possible problems dragging and dropping layers from one drawing to another. Checking for duplicate layer names was not working (problem introduced with EazyDraw version 3.0) which could lead to problems. Biggest issue was dropping a duplicate layer with the name Paper which would result in two of the key layers with the unique name Paper and it was not possible to change the name of either of the resulting layers with this reserved name. All fixed now.

Fixed problem duplicating grid graphics created with the grid tools found at the bottom of the Technical Tool palette. After duplicating the actual grid would not appear in the new copy, there would need to be a change or save and reload of the file to trigger drawing of the actual grid. This is now fixed, duplicating these graphics works normally.

Fixed problem with dimensions when used in complete user input mode, that is with Dimension Form set to Nothing. The problem happened when editing user text in the dimension panel, after typing each character the insertion point would jump to the end of the text, making new entries tedious to type. This is now corrected.

Fixed problem with comment dimensions used in the user input mode (Dimension Form set to Nothing). Comment dimensions would persistently insert the report labels (for example, cX: cY:) these insertions should not be present when in full user input mode. They are now removed.

Toggling Italic and Bold text worked in an odd fashion when a few words of a text graphic had one of these traits, and if the trait was toggled for the full text graphic, the few words or phrases with the trait would toggle as well. The behavior is now changed, the toggle is based on the first character of the text graphic, then all text of the graphic is changed to the new toggled trait. The previous behavior would likely never be the goal of a toggle, the new behavior should provide the desired result with a single click in most cases.

Guide lines were present when exporting as PDF and other formats. Normally this is undesirable. Now guidelines are not printed when exporting unless the special purpose Guides layer is the active layer. This should provide the commonly needed output while leaving the ability to print guides with an output if desired.

Fixed possible problem saving AppleWorks imported files. These drawings could have trouble saving unless Page Setup was used to set a printer. Problem is now fixed, after import a default printer is automatically set to avoid save and open problems for the new EazyDraw drawing.

Corrected opening a file with a rare combination of orthogonal connector connected to a text box embedded as centered graphic in another graphic. This would cause the file to fail to load. Problem is corrected. .

Corrected problems with the text menu being update while typing and entering text. Previously the menu did not always get updated to reflect changes such as bold or other font style changes. Now it reflects the selection faithfully and is update with any of selection.

Corrected problem on the Paragraph panel, the numeric fields accepted new values with the Enter Key, but did not update with a Tab key change to the next text field . Entries now are accepted and updated on Enter, Tab or any other completion of editing of the individual fields.

Corrected a Tiger (OS X version 10.4.x) only issue that was introduced with the new on drawing layers and graphic details design. Drawing saved with both the layers and graphic details drawer open, and the drawing rulers showing, would open with a corrupted drawing window. The drawing window and EazyDraw were stable, no crash or data loss, but the drawing area would not display the drawing and would often have random broken images of other drawing window graphics. This is now corrected. To repeat this issue only was a problem on Tiger, Leopard (OS X version 10.5.x) users did not have this problem, it related to the numerous newer Leopard style drawing window components that must be simulated on Tiger.

Corrected problem with undo - of resize of the height of multiple graphics by way of numeric value entry on the Graphic Details drawer. The graphics would resize correctly but the undo would incorrectly change the width rather than the height of each graphic.

Corrected issues with rotated text that contains a gradient fill. The gradient was not drawing properly. This is now corrected, the gradient spins as expected with the text upon rotation.

Modified the Preferences Toolbar Colors popup menu. This menu is used to select the color palette for main toolbar color pickers. The menu now only presents solid colors. Previously the host of pattern colors provided with the normal EazyDraw installation were included. This could lead to confusion, hence the change. This menu had not been documented, a new documentation page for the EazyDraw Help system was added.

Corrected problem on Graphic Details drawer for Text - the size tab view. A Tab after entry of these values did not register the new value, and a simple change followed by a mouse click on another parameter or elsewhere on the drawing did not register the new value. Previously an explicit Enter was required to establish a new value for these parameters. The problem was also found on the Label text view. This is now corrected, these values now behave the same as other parameters on the Graphic details drawer.

Corrected problem flipping and rotating several graphics found on the Charting palette, when the graphic was embedded in a Group graphic. The flip or rotation would work correctly, but subsequent operations such as duplicate or copy and paste would have problems with the orientation of the Graphic. Most noticeable issues related to the symbols from the Electronics libraries that used narrow triangles.

Corrected problem exporting a Gradient added to a Text Box, when the gradient had an orientation. The exported orientation was not at the same angle. The gradient also did not display the correct size when the drawing zoom factor was not unity. All works correctly now.

Improved the AppleWorks import to properly handle Japanese fonts. The import now recognizes the Hiragino Kaku, Hiragino Maru and Hiragino Mincho families and two Osaka font families.

Improved AppleWorks import, added capability to identify AppleWorks files. Now the "cwk" extension is not required for EazyDraw to locate an AppleWorks classic OS drawing file. EazyDraw peaks in the file and identifies the exact binary structure.

Improved AppleWorks import, added capability to identify AppleWorks files. Now the "cwk" extension is not required for EazyDraw to locate an AppleWorks classic OS drawing file. EazyDraw peaks in the file and identifies the exact binary structure.

Corrected behavior of the "Other" buttons found on the shortcut color, pattern, and gradient toolbar pull down menus. Previously these would toggle the corresponding full interface panel, resulting in closing the panel if it was open. This would not be the intended action. Now the button will bring the corresponding panel to the front of all panels as one would expect.

Corrected Problem sending multiple graphics to a new layer using the Layers popup menu found at the bottom of the Graphic Details drawer. This action would reverse the drawing order on the destination layer. Drawing order is now preserved properly.

Changed the behavior of Option Drag to duplicate, in the case of multiple layers that were enabled for selection and the situation where some of the original graphics are not on the Active Layer. Previously all new graphics were entered on the active drawing layer. Now the new graphics remain on the same layer as the individual original of each duplicate. In other words: Option drag holds to originating layers.

Fixed Tool Tip on the "hand" tool, Pan tool of main toolbar. It now reads: Move Tool, Option Key to Pan, Space Bar Pans With Arrow.

Fixed the Report Dimension when used with Orthogonal Paths having finite radii. There was a problem in that the Report Dimension did not enable and report a Radius. All is fixed. To use an automatic dimension for the a radius on an Orthogonal Radius Path (Technical Tools, top row, second Column): attach the report dimension to one of the virtual vertices of the path, use Dimensions Palette -> Report Popup menu to select "Radius".

Corrected rare problem that could occur when converting a graphic with contained text to Bezier path. The convert would fail and the selected graphics that were being converted would disappear. This situation is handled properly now.

Corrected import of ClarisDraw files using the "Rounded Ends" setting for rounded rectangles. This was not working in some cases in ClarisDraw files. It worked in all cases for AppleWorks import, so the bug did not affect the other classic mac imports, only ClarisDraw. All is correct now.

Corrected issue with "Option Drag" duplicate, from one layer to a new empty layer. Drawing order could transmute in this situation. Note that this was rather rare, "Select Others" needed to be in use and the destination layer needed to be empty. All corrected now.

Corrected issues flipping parallelograms horizontal and vertical. This was not working properly for the generalized parallelogram tool and for parallelograms drawn as rectangles with a Free Transform distortion. All corrected now. The generalized parallelogram is changed to a normal Bezier upon these two flips and the Free Transform version behaves properly for all flips and 90 degree rotations from the menus, the Arrange Palette, and directly from the Distort palette.

Fixed problem with Arc and Pie graphics related to the elliptical handles (light blue ones) with a non-zero elliptical axis for the degenerate case of a circle (both axes equal to 1.0). The center blue adjusting handle could get out of sync and cause problems. This would be initiated with setting the elliptical factors to unity in the graphic details drawer. This ill-defined state is now blocked and corresponding start and end angle values are compensated when this state would previously have initiated with a numeric entry. In short, all should work as expected now, in all cases.

Corrected problem with Page Stamps. Problem introduced with the new canvas margin capability of EazyDraw version 3.0.0. The page stamp was computation was not respecting the value for the canvas margin. So page stamps in lower right corners would be incorrect if the canvas margin was not zero. All is correct now.

Corrected issue with selecting graphics for the situation of smaller graphics inside larger graphics, when there is no fill applied to the enclosing larger graphic(s). The issue was introduced with EazyDraw version 3.0. The mouse down would select the larger enclosing graphic, which is often not desired. Problem is corrected and behavior is again as it was in previous versions of EazyDraw.

Corrected problem exporting bitmap formats of text with soft bitmap shadows. The shadows were omitted upon export, pdf export worked but formats such as png and tiff did not. All is correct now.

Corrected problem with dimensions of very small spacing. In some cases the dimension call out value (the numeric text) could disappear. This is now fixed.

Improved the user interface elements for specifying decimal (and fractional) precision. The changes are on the Dimension palette and the Graphic Details. This interface is now a contextual popup menu rather than a simple integer value. The popup menu presents decimal or fractional precision entries in accordance with display form (decimal or fraction). This will provide a clearer indication of the meaning of each selection.

Corrected problem flipping Orthogonal Path. The Flip commands (Horizontal, Vertical, rotate 90 degrees, ...) were distorting the path. All works correctly now.

Changed the polarity of the stepper on the Stellates palette. The up/down was backwards to the thinking of many users. It has had the same polarity since the beginning of EazyDraw but enough users have complained so it is now reversed. There is no real correct polarity, we'll see how many complaints this beta version generates and respond appropriately before the next release.

EazyDraw Version 3.0.0 ---- January 6, 2009

Improvements and Bug Fixes

Added a way to set the DPI (Dots Per Inch) for TIFF images copied to the system pasteboard. The main EazyDraw preferences panel, the Copy Paste Format section, now has a "Copy DPI" parameter. Nominal value is 72 DPI, don't use large values over about 300 DPI. You may need to test before using values other than 72 DPI as receiving applications are probably expecting 72 DPI. This parameter is needed primarily when working with the new Microsoft Office 2008 as this version no longer accepts Classic PICT data from the pasteboard, and has stability issues when provided PDF data (these reported issues will likely clear in the near future); thus one needs to copy TIFF but the increased resolution will be needed for better quality representation in the Microsoft application.

The plus and minus keys now zoom in the exact same manner as "i" and "o". This was added for consistency with other older drawing applications.

Added another choice for "Move Image", the new choice is "Live Graphic". In this mode the actual graphic(s) are drawn on-screen during the interactive move process. This can add to cpu load, but responsiveness is negligible for less than a few 100 graphics in motion. The advantage of this mode is more accurate placement of the graphic. The normal move uses an image of the graphics in motion during the move then the actual graphic This can result in one or two pixel jumps of the moved image. Some users have complained about this jump, the new selection provides a precise solution to this problem. Factory Default behavior remains as in previous versions, users with this concern will need to overtly change the preference.

Import of MacDraw drawings is now supported. MacDrawII and MacDrawPro graphic file formats were supported with previous versions, but the original MacDraw version was not supported. Most early users of MacDraw upgraded to at least MacDrawII, hence most users required the MacDrawII import. There do remain isolated cases where requiring support for the revision zero version. This is now fully supported. Use the normal Open command to import these. Read the note "AppleWorks, ClarisDraw & MacDraw" for more introductory information.

Fixed a bug that would cause EazyDraw to use high percentage of the CPU resource. This related to two or more, overlapping, annotations or dimensions. If clicked in the right sequence the cpu usage would spike until a clearing click on an unrelated area of the drawing. All fixed now.

Fixed problems printing very large drawings. This was associated primarily with the use of the electronic printer options. The print operation could fail, and then upon quitting EazyDraw the application could hang or crash. Now the hang and crash is corrected. There should be no issues printing very large drawings either to printer or for "Save as PDF". Exporting very large drawings as PDF or EPS had a potential for an operating system imposed arbitrary size limit, but not the hang or crash, this is all corrected as well.

Corrected problem with the Tape Tool live cursor. When used with an origin not at the top left of the drawing the live cursor readout provided incorrect position readings. A shift of the origin was double compensated. This is corrected and works properly now.

Corrected problem exporting graphics that have both a gradient and a bitmap shadow. The export quality for graphics with both of these attributes active was poor. Now corrected graphics have full quality for these exports now.

Corrected problem ungrouping PDF with CMYK colors. The ungroup could abort or not properly represent colors. This is now corrected, CMYK colors in PDF content will ungroup properly and graphics are created with correct CMYK colors.

Corrected possible problems flipping (flip - horizontal, flip - vertical, ...) group graphics that contained arc or pie shapes. All works properly now.

Corrected possible problems using the contextual menu to increase or decrease line width. The problem could happen if the Color and Style palette was not open. In this case line width could go to zero or a very large value.

Corrected problem, only on OS X version 10.4 (Tiger), entering feet and inches values on Graphic Details drawer. In some cases entry would not process properly. Again - only on Tiger. This is now corrected.

Corrected rare problem with Sending a graphic with a Command Key shortcut command. In rare cases the graphic would need to be deselected and selected again to allow the command key to work. All fixed now.

Corrected occasional problem with the Area Report Dimension that could happen when the graphic target of the report dimension was nested in a group graphic. Sometimes the total area of the group would be reported instead of the area of the targeted graphic. This could have happened with other report dimensions as well. All is corrected now.

Functions keys F1 and F2 now open the Layers Drawer and Graphic Details drawer respectively.

Functions keys F1 and F2 now open the Layers Drawer and Graphic Details drawer respectively.

CMD drag of a ruler now simply resets the origin. Graphics remain in place.

Fixed long time nuisance with converting text to Bezier outlines. Ligatures would cause an extra faint rectangle to be added to the text. Corrected.

Optimized converting large bitmap images from RGB to CMYK color space This is now three to nine times faster.

Improved rendering of gradients. improvements include better screen drawing of small and intricate gradients such as those applied to text glyphs. Added full support for gradient transparency for printing and pdf output.

Improved data entry in Graphic Details drawer, when using fractions and fractions with feet and inches. Previously in some rare cases entry of a numeric value would pop back to the previous value, preventing changed. Previously decimal notation was required for feet and inches input. Now decimal or fractions may be used when entering as feet and inches.

Further improvements for ungrouping PDF content. Recent work has been ungrouping of PDF from FreeHand. Text from FreeHand pdf now formats better and corrections were made to avoid dropping of text from these documents.

Corrected export of bitmap formats, when anti-aliasing is not in use. Normally a border of 2 pixels is provided for anti-aliasing to apply to the edge of the exported graphic. When anti-aliasing is not in use this border was still applied, now it is not. Turning off anti-aliasing now works to export the exact size in pixels.

Several corrections to text editing, especially with respect to undo and redo of undo's. Now selected ranges and insertion points are restored to exact conditions when undo or undo-redo actions are performed. One annoyance was that when editing text and deleting text so that the text box shrinks in height, then a left-over gray background area would remain below the text now smaller text box. This situation is now corrected.

Corrected problem with default Time Stamp format. The default format had the month twice and not month, day. Corrected. Upgrading users may need to use the Time Stamp Format panel, correct the format and save as a new default to clear the problem. New installations will not see the problem. Removing EazyDraw preferences file will rebuild the preference in the correct format, but all other persistent defaults will be cleared by this approach.

Improved Guideline Snapping for squares. The snapping would show on the drawing, but the size of the square would not always adjust properly to the guideline snap position. Now all works properly when creating and editing squares.

Corrected minor problems with Find and Replace. Fully tested again, on Leopard.

Corrected problem forming a group, that contained a group which contained graphics with inserted text. The painting order (front to back ordering) of the graphic with inserted text could jump to a different painting order position and possible obscure other graphics of the newly formed group. All is correct now.

Added support for Space-Bar panning. If the space bar is held down, the cursor changes to the Hand cursor and mouse down and drag actions will pan the drawing, as in scrolling. Panning is allowed even if graphics are currently selected. Panning sequences are allowed, lift the mouse - move over, click down again and pan further in a given direction. The panning mode persists until the space bar is lifted. This action does not work id a Text box is in editing mode, or key board focus is in text entry mode on a palette or the Graphic Details drawer.

Upgraded the Underline capability. The Underline menu found on the Text Style submenu has been expanded with different styles and underline patterns. The menu on the Graphic Details drawer was upgraded as well. A Strike submenu was added to the Text Style submenu.

Added the ability to "pan" a drawing by holding down Option key while doing a click and drag operation. Pan operation is performed in place of drag-select when the Option Key is used.

Changed the behavior of the Graphic Details drawer during creating of a graphic. Earlier versions updated the drawer as the graphic was initially drawn - at creation step. Version 2.6.0 had this behavior optimized out, no longer showing the details of the graphic as it is initially drawn. Users have requested to return to the older behavior, now again the the Graphic Details drawer is "live" as a graphic is created.

Corrected problem exporting FAVICON files. Exports on Intel processors did not work, the exported file had a corrupt header. Exports on PowerPC's worked, the problem on happened on Intel processors. Now all is fixed, the standard FAVICON settings for the ICO export now produce valid FAVICON.ICO files.

EazyDraw Version 2.6.0 ---- April 4, 2008

New tools for drawing Spokes, as in spokes of a wheel, added to the Stellate palette. Cross-overs for schematics to indicated connections or lack thereof, boolean Combine submenu for Union, Intersection, or difference of two graphics, New Parallelogram tools on Charting palette. New Free-Hand tool on main tool palette. New Pinning capability on Format main menu, Draw Tangents and/or normals to curves from the Tape Measure tool (type "t" or "n" ). Improved Knife when cutting cyclical math curves (sine waves).

Cross-Overs

New Cross-Over palette is found on the Tools main menu. This feature provides a method to indicate the state of two crossing lines or paths. The indicators are used to show schematically whether or not the crossing paths are physically connected. The easiest way to think of the concept is that of a "jumper" that would indicate one path "jumping-over" another and not making a connection. Several indicator shapes are provided: jumper, bridge, gap, and other. There are also indicators such as a "dot" that can be used to indicate the opposite state, that of a physical connection..

Boolean Combine

A boolean Combine submenu is provided for forming a new graphic from two graphics source graphics. The Union, Difference and Intersection operations are found on this new submenu about 2/3rds the way down on the Tools main menu. These are compound operations that cut two overlapping closed graphics, then recombine the sub-paths according to defined logical rules. Documentation is complete; use search phrase "combine" for detailed definitions of these operations.

Free Hand (Pencil) Tool

Added a new Freehand pencil path tool to the main tool palette. The new tool provides simple freehand drawing, the path placed on paper will follow the cursor with minimal smoothing. With this tool one does not need to lift and click the mouse to drop vertices, as is the case with the other Bezier path tools. The fitting of the mouse trail to the created path is sensitive to the degree of zoom of the drawing. Therefore if a more detailed (jagged) path is needed, zoom in. If a path is too jagged, zoom out. After completion the Smooth or Round commands found on the Tools -> Transform menu may be used to improve the continuity of the path, if necessary. The new Pencil tool takes the place of the radius - orthogonal path tool, the orthogonal path tools are still available on the Technical tool palette (near top).

Tangents and Normals

Added a new capability to draw tangents and normals (perpendicular) to a curve. For straight paths this was done using the guides capability but it wasn't possible to get a precise automatic line oriented with respect to a curved path. Use the Tape Measure tool to access the new capability. When ever the tape measure cursor is indicating the slope of a curve at a given point (the light green cursor read-out) simply typing "t" or "n" will add a tangent or normal line to the drawing. The line added has the center and angle pinned so resizing will not loose the precise orientation. It is recommended to review the EazyDraw.

Pin and Lock

Newly expanded Lock capability, now referred to as Pin and Lock actions. There are two new submenus at the bottom of the Format main menu with new individual selections for locking a graphic. The lock menu now allows a graphic to be locked independently against moving and deleting. The new Pin submenu allows the fixing of the center, length, or angle of a graphic.

The Pin selections are of primary interest for simple lines, using these choices will offer several new useful interactive editing forms for a simple line. The Pin Center selection works with lines, rectangles, and rectangular shapes such as those found on the Charting palette. When the center is pinned, interactive on-screen size changes are made relative to the rectangle (or line) center. The Pin state of a graphic is indicated by a new handle mark shown at the center of the graphic, no mark indicates no pinning. The new lock-against-delete state is indicated by round rather than the normal square handles. Documentation is complete; use search phrase "pin" to access.

Parallelograms

Added 4 new charting tools. Three new forms of parallelograms were added. We were missing two geometries of the orthogonal parallelogram form, two more of these were added, now all forms of this shape are possible. A free form parallelogram tool was added, it easily creates any possible parallelogram. A new "Bow Tie" shape was added to fill out the row of 4 tools. They behave and draw in the normal fashion, no new documentation needed. Full support on the Graphic Details Drawer is complete.

Spokes

Added 3 new stellate tools for drawing spokes. There are 3 forms, a simple straight spoke, a Bezier shaped spoke, and a rounded rectangle spoke. They are found at the bottom of the Stellate palette. They behave and draw just like other stellates.

Ungroup PDF - For Import from Canvas X

Made several improvements to the PDF ungroup. These focused on ungrouping PDF file generated from the Deneba Canvas application. The PDF ungroup now detects use of tile-pattern-fills in the PDF translates these to EazyDraw patterns. The text generation from Canvas is rather non-standard with individual character placement, this situation is now handled and the text streams are recombined into EazyDraw text boxes and positioned with normal typesetting attributes. This means that more text from these files is imported, sized, and positioned correctly. The import is somewhat slow due to this construction. Optimization will be added in the future after we have have more feedback and testing on the basic ungrouping correctness and accuracy.

Improvements and Bug Fixes

Improved Knife, when cutting cyclical math curves, specifically all variations of sine waves and the triangle wave form. Before the knife tool would cut the cyclical math curve correctly but the resulting two or more curves were reduced to Bezier curves, loosing their cyclical control functionality. Now a cut sine wave will result in two new sine waves. The period and phase of each new cyclical function is adjusted to exactly match the original wave form. This improved functionality does not apply to the discontinuous cyclical wave forms, square wave, pulse and saw-tooth; these still drop back to Bezier paths when cut. If one of the resulting cut wave forms would have less than 1/2 of a cycle, the waveform is still reduced to a Bezier curve.

Changed behavior of superscript and subscript commands (both from Text menu and Attributes bar). Previously these commands only changed the baseline of the target text range. Now the commands change the baseline and decrease the font size by 2 points. The inverse command (No(rmal) on the attributes bar and "use default" on the text menu) returns the baseline and adds 2 points of font size. The independent raise or lower baseline commands behave as they did before.

Corrected inconsistency with the Knife tool when cutting a simple line. It was possible to drop the vertex of a line with the knife, the result would be a line with only one point. This inconsistency is now corrected, it is not possible to drop-cut either of a line's two vertices or end points.

Corrected problems adjusting the size of some Free Transform interactive graphics, that contained rectangles or charting shapes nested in group graphics. These now all scale properly.

Corrected possible scaling problems with the new Cut Circle graphics that were introduced with version 2.5.0. Previously they would scale properly in a group, but if the containing group was removed by an Ungroup the Cut-Circle graphic's resize handles would be misplaced. All is correct now. Cut Circles are the graphics found on the Technical Tool palette, second row from the bottom.

Corrected problem introduced with EazyDraw version 2.5.2, version 2.5.0 and earlier did not have the problem. It was a rare problem causing EazyDraw to launch incorrectly. It could only happen to users that were upgrading from an earlier version of EazyDraw. The trigger of the bug was custom (or inadvertent) additions to the colors found in the "eazydraw.clr" color list (in Colors folder found in the home Library folder). If fewer than 8 custom colors were added, the problem would occur upon launch. - very rare situation. All fixed.

Corrected problem importing MacDrawPro and ClarisDraw drawings with bitmap images (JPG, TIF) on Intel machines. Some bitmaps that would import correctly on PowerPC processors were not interpreted correctly on Intel CPUs (byte swap issue for those who understand what that means). All corrected now.

Corrected problem exporting TIF images. It was possible to have a dark line at the top of the image. The line was only a present when using a white background, transparent backgrounds were drawn correctly. The problem was introduced with version 2.5.0, and the dual-rep TIFF capability. It is corrected now.

Corrected problem importing MacDrawPro and ClarisDraw drawings with custom colored patterns. The patterns would import correctly but after saving the EazyDraw file and re-opening the Patterns would return to the default black and white pattern. This is now corrected.

Corrected problem rotating text with a filled text box, filled with solid color, pattern, or gradient. In this situation the rotation would not restore after a save and re-open of the file. This is now corrected. Another aspect of the problem was that text would be inverted (up side down) while rotating, this is now corrected as well.

Corrected issue importing ClarisDraw files related to long text fields. A new format variation was encountered and included in the text interpretation. This may help some users that were having trouble getting all their text to import.

Improved the Ungroup PDF for older versions of PDF that are commonly generated on Windows machines. Text size was not translating properly, one would see a corrupt text box with reported font size of 1.0 - this situation is now handled with the PDF conversion.

Corrected arrow at the end of a rounded or radius connector. The end arrow was not pointed in the correct direction. It now behave correctly. This only happened with the one particular form of a orthogonal connector that was drawn the had its corner shape changed via the Connector palette.

Corrected problems rotating some graphics 90 degrees clockwise and 90 degrees counter clockwise with the flipping menu commands or attribute bar buttons. Text was not flipping the actual text, only the text box. Other graphics were being changed to raw Bezier paths unnecessarily, for example a rectangle was not maintained as a rectangle with the flip action. All is correct now.

Corrected problem changing the text color from the toolbar button. If the text had multiple styles of typeface, a subscript for example, the color would only change up to the point of typeface change. Corrected now.

Corrected possible problems exporting to Keynote drawings that were imported from a Classic drawing application such as MacDraw, or ClarisDraw. In the old classic environment it was possible to "color" a line with a pattern color. This is not acceptable to Keynote and while EazyDraw would handle the situation, upon export to Keynote a block was encountered that would prevent the file save. All is fixed.

Corrected problem saving the color of a Grid Graphic, the ones found on the bottom of the Technical Tool palette. The color would revert to black, or default unless an outline was showing for the grid. Now the color saves and restores correctly.

Optimized the internal code for opening a new drawing. Opening a drawing or creating a new drawing was beginning to take a noticeable amount of time, especially on PowerPC processors or any processor on Tiger. The drawing initialization code was optimized, now there is no noticeable time to open a blank drawing. Opening larger drawings will still require a time in proportion to the size and complexity of the drawing.

Removed the support for creating and updating file icon previews in the main file open dialog. This was an older feature of relevance on Jaguar and Panther and no longer needed. The QuickLook technology in Leopard has superseded the older file icon technology that was used for these previews. On Tiger and Leopard support for the old feature would unnecessarily "touch" files while browsing the Open dialog, thereby changing the File-Modified dates - an undesired consequence. Removing the feature all together corrects the issue.

EazyDraw Version 2.5.2 ---- February 14, 2008

Customizable Toolbar improvements, Ability to convert a Blend to component paths, Improved MacDrawPro Import, Improved ClarisDraw Libraries Import, Fixed possible customizing toolbar lock-up.

Customizable Toolbar

Several improvements were made to the main window toolbar - when used in the Text label mode without icons. In this mode the palettes such as the color picker and gradient picker are presented as menus. These menu presentations were significantly enhanced to provide reasonable submenu organization for a more efficient user experience.

Lock-up during customizing toolbar

Corrected possible random behavior when customizing a toolbar. Extremely rare problem which would occur during customization of the toolbar on one drawing if another drawing was closed a minute or two before the customization action. The bug would take several random forms, possibly hanging the window or not completing a customization task but most in most cases there would be no visible sign of the problem, just a message in the system log files. All is fixed now.

Convert Blends

Added the ability to convert blends into individual paths or lines. This lets one use the blend capability as an interactive form of advanced duplicate, for linear duplication tasks. The blend function can generate a family of curves transitioning across a small set of defining curves. The new capability, found on the "convert to" submenu, allows the full family of curves to be "ungrouped" for individual management and editing. This is also useful for complex illustrations, the individual paths may behave better for scaling and distortion as a nested grouped component. The individual curve may in some cases draw more quickly as well, in the case where thousands of curves might be in use.

Graphic Details Limits

Added minimum limits for several parameters on the Graphic Details drawer. It was reported that a zero-radius circle would cause KeyNote to crash when exported. This problem is found with several other graphics, for example a zero width rectangle. Therefore minimum limits are now in place for several parameters. However, in some cases very small values might be required, for example a small dot of a circle. To allow entering very small values EazyDraw sets the minimum limit in accordance with the zoom of the drawing. Therefore, if a very small value is needed for a parameter it may be necessary to zoom in on the graphic before entering the value.

Import ClarisDraw Libraries

Corrected problem importing ClarisDraw libraries. The problem was related to library graphics that included text. This is now corrected, we have imported several large complex libraries that have been submitted by users. The ClarisDraw Library import is now quite robust.

MacDraw File Convert

Corrected import issue with MacDrawPro drawings. The problem was with certain forms of Bezier paths that contained vertex points with no control points. This seems to be a rather rare construct, one needs to know to option click a control point in the reshape mode in MacDrawPro in order to even create one of these curves. So the problem probably did not appear for most users. All is corrected now.

EazyDraw Version 2.5.1c ---- January 27, 2008

Attributes Toolbar, Charting and Graphing Tools, 512 based Icons, improved PDF ungroup, Multi-Rep TIFF export (for developers), Hex Grid for Game Design, New Scale Worksheet.

Attributes Toolbar

Improved performance of the new Attributes Bar, when text is selected. Users of slower PowerPC CPU's reported sluggishness when using the Attributes Bar. The updating of the attributes for text has been optimized to minimize CPU load in this situation. Please note that the Attributes Bar has the newer Leopard appearance, to maintain Tiger compatibility EazyDraw needs to simulate the buttons and their detailed gradients when running on Tiger. This takes a fair amount of CPU load, and may be noticeable on an older PowerPC. PowerPC - Tiger users should consider upgrading to Leopard or turning off the Attributes Bar. Of course, for performance and stability the Leopard upgrade is strongly advised for all situations.

New Default Toolbar

We have a new default toolbar configuration. This configuration compliments the Attributes Bar better than the previous toolbar, some elements previously in the default toolbar are now present in the Attributes Bar, allowing other elements to be added to the main toolbar. If you have used EazyDraw before you will not see the new default configuration and you may want to customize your toolbar or customize and move the new default configuration to your toolbar.

French Localization

Additions and corrections for French localization. Dash and Arrow palettes formatted better for the French labels and wording. Export panel localized fully now. Fully tested on Tiger and Leopard using the French user interface. Corrected issues with Open AppleWorks files, using French interface, the open dialog would not show the option to select another file type for Open: now all works properly. Further work on the French PDF manual is now available, this project is still not complete.

Improvements and Bug Fixes

Corrected a possible "unexpectedly quit" that could occur when applying a transfer property (shadow, or gradient for example) from a library. These are the property library elements that are placed in a user library using the small LL icon found on parameter palettes. The unexpectedly quit would happen when applying the property from the library to a graphic in a drawing. All is corrected now, the Library property transfers all work as documented now.

Improved the Keynote export. Support for arrows has been added. Corrected possible position errors for lines when exporting just graphics rather than full drawing area, now lines are precisely positioned in all situations.

Fixed a problem on Dash panel, the default list of defined named dashes was not provided. Now the menu has 8 named dash patterns properly listed and available for use.

Fixed pasting images into MS Word and other older technology applications that prefer the Classic PICT data format. Images often would paste up-side-down. A vertical flip was added, this should correct the issue, if unwanted flips are noted please report the problem.

Changed behavior of including an anti-aliasing border when exporting bitmaps. If anti-aliasing is on and you select to just export graphics, or selected graphics, a 2 pixel border is included to allow anti-aliasing of outside edges of the graphics. This is not desirable in some cases such as creating a background image for a web site where the image may be tiled, as an undesired white border will be present on each tiled image. The border is not included if you export "Full Drawing Area" and now it is also eliminated if anti-aliasing is turned off. Previously the border was still included when exporting just graphics without anti-aliasing, this was logically inconsistent.

Corrected rare annoyance associated with the pattern and gradient toolbar tools. The problem was that the use of one of these tools could inadvertently change the temporary default for a pattern or gradient, then new graphics would have a gradient or pattern. Then it would be necessary to open the Gradient panel and turn off gradient so that new graphics would draw without the gradient, (or pattern). This was rare but annoying. All is fixed now. The toolbar tools can be used freely without worry of this happening.

Corrected problem on EazyDraw Preferences, restore all to Factory would not close the pull down panel. This is fixed now.

Corrected problem with the new modified circle graphic, it was possible to set the minor radius larger than the radius on the Graphic Details drawer. This could then prevent the file from opening. This is corrected, and files saved with this error are now senses and corrected so that they are opened properly and the inconsistency is corrected.

Corrected possible problem using independent scales for different layers. If the scale panel was not open the grid could draw incorrectly when linked to rulers. All corrected now.

EazyDraw Version 2.5.0 ---- January 4, 2008

Attributes Toolbar, Charting and Graphing Tools, 512 based Icons, improved PDF ungroup, Multi-Rep TIFF export (for developers), Hex Grid for Game Design, New Scale Worksheet.

Attributes Toolbar

A new Attributes Toolbar is now available. It is a mini toolbar located at the top of the drawing area, above rulers and below the main toolbar. It is accessed from a menu selection at the bottom of the View main menu, you can turn it on / off from there. The preference control for showing the toolbar on new drawings is found on the Page Layout palette. Documentation is complete (EazyDraw Help, but not the PDF manual at this time) use search phrase "toolbar" to learn more, we refer to it as the "attributes toolbar". This toolbar is actually a family of toolbars, they are context sensitive, they change when graphics are selected or deselected. The tools shown are chosen to be relevant to the selected graphics on the drawing. This feature is similar to the mini toolbar found in the iWork '08 suite (Pages '08 and Numbers '08), use of these tools should be natural for iWork08 users.

Scale Worksheet

There is a new Scale Worksheet, access it from your Scale palette or the new attributes toolbar. The worksheet helps arrive at a proper scale for a scaled technical drawing. It interactively displays the relationship between your choice of paper size and the dimensions of the project. A great help for both a novice that may need assistance in understanding how a scaled drawing will work, and the expert planning a project and presentation format.

512 icons

All new 512 based icons for the application, drawing files, and library files. These were drawn with EazyDraw and saved in the updated OS X, Apple Icon Image format so that they look great on Leopard.

Charting and Graphing Axis Tools

New charting and graphing tools on the Technical Tools palette, near the bottom, are now complete. These now have full support on the the Graphic Details drawer and Help documentation is now complete . There are 4 new axis and grid tools to be used as integral components of a graph or chart. They consist of an integrated tick-mark, a compound text label graphic, rectangular grid, and hexagon grid. They can be used to build axes and labels for chart graphics. These have been highly optimized to display quickly. It is better to use one of these compound graphics, especially for text-label sequence, compared to a conventional group array of text or tick marks. To learn more use these search phrases in EazyDraw Help: "graphing tools", "text labels", "grid tools".

Unjoin Bezier

Added new command to Unjoin a Bezier path or curve. This will separate segments of a complex path at points where the path jumps (MoveTo segments) from one stroked portion of the path to another. This is useful and recommended when complex paths have been imported into an EazyDraw drawing. This situation is found when text is converted to Bezier or stylized. It also occurs with ungrouped PDF files, and is common for PDF files that originate from AutoCad. You may think of it as one more level of ungrouping available in these situations. An example might be a semi-colon, this would let one separate the two marks of the semi-colon. It is found on the Tools main menu, Convert submenu. If a complex path is not converting as desired, use this new Unjoin then attempt the convert.

Hex Grid

Hex grid tool on Technical Tool palette is now complete with Graphic Details support. The grid can be rotated and fully adjusted with respect to the origin. The sides can be extended or shortened for different appearance. When fully extended an isosceles triangle grid is attained. Documentation is complete.

Multi-Rep TIFF Export

Added the ability to export multi-representation TIFF files. This format is the new Apple standard for application images and icons. The format is a tiff file but it actually contains two tiff images, one at the requested DPI resolution and a second at 4x the DPI resolution. These will become important as Leopard moves onto higher resolution displays (think HD) in the future. This is of primary interest to software developers drawing buttons and icons for Mac and web applications. There is an example of one of these TIFF files in the examples folder, Preview displays the files and shows the two resolutions. TIFF Export now provides color space control. RGB, RGBA, CMYK, and CMYKA are supported. The DPI for TIFF saved files is now saved with the file so that the file opens with a proper nominal size in Adobe applications.

Improved PDF Ungroup

Improved the speed of PDF ungroup, the improvement can be quite significant (100-1000 fold) for some complex PDF images. Corrected problem opening a drawing that was the result of a PDF ungroup - the first time after the ungroup; opening would take a very long time for large PDF - fixed now, opening time is normal for the size of the file. Improved PDF ungroup in several respects, it now handles PDF files that originated from AutoCad more intelligently, more quickly, and with better results.

Problems Addressed

Corrected a detail point on the export of TIFF graphic files. Now the physical size of the image is properly represented with respect to the Dots Per Inch (DPI) that was specified when saving the file. The correction does not actually change or improve the bitmap image, but other applications such as Photoshop will now show the image at a more representative size.

Corrected entering lengths in the Graphics Details drawer when units and fractions were in use. In some cases the length entered, if it had a fraction, could become about 10 times larger than the value entered . This is fixed now.

Improved the Convert To Lines for complex paths. Now disjoined jumps in a complex path do not confuse the conversion. Previously one could see extra lines added at these jumps.

Corrected problem on Graphic Details drawer, when entering the radius for an Arc and completing with a Tab key, if Tab was hit again the radius would go to zero. Problem is now corrected, two tabs hit in succession now simply advance the entry point to the next then the next text fields on the Graphic Details drawer. All fixed now.

Corrected bug setting text alignment for larger text blocks with multiple font styles and sizes.

Corrected problem with palette layout selection at launch of EazyDraw. The problem was that a user defined palette layout for launch would be respected only on every-other launch. Corrected now, any selection for Palettes At Launch, EazyDraw preferences, is now respected each launch.

Corrected rare problem that was possible on Leopard, not Tiger, that would result in a bad drawing window opened when EazyDraw was launched. The bad window would not display and not respond to key clicks and could not be closed. This is fixed now.

The French PDF manual has been updated, it is still not complete, the work is still in progress. The newest version has updated figures and more pages complete. It is in the International folder.

Improved AppleWorks import, main improvement relates to images that were imported into AppleWorks. In some cases the size of the image was not correctly reproduced in the EazyDraw drawing, more situations are now handled properly.

Corrected problem resizing groups that had no width or height, for example two horizontal lines grouped together. This would produce different results, often the group would disappear. This is now corrected, if a group has virtual (not including line widths) zero width (or height) the selected group will not show the two handles or for width (or height) adjustment. Resizing will only apply to the other (non-zero) dimension.

Corrected problem with the undo of a group action, in particular when the grouping action involved a group (group of a group). The new group would un-group just fine, but the Undo action would change the Group-Edit for the group that was originally placed in the group. In other words: the sub-group would not return with the same Group Edit, upon undo. After the undo the original group would not have resize handles as the Group Edit would be placed to Solid. Now all works properly, Undo of grouping a group returns everything to original states.

New Features EazyDraw Version 2.5 see below

EazyDraw Version 2.5.2 Improvements ---- February 14, 2008

Customizable Toolbar improvements, Ability to convert a Blend to component paths, Improved MacDrawPro Import, Improved ClarisDraw Libraries Import, Fixed possible customizing toolbar lock-up.

New Default Toolbar -- Update your toolbar!

We have a new default toolbar configuration. This configuration compliments the Attributes Bar better than the previous toolbar, some elements previously in the default toolbar are now present in the Attributes Bar, allowing other elements to be added to the main toolbar. If you have used EazyDraw before you will not see the new default configuration and you may want to customize your toolbar or customize and move the new default configuration to your toolbar.

French Localization

Additions and corrections for French localization. Dash and Arrow palettes formatted better for the French labels and wording. Export panel localized fully now. Fully tested on Tiger and Leopard using the French user interface. Corrected issues with Open AppleWorks files, using French interface, the open dialog would not show the option to select another file type for Open: now all works properly. Further work on the French PDF manual is now available, this project is still not complete.

Keynote Export

Arrows are now supported for the KeyNote export. Added minimum limits for several parameters on the Graphic Details drawer. It was reported that a zero-radius circle would cause KeyNote to crash when exported. This problem is found with several other graphics, for example a zero width rectangle. Therefore minimum limits are now in place for several parameters. However, in some cases very small values might be required, for example a small dot of a circle. To allow entering very small values EazyDraw sets the minimum limit in accordance with the zoom of the drawing. Therefore, if a very small value is needed for a parameter it may be necessary to zoom in on the graphic before entering the value.

Text Only Toolbar Mode

Several improvements were made to the main window toolbar - when used in the Text label mode without icons. In this mode the palettes such as the color picker and gradient picker are presented as menus. These menu presentations were significantly enhanced to provide reasonable submenu organization for a more efficient user experience.

Lock-up during customizing toolbar

Corrected possible random behavior when customizing a toolbar. Extremely rare problem which would occur during customization of the toolbar on one drawing if another drawing was closed a minute or two before the customization action. The bug would take several random forms, possibly hanging the window or not completing a customization task but most in most cases there would be no visible sign of the problem, just a message in the system log files. All is fixed now.

Import ClarisDraw Libraries

Corrected problem importing ClarisDraw libraries. The problem was related to library graphics that included text. This is now corrected, we have imported several large complex libraries that have been submitted by users. The ClarisDraw Library import is now quite robust.

MacDraw File Convert

Corrected import issue with MacDrawPro drawings. The problem was with certain forms of Bezier paths that contained vertex points with no control points. This seems to be a rather rare construct, one needs to know to option click a control point in the reshape mode in MacDrawPro in order to even create one of these curves. So the problem probably did not appear for most users. All is corrected now.

Attributes Toolbar

Improved performance of the new Attributes Bar, when text is selected. Users of slower PowerPC CPU's reported sluggishness when using the Attributes Bar. The updating of the attributes for text has been optimized to minimize CPU load in this situation. Please note that the Attributes Bar has the newer Leopard appearance, to maintain Tiger compatibility EazyDraw needs to simulate the buttons and their detailed gradients when running on Tiger. This takes a fair amount of CPU load, and may be noticeable on an older PowerPC. PowerPC - Tiger users should consider upgrading to Leopard or turning off the Attributes Bar. Of course, for performance and stability the Leopard upgrade is strongly advised for all situations.

Improvements and Bug Fixes

Corrected a possible "unexpectedly quit" that could occur when applying a transfer property (shadow, or gradient for example) from a library. These are the property library elements that are placed in a user library using the small LL icon found on parameter palettes. The unexpectedly quit would happen when applying the property from the library to a graphic in a drawing. All is corrected now, the Library property transfers all work as documented now.

Improved the Keynote export. Support for arrows has been added. Corrected possible position errors for lines when exporting just graphics rather than full drawing area, now lines are precisely positioned in all situations.

Fixed a problem on Dash panel, the default list of defined named dashes was not provided. Now the menu has 8 named dash patterns properly listed and available for use.

Fixed pasting images into MS Word and other older technology applications that prefer the Classic PICT data format. Images often would paste up-side-down. A vertical flip was added, this should correct the issue, if unwanted flips are noted please report the problem.

Changed behavior of including an anti-aliasing border when exporting bitmaps. If anti-aliasing is on and you select to just export graphics, or selected graphics, a 2 pixel border is included to allow anti-aliasing of outside edges of the graphics. This is not desirable in some cases such as creating a background image for a web site where the image may be tiled, as an undesired white border will be present on each tiled image. The border is not included if you export "Full Drawing Area" and now it is also eliminated if anti-aliasing is turned off. Previously the border was still included when exporting just graphics without anti-aliasing, this was logically inconsistent.

Corrected rare annoyance associated with the pattern and gradient toolbar tools. The problem was that the use of one of these tools could inadvertently change the temporary default for a pattern or gradient, then new graphics would have a gradient or pattern. Then it would be necessary to open the Gradient panel and turn off gradient so that new graphics would draw without the gradient, (or pattern). This was rare but annoying. All is fixed now. The toolbar tools can be used freely without worry of this happening.

Corrected problem on EazyDraw Preferences, restore all to Factory would not close the pull down panel. This is fixed now.

Corrected problem with the new modified circle graphic, it was possible to set the minor radius larger than the radius on the Graphic Details drawer. This could then prevent the file from opening. This is corrected, and files saved with this error are now senses and corrected so that they are opened properly and the inconsistency is corrected.

Corrected possible problem using independent scales for different layers. If the scale panel was not open the grid could draw incorrectly when linked to rulers. All corrected now.

New Features EazyDraw Version 2.5

Attributes Toolbar, Charting and Graphing Tools, 512 based Icons, improved PDF ungroup, Multi-Rep TIFF export (for developers), Hex Grid for Game Design, New Scale Worksheet.

Attributes Toolbar

A new Attributes Toolbar is now available. It is a mini toolbar located at the top of the drawing area, above rulers and below the main toolbar. It is accessed from a menu selection at the bottom of the View main menu, you can turn it on / off from there. The preference control for showing the toolbar on new drawings is found on the Page Layout palette. Documentation is complete (EazyDraw Help, but not the PDF manual at this time) use search phrase "toolbar" to learn more, we refer to it as the "attributes toolbar". This toolbar is actually a family of toolbars, they are context sensitive, they change when graphics are selected or deselected. The tools shown are chosen to be relevant to the selected graphics on the drawing. This feature is similar to the mini toolbar found in the iWork '08 suite (Pages '08 and Numbers '08), use of these tools should be natural for iWork08 users.

Scale Worksheet

There is a new Scale Worksheet, access it from your Scale palette or the new attributes toolbar. The worksheet helps arrive at a proper scale for a scaled technical drawing. It interactively displays the relationship between your choice of paper size and the dimensions of the project. A great help for both a novice that may need assistance in understanding how a scaled drawing will work, and the expert planning a project and presentation format.

512 icons

All new 512 based icons for the application, drawing files, and library files. These were drawn with EazyDraw and saved in the updated OS X, Apple Icon Image format so that they look great on Leopard.

Charting and Graphing Axis Tools

New charting and graphing tools on the Technical Tools palette, near the bottom, are now complete. These now have full support on the the Graphic Details drawer and Help documentation is now complete . There are 4 new axis and grid tools to be used as integral components of a graph or chart. They consist of an integrated tick-mark, a compound text label graphic, rectangular grid, and hexagon grid. They can be used to build axes and labels for chart graphics. These have been highly optimized to display quickly. It is better to use one of these compound graphics, especially for text-label sequence, compared to a conventional group array of text or tick marks. To learn more use these search phrases in EazyDraw Help: "graphing tools", "text labels", "grid tools".

Unjoin Bezier

Added new command to Unjoin a Bezier path or curve. This will separate segments of a complex path at points where the path jumps (MoveTo segments) from one stroked portion of the path to another. This is useful and recommended when complex paths have been imported into an EazyDraw drawing. This situation is found when text is converted to Bezier or stylized. It also occurs with ungrouped PDF files, and is common for PDF files that originate from AutoCad. You may think of it as one more level of ungrouping available in these situations. An example might be a semi-colon, this would let one separate the two marks of the semi-colon. It is found on the Tools main menu, Convert submenu. If a complex path is not converting as desired, use this new Unjoin then attempt the convert.

Convert Blends

Added the ability to convert blends into individual paths or lines. This lets one use the blend capability as an interactive form of advanced duplicate, for linear duplication tasks. The blend function can generate a family of curves transitioning across a small set of defining curves. The new capability, found on the "convert to" submenu, allows the full family of curves to be "ungrouped" for individual management and editing. This is also useful for complex illustrations, the individual paths may behave better for scaling and distortion as a nested grouped component. The individual curve may in some cases draw more quickly as well, in the case where thousands of curves might be in use.

Hex Grid

Hex grid tool on Technical Tool palette is now complete with Graphic Details support. The grid can be rotated and fully adjusted with respect to the origin. The sides can be extended or shortened for different appearance. When fully extended an isosceles triangle grid is attained. Documentation is complete.

Multi-Rep TIFF Export

Added the ability to export multi-representation TIFF files. This format is the new Apple standard for application images and icons. The format is a tiff file but it actually contains two tiff images, one at the requested DPI resolution and a second at 4x the DPI resolution. These will become important as Leopard moves onto higher resolution displays (think HD) in the future. This is of primary interest to software developers drawing buttons and icons for Mac and web applications. There is an example of one of these TIFF files in the examples folder, Preview displays the files and shows the two resolutions. TIFF Export now provides color space control. RGB, RGBA, CMYK, and CMYKA are supported. The DPI for TIFF saved files is now saved with the file so that the file opens with a proper nominal size in Adobe applications.

Improved PDF Ungroup

Improved the speed of PDF ungroup, the improvement can be quite significant (100-1000 fold) for some complex PDF images. Corrected problem opening a drawing that was the result of a PDF ungroup - the first time after the ungroup; opening would take a very long time for large PDF - fixed now, opening time is normal for the size of the file. Improved PDF ungroup in several respects, it now handles PDF files that originated from AutoCad more intelligently, more quickly, and with better results.

Problems Addressed

Corrected a detail point on the export of TIFF graphic files. Now the physical size of the image is properly represented with respect to the Dots Per Inch (DPI) that was specified when saving the file. The correction does not actually change or improve the bitmap image, but other applications such as Photoshop will now show the image at a more representative size.

Corrected entering lengths in the Graphics Details drawer when units and fractions were in use. In some cases the length entered, if it had a fraction, could become about 10 times larger than the value entered . This is fixed now.

Improved the Convert To Lines for complex paths. Now disjoined jumps in a complex path do not confuse the conversion. Previously one could see extra lines added at these jumps.

Corrected problem on Graphic Details drawer, when entering the radius for an Arc and completing with a Tab key, if Tab was hit again the radius would go to zero. Problem is now corrected, two tabs hit in succession now simply advance the entry point to the next then the next text fields on the Graphic Details drawer. All fixed now.

Corrected bug setting text alignment for larger text blocks with multiple font styles and sizes.

Corrected problem with palette layout selection at launch of EazyDraw. The problem was that a user defined palette layout for launch would be respected only on every-other launch. Corrected now, any selection for Palettes At Launch, EazyDraw preferences, is now respected each launch.

Corrected rare problem that was possible on Leopard, not Tiger, that would result in a bad drawing window opened when EazyDraw was launched. The bad window would not display and not respond to key clicks and could not be closed. This is fixed now.

The French PDF manual has been updated, it is still not complete, the work is still in progress. The newest version has updated figures and more pages complete. It is in the International folder.

Improved AppleWorks import, main improvement relates to images that were imported into AppleWorks. . In some cases the size of the image was not correctly reproduced in the EazyDraw drawing, more situations are now handled properly.

EazyDraw Version 2.4.2 ---- November 23, 2007

Layer and Zoom shortcut menus, Smooth-Shape-Round menu command. fixed: Selecting groups and library graphics with drag, paragraph line spacing.

Layer and Zoom popup menus

The main drawing window now has a Layer shortcut menu and Zoom indicator menu. They are found at the lower left corner of the drawing window. The Layer menu only has 2 selections if there is only one layer. You can open the Layers drawer from the menu, or change the Active layer and make changes to the Enabled actions without opening the Layers drawer. The Zoom popup menu shows the zoom value and may be used to change the zoom of the drawing as seen on the screen, if a graphic is selected a "zoom-in" is centered on the selected graphic.

Smooth, Shape and Round

Three new menu commands found on the Transform submenu of the Tools main menu. These apply 3 different degrees of rounding and smoothing of the corners of a polygon or other straight Bezier path graphics. These are useful for creating free hand shapes from straight line graphics. For details refer to EazyDraw help, search phrase "smooth transform".

Problems Addressed

Corrected problem selecting Groups, Interaction restrained graphics, and graphics from a user library. The bug was introduced with version 2.4.1, it would not let these grouped graphic objects select via the simple click and drag of the default rubber-band select tool. All is fixed now.

Corrected problem changing paragraph line spacing. One could change the paragraph line spacing for a complete text box. But the ability to change an individual paragraph by selecting the paragraph in the text edit mode was not working. All is corrected. To change the line spacing of an individual paragraph, select the text box then select the desired paragraph and make the desired change with the line spacing parameter on the Paragraph palette.

Fixed the Zoom Toolbar Button, the zoom percent was showing 100x too large of a number.

DXF users should note that a drawing may import but be drawn at a large scale and thereby show only on blank page. We will address this soon, in the interim use these tips. Add many pages to your drawing (maybe even 100 across and 100 down) using the Page Layout panel, then zoom way out and you may find your content. It also helps to open the Layers drawer and pull it out the extra bit to show the graphic counts, this can help you to find graphics that may not be showing due one reason or the other.

EazyDraw Version 2.4.1 ---- November 1, 2007

AppleWorks and DXF Import, Leopard Version with Cover Flow and Quick Look support, Distribute Along, New Tools-- Axis, Tick Marks, Grid, Hex Grid, and D'Slots.

Additions Pack

The full release with documentation and EazyDraw libraries has grown to over 32 MByte. With this release it has become necessary to split the disk image and provide the Libraries, Tutorials, PDF manual, and the more elaborate example drawings as separate download. The full product offering is now two 16 MByte downloads. We have named the additional content download the "EazyDraw Additions Pack", it is available for a nominal charge, the Additions Pack web page has all of the details. This is not an issue with CD or Boxed Version purchases, the product split only applies to the demo and download versions of EazyDraw.

Leopard Version

This version is fully compatible with Mac OS X versions 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard), more specifically OS X versions 10.4.3 and newer. This version of EazyDraw is a Universal Binary, runs native on both Intel and PowerPC processors. EazyDraw runs best (fastest) on Intel. We have older versions for Jaguar and Panther users, see the support web page for links.

AppleWorks 6 Import

At the request of the AppleWorks and iWork user community EazyDraw has added a full import of AppleWorks 6 drawing files. The AppleWorks Import page describes the import capability in detail. The Dream Work Flow web page has more information concerning using EazyDraw to finish out the iWork '08 suite with full drawing capability.

This release introduces support for native AppleWorks drawing files, AppleWorks version 6.x. This is a full import, all AppleWorks content is converted corresponding EazyDraw shapes and accents. Use the normal Open panel, the Insert menu, or drag and drop a file onto an open EazyDraw drawing window to convert an AppleWorks drawing to its EazyDraw counterpart. Support is provided only for the Drawing and Painting files. Drawing files contain vector information and may be fully edited as a normal EazyDraw drawing. Painting files are imported, and they will look better when displayed with EazyDraw's true OS X foundation, but they are bitmaps and are not editable as vector content.

The import supports colors, patterns, wallpaper and gradient accents. The Open panel has an option to direct EazyDraw to install these accents as proper OS X colors so that they may be used by EazyDraw and other Cocoa applications on OS X. EazyDraw paired with iWork now provides an excellent migration path from AppleWorks to iWork '08, Leopard and future versions of OS X. More Info: AppleWorks Import .

DXF Import

This release introduces support for AutoCad DXF technical drawing files. DXF import is provided with this release. This is a full AutoCad DXF import that supports a broad range of AutoCad drawing constructs. It includes support for layers, DXF hatches, dimensions, colors, dashed lines, arrow heads, and text. Each of these elements is converted to the corresponding graphic content of a native EazyDraw drawing. Use the normal "Open" panel to import the DXF drawings. The DXF filter is selected from the popup menu at the bottom of the Open panel. The drawing needs to have the ".dxf" extension.

The import is compliant with the specifications for DXF versions 2004, 2000/LT2000, RT12/LT2 as defined on the Auto Desk web site. Autocad 2004 running on

We are asking that users provide us with feedback to any issues noted with the import. If a drawing does not convert we would like to receive the dxf original drawing by email - all content of supplied drawings will be kept in confidence and the drawing will be deleted from our systems after the conversion problem is isolated. If a conversion should cause EazyDraw to unexpectedly quit, we would like to receive the system log file that reports the failure. Thanks in advance for all assistance. EazyDraw is intended to comply with the 2-d portions of the Autodesk standard definitions for the DXF format, we will use AutoCad running on Windows as the "gold standard" for evaluating import and export of these files.

Leopard

This version is Leopard ready. This version has had extensive testing on Leopard (OS X version 10.5) and is fully compatible with OS X versions 10.4 (10.4.3 and newer) and 10.5. The Snow Leopard finder has new viewing features called Quick Look and Cover Flow. Using Quick Look you can view a drawing without even opening it up. You can actually see your drawings, not just an icon that represents the file. Browsing a drawing in Cover Flow is like flipping through the music labels in iTunes. There are changes to the EazyDraw native file format that are required by Quick Look and Cover Flow. Your existing EazyDraw files will need to be opened, touched (at least one minor change) and re-saved so that the new information is added to the drawing file. This needs to be done to engage the more advance previewing technology that Leopard uses to provide the real time images.

The file format change, as always, is fully backwards compatible. There is no problem viewing newer or older files with a newer or older version of EazyDraw. Files in their original, 2.3.x and older state, display and open properly on Leopard - the only limitation is the lack of support of Quick Look and Cover Flow, the old file icon is shown instead of the content image. Bottom-Line, you will likely want to open and re-save your EazyDraw files because these new features quickly become an expected must have on Leopard. The upgraded file format is saved when running on Tiger (10.4), it is not necessary to be on Leopard (10.5) to begin saving EazyDraw files with the improved Leopard Finder support. This means if you a user still running Tiger (with this version or newer of EazyDraw) and send a file to associates running Leopard, they will be able to preview the drawing with Quick Look and Cover Flow.

Distribute Along

New "Distribute Along" menu commands are now available; at the request of many Canvas users that have migrated to EazyDraw. The feature is accessed via menu commands. "Distribute Along" is found on the Format main menu, Align and Size submenu. This action will distribute any number of graphics along the path of a master graphic. The master graphic is the first one selected, it is marked in the standard way with a center mark that is not shown for the other graphics of a multiple selection. An example would be to distribute several rectangles along a line. To do this select the line first then the rectangles, then select the desired Distribute Along action from the menu. There are individual menu commands for positioning various defining points of the distributed graphics, for example Top Left, or Center. The Grid reference point may be used, see the documentation on "Align To Grid" to understand the use of this user defined reference point.

The process requires a determination of the Order of arrangement for the distributed graphics, this is managed by menu item selection; nearest, or top-to-bottom for example. It is also possible to orient the distributed graphics, these selections are found at the bottom of the new submenu. The orientation is relative to the tangent of the master graphic's path - at the point of distribution. Documentation is not complete for this new feature.

New Tools

Expanded support for drawing graphs and charts is found on the Technical Tools palette, near the bottom. We have added 4 new axis and grid tools to be used as integral components of a graph or chart. They are found on the bottom row of the palette. They consist of an integrated tick-mark, label graphic, rectangular grid, and hexagon grid. They can be used to build axes and labels for chart graphics. They are fully operational in the drawing and interactive editing mode. Documentation is not complete at this time, experiment with the interactive handles to become familiar with the use and capabilities of these components. They have been highly optimized to display quickly. It is better to use one of these compound graphics, especially for text-label sequence, compared to a conventional group array of text or tick marks. They are not yet supported on the Graphic Details drawer and documentation is not complete.

Added new D-Slot tools to the Technical Tool palette. These are shapes made by combining a circle and one or two straight sides. They are a rather common shape that is often constructed with a circle and two rectangles or other drawing tricks. The shapes provided make it much easier to construct and manage these shapes when needed. They are fully operational in the drawing and interactive editing mode. They are not yet supported on the Graphic Details drawer and documentation is not complete.

Bug Fixes

Corrected minor issues with the French Localization. The ability to add standard tools to a library palette was not working in the last French language release, this now works.

Fixed a bug that could happen when dragging a library element from one library to another. The problem would happen only in the Name mode. This is now corrected. The problem was still present in version 2.4.0, but corrected with version 2.4.1.

EazyDraw Version 2.3.3 ---- October 2, 2007

Of primary interest to French speaking users. The French user interface has had more testing and provides a full localization of the menus, parameter palettes and user messages. The translation of the PDF manual (over 350 pages) is in progress. The distribution disk image has the first 60 pages of the manual. The translation should be complete by January of 2008.

This is an important release for French speaking users. All menus and user interface palettes are provided in French. The French user interface has been tested extensively, it was released at the Apple Expo in Paris. Additionally the first 5 chapters of the PDF manual are available in French. The full French version of the PDF documentation should be available in a few months.

Expanded capabilities of LinkBack editing. The editing now handles closing the active LinkBack edit window when the drawing was edited but not saved or published.

Updated the Services interface. EazyDraw now responds more intelligently to a wider variety of items that one might find on the Services menu. In particular the services provided by LaTexIt are now fully supported. You may enter LaTex code in an EazyDraw text box and call LaTexIt from the services menu. The LaTex code is then sent to LaTexIt and the returned fully typeset result is pasted into your drawing, replacing the original text. This replacement is provided with full LinkBack support, that means that you may edit the original source text by simply double clicking the LaTexIt result in the EazyDraw drawing. To learn more, study the LinkBack documentation in the EazyDraw Help system or the PDF manual.

Added a selection submenu to the View main menu. These menu commands correspond to the buttons on the Selection Tools palette, enclose, touch enclose, back, .... . This was requested to allow the assignment of shortcut keys to the different selection modes and tools. Unfortunate that we did not think to do this sooner, but it in place at this time. These were tested with the Menu Keys preferences dialog, everything works as expected. It is now possible to short-cut assign these functions.

Corrected problem opening a drawing that had independent layer scales. This bug crept into one of the recent releases. The independent scales for the layers reverted to the scale of the Paper layer. In some cases this change would not be noticeable, unless one explicitly revisited a layer with a different scale. All works correctly now.

Made several corrections to grouping of attached dimensions, that are included in the group. Previously these had a tendency to become detached from the target graphic. This would mean that if the group was ungrouped, the the dimensions would need to be manually re-attached. This debugging sessions lead to other subtle corrections of grouped dimensions and connectors. All should work much better now. One behavior change: when moving a dimension the attache ends of the dimension are no longer "active", they will not attach to target graphics. One needs to move an end explicitly to have it seek and attach to objects. This means that if a dimension is attached at one end, a move will leave that end attached and only move the free end. Again: to attach, or detach a dimension end, the end needs to be move as a single point explicitly.

Fixed problem with the default setting for the Snap To Grid position. This was always going to top-left, even if you had changed your default setting. Corrected now, behavior is the same as the default management for other panels.

Added the ability to remove the title prefix to a text stamp, time stamps and page stamps. If un-checked there will be no descriptive prefix to the time stamp (or page stamp). The time shown will be just the raw time as applies to the stamp, last save or last change ... . This would mean that the user prefix should be used to avoid confusion. So this is now fully under user control. The default is still to include the hard wired label prefix.

Made minor improvements to the ClarisDraw and MacDraw imports. The corrections related to rotated arcs, the rotation was using the EazyDraw conventions and the results were incorrect. These stay at their intended locations now.

EazyDraw Version 2.3.1 ---- April 18, 2007

Corrections and improvements with version 2.3.1:

Updated the Spotlight plugin for EazyDraw. It now supports indexing and searching of the EazyDraw library files as well as all EazyDraw file types. If EazyDraw is installed in your Applications folder, OS X will find the updated plugin automatically, no need reboot or perform any specific installation actions. Note for advanced users: if you wish to run EazyDraw from another location you may need to move the Spotlight importer from the EazyDraw Bundle's Contents folder to the system library.

The default drawing toolbar tools have been updated. We now include the Text Color smart color menu button in the default tool set. The Text Color tool has proven to be very valuable as the other methods of setting text color (via Font panel and Color Picker, or Graphic Details and color picker) are time consuming and not easy to find for the more occasional user. The Text Color toolbar tool is a simple convenient solution to this issue. Users that are upgrading will not automatically see the change, you will need to perform a "Customize Toolbar" and re-install the default set to pick up this improvement.

Corrected problem with Cycle Palettes and Reverse Cycle palettes. This action would fail to work properly in some cases. Both cases now work as they should.

Corrected problems with setting the line width for Dimensions. There are two line width setting for a dimension, one found on the Dimensions palette controls the bounding box that may be shown around the dimensions measurement numbers. The other is the line width of the attach lines that extend from the dimensions target graphic, this line width is managed using the "Color and Style" palette. The problem was that the latter setting would not always copy with a dimension and would not be held in the Dimension default settings. This is now fixed and dimensions with thin setback lines will work smoothly. We also changed the default for this line width to one-half of a point, a thinner line.

Corrected problem Tape Measure tool. If the Graphic Details drawer had not been opened for a drawing the tape cursor would not report positions and lengths as it should. This was introduced with version 2.3.0 (not present in the previous major release). All corrected now. Note that you now have control over the formatting of the tape cursor read-out (decimal precision or use fractions). The settings for Graphic Details now control the format of the tape cursor. Deselect all graphics and you will see the format controls in the Graphic Details drawer.

Improved ability to position dimension text for narrow dimensions. Before, the text could not move outside the limits of the measurement lines which was a problem if the measurement was very small and did not provide room for the numeric text. Now the "Shift" and "Slide" parameters are enabled and may be used to position the numeric text without limitation.

Corrected problems using German comma decimal character settings for OS X international preferences. The comma-decimal character was not properly recognized on the Dimensions palette, this is now corrected. There were problems on the Graphic Details drawer with Undo, when using commas as decimal points. The value would enter correctly with the comma rather than decimal point, but the undo action would not restore the original value -- all is correct now.

Corrected problem displaying Text on the the Graphic Details drawer. The height was not displayed properly, it was showing the same value as the width. This is now fixed.

Corrected problem with highly elliptical arcs. Previously these could jump when trying to interactively adjust the major axis direction for the arc (or pie shape). Now these adjust smoothly in all cases. We also decreased the minimum minor axis percentage from 15% to 4% so one may now create thinner arcs without using both the major and minor axis adjusters.

Fixed Opaque Copy, the check mark in the Edit menu was not setting correctly in all cases. The function was working properly but the check mark indicator was not reliable. The function now works and displays properly.

Corrected problem with toolbar (the one on a drawing window) not executing palette commands (draw a rectangle for example) unless the associated tool palette was open. This was introduced with version 2.3.0, it is now corrected and the tools work properly again.

EazyDraw Version 2.3.0 ---- March 26, 2007

New with version 2.3.0 EazyDraw

User created Libraries are now available. Direct import of Claris Draw libraries is now operational - use the normal "Open Library" command found on the File main menu. EazyDraw help documentation is complete use the search phrase "user library" to access the online help for this topic. You may create your own libraries with the "New Library" option found on the File main menu. You may open directly Claris Draw libraries, they then may be saved as EazyDraw libraries. Any graphic may be inserted in a library with drag and drop from an EazyDraw drawing or with the Add button ( a + key ) found near the bottom of the Library palette. There are 3 modes for a library, Name, Element, and Icon. The first two are largely self explanatory, the Icon mode converts the library palette into a normal EazyDraw tool palette, just like Charting the Stellate palette. In the Icon mode, apply your tools in the normal "select tool, click on drawing, and drag" fashion. Library elements work closely with the new Transfer palette - see next paragraph.

Custom Tool Palettes

User libraries now accept tools dragged from EazyDraw create tool palettes and the new Arrange (align) tool palette. This allows one to create a fully custom tool palette by populating a library with the desired tools. Switch the library to the Icon mode and then the palette may be re-sized to a desired form vertical or horizontal. These tool palettes now accept parameter sets, there is a new small gray icon found on the top right of parameter palettes drag that icon to a library tool palette and the new tool will apply the parameter set when clicked. Custom library/tool palettes will accept user drawn icons, use the Name library display form to drag and drop any graphic on the icon-button found lower right of the graphic display at the top of the library palette in when in the name form.

Transfer Attributes

A new Transfer palette is added to the EazyDraw user interface. It controls the behavior of a graphic when it is dragged and dropped (or copy->pasted) to another drawing. This palette is designed primarily to be used with Library graphic elements, but is also works on any graphic in a normal drawing. The concept of transfer provided to control how and which attributes of a graphic are carried with the graphic when it is added to a new drawing. For example a shape may be added to a drawing from a library, but an associated gradient fill may not be desired and hence turned off for the Transfer. A major application of this capability is to apply a graphic's attributes rather than the graphic. For the previous example, the converse is possible - the Gradient Fill of the library element may be applied to target graphics, independent of the actual graphic or its shape. Documentation is complete for this new palette, use the search phrase "Transfer" to access the EazyDraw help pages on this subject.

Numeric Format

This version has significantly expanded inspection and data entry capability of the Graphic Details drawer. There is now full user control over formatting of the numeric text data fields on the Graphic Details drawer. It is now possible to control the number of digits of precision, and several other formating options such as the inclusion of units, use decimal or fractions, and presentation of lengths as feet and inches for English units based drawings. Input of data now allows specification of units including feet and inches. For feet and inches input, use the single and double quote punctuation notation. For any other units, use the abbreviations such as cm, mm, m, in, ft, etc. Full control over the definition and presentation of angles as Degrees or Radians is provided with several other formatting options for angles. Help tips for numeric values on the Graphic Details drawer now show values as alternate units or with added precision, control is provided on the Tips tab of the new Graphic Details formatting panel. The new capability is accessed by opening the Graphic Details drawer and de-selecting all graphics. When the drawer is open and no graphics are selected, the new formatting options are available on the Graphic Details drawer. Documentation of this new capability is complete for the EazyDraw Help content, click the question mark - Help button that is shown on this new Graphic details panel to access full documentation.

New PDF Manual

New PDF manual now available. Printed bound 350 page user manual for the EazyDraw application. This manual is written in a read-along style and provides an easy to follow introduction to computer drawing with OS X. The manual is a detailed reference for more advanced techniques such as creating scaled drawings and configuring the user interface. Requires an easy-chair and lamp. The price is $29.10 and includes shipping by Priority Mail in the U.S., air post to other countries. It is available as an electronic download, this sells for $10. Both are available from the EazyDraw online store . The manual is included with the Boxed version of EazyDraw.

Improved Tape Measure

Improved the live cursor that is shown when the Tape Measure Tool is used. The decimal precision and display format of the cursor values are now configurable. Before they were fixed to a standard precision, usually 3 decimal points. Now you may select decimal or fraction display, include units, and use feet-inches if desired. The format use is now the same as you specify for the Graphic Details drawer. To set them, open the Graphic Details drawer and deselect all graphics. Help documentation is provided use search phrase "Tape Measure" to learn more.

Runs on Leopard

EazyDraw is now operational on Mac OS X version 10.5, Leopard. Previous versions of EazyDraw would not launch on Leopard, this problem is now corrected. Caution is advised when using EazyDraw on Leopard as we have only minimally tested EazyDraw with the preview beta of Leopard. If issues are noted by beta testers, our tech staff would appreciate notification.

Problems Solved

It is now possible to see on screen the length and angle of a line as you draw it. The Tape Measure Tool is improved to now show more meaningful values as you draw or edit lines, rectangles, and paths. Before the cursor normally displayed the location on the drawing.

Further work on selecting graphics and clicking and selecting text. Added an explicit menu command for entering the Edit mode for text. This will aid more inexperienced users in consideration of the more traditional click and select behavior. Corrected a few more bugs reported on libraries, improved importing of Claris Draw libraries. Double click a library file now works, entering a duplicate name for a library element caused a crash - corrected. Documentation complete on the new Transfer palette. Corrected problems importing PDF content from TexShop and other components of the MacTeX distribution. The problem manifested itself as ghosts of extended PDF images. TexShop exports a full PDF document with each image clip, the export information specifies a small clipping box to limit the visible portion of the document to the specified clip area. EazyDraw was not respecting the clipping information in all cases. All is correct now, inserted PDF content displays only the intended visible portion and exports present the proper visible area. A note: if your master TexShop PDF typeset original is large, each clip is a copy of the full master original, so if several clips are inserted the EazyDraw drawing can become a rather large file - it will compress though due to the repetition.

Added two fail-safe checks to assure that EazyDraw is operating correctly. Two situations have been encountered where 3rd party software has damaged OS X and subsequently caused unstable behavior in EazyDraw. One issue is with SpellCatcherX, it may damage the OS X spell checking technology and subsequently cause EazyDraw to fail to successfully save a drawing. Second issue is a possible damaged system Font panel caused by the application Sketchup; Sketchup erroneously supplies a private color swatch (Class: SketchupColor ) to the public Font panel, this in turn causes other applications that use the OS X system Font panel to fail without warning, this manifests itself as an unsuccessful launch of EazyDraw which causes erratic behavior of EazyDraw. Both problems cause similar erratic behavior for Safari, Mail, TextEdit and other OS X Cocoa applications. EazyDraw can not recover from these problems, but it now posts a "serious error" warning message.

Corrected some problems and improved the setting of Grid line widths. Now the Grid Line Width parameter found on the Grids and Guides palette controls the grid for both display and printing. The minimum display line width is now computed in a smarter way so the users who desire faint thin grid lines may achieve that look. Bottom-line, the fat grid lines seen under high zoom should be corrected. If they do not look as you would like, make adjustments to the Grid Line Width parameter. Settings are independent for Major and Minor grids.

Improved the Keynote export capability. Reversed the order of slides when exporting layers as slides, this makes the workflow from ClarisDraw to EazyDraw to Keynote consistent with respect to slide ordering. The Keynote export fixes involved insulating EazyDraw against corrupt zero size graphics. This could happen when importing from ClarisDraw. Now EazyDraw replaces these in the KeyNote export file as a red rectangle or red crossed lines.

Added ability to control the scaling of dash patterns and arrows to the Morph panel. Now these may be checked and applied just as Line Width is provided as a control for a general scaling.

Corrected problem using the "Close" menu command on the convert menu, or double clicking an "open" end point to close graphic. Previously this command would always generate a simple polygon graphic, even if the input graphic was curved. This caused problems with subsequent actions applied to the mis-defined "curved polygon". Now close properly generates either a simple polygon or a closed-curved Bezier path.

Changed the behavior for selecting graphics in some situations. You now may need to be closer to path of graphic with an outline. This helps prevent large looping graphics from selecting and moving when trying to select interior graphics with a click and drag motion.

Improved and changed the behavior for converting some graphics to images. Groups and Free Transforms had several potential problems that were corrected, now all of these convert properly to an image. Now convert to image depends on the degree of zoom at the time of the convert. If you are zoomed in, the image will be higher quality (and of course larger so be careful with larger graphics). If zoomed out the image will be lower quality or more of a thumbnail. This helps a lot with Text and larger groups. This means that you may convert a large text box to a simple image and improve speed with a level of quality that is now under your control. Larger groups will convert to image in the same fashion, this can be used to improve responsiveness for very large drawings. The technique of converting to an image should be more useful now.

Corrected problem entering dash lengths in mm or inches. The problem did not happen when the palette was set to use Points as the unit of measurement.

Corrected problem with the creation of orthogonal paths and connectors. The problem happened when finishing with a double click, and the path was ending on a vertical leg. The last leg was dropped when finishing with a double click.

Removed the Gray Scale option for EPS export. This does not seem to be supported by Preview or other applications. To create a gray scale EPS, use Color Modification or the color space selection on the Layers drawer to convert the drawing to gray monochrome color, then export as RGB from the EPS export panel. In order to avoid problems with the Export, one must now select either RGB (safest) or CMYK for color space upon export. We can no longer accept the "as drawn" option for color space because there may be one gray scale color in the export and the original problem is then present. We will revisit this issue with the upcoming Leopard release.

Corrected bug applying Free Transform to graphics with inserted Text. The Free Transform worked correctly but the Apply step which removes the transform and permanently transforms the underlying graphics had trouble in these cases. Corrected problems with EPS export. In some cases export content was shifted and possibly clipped. These are now corrected.

Corrected problem with the Revert To Saved command. This became broken on more recent versions of Tiger. It is now working correctly again.

Corrected problem rotating Text counter clockwise. Text flipping, on the Transform submenu, was rotating clockwise for both the clockwise and counter clockwise menu command. Now all works as it should.

Corrected problems rotating, from the Transform Flip submenu, group graphics with text and PDF content. Results were not as complete as were obtained from the rotate tool or the full Morph panel. Now all forms of rotate behave as expected with embedded grouped text and PDF content.

Added ability to apply and Interactive Scale, Uniform Scale and Freeze to text graphics. Interactive state is found on the Interactive submenu of the Format main menu. These were not allowed before. Users found a work-around to first apply Free Transform interactive level then apply Freeze or other interactive states. This extra step is no longer needed. A potential problem with Free Transform Text when the Align-To-Grid palette was open was also fixed. Freeze, removes all resize and scaling ability from a graphic.

Added conversion capability to convert normal text to annotation text and the reverse, convert annotations to normal text.

Area is now reported on the Graphic Details drawer. This is found near the bottom of the Graphic Details drawer. It reports area when a single graphic is selected that has a defined area.

Added ability for Select All to focus on graphics of a particular type. If a creation tool is selected, then Select All will select all graphics of the active Tool's type. For example, to select all text, click the "T" for Text tool button then execute a Select All.

Corrected problem specifying the location of dimensions for Walls. The "Inside", "Center", or "Outside" selection on the Walls palette was not working. The only way to set this parameter was via the Graphics Details Drawer. This is now fixed and both methods of setting this parameter now work.

Corrected problem exporting EPS. It was possible that the export would drop graphics near the top or left of a drawing when rulers enabled. This is now corrected, no missing graphics on EPS export.

A double click on a vacant area of a drawing now automatically adds a Text Box and enables the new Text Box for text input. In short: double click to add text.

Corrected problems relating to the new bitmap shadows when applied to an image or photo, such as a JPG or PDF. This would also show up if the image was encapsulated with an Interaction level. In many cases the bug would cause the drawing to lock up and become unusable. It is now corrected and all forms of shadows can now be applied to image graphics.

Further improvements on handling double click on a file to launch EazyDraw. If the file was complex or contained dimensions, EazyDraw the drawing window could be corrupted. The display of the window was incomplete . It is now corrected and all files should open properly upon double click, with EazyDraw running or launched on double click.

Corrected possible problem with Gradient Fill palette and the recently added Named Gradients popup menu. In rare situations this popup menu would be de-activated. Now works properly.

EazyDraw Version 2.1.3 ---- November 2, 2006

New with version 2.1.3 EazyDraw

Free Transform capability to apply shear, skew, stretch and rotate distortions to images and other graphics. Soft bitmap shadows, an added shadow method for very high quality drop shadows. Expanded Arrows support for user defined arrows; plus the ability to apply shapes as "brushes" along the path of any graphic, including a progressive sequential distortion transform applied to successive shapes along a path. The new custom Arrow menu is provided with over 20 new Factory arrow shapes. Revamped Dash palette that allows the user unlimited capability to define any sequence of line-space dash patterns. Added the ability to save named, Arrows, Dashes, Gradients, Shadows and Transforms. Significant performance improvement for large drawings and working with groups of thousands of graphics. Smart Zoom toolbar button that displays the zoom percentage in the user customizable toolbar. All new features are fully documented in the online help and explained in more detail here on this website.

Universal Binary

EazyDraw was provided as a Universal Binary early in 2006, the notation is repeated for clarity. This is a Universal Binary version for use on new Intel based macs or PowerPC processors. Intel users should NOT- open using Rosette, Rosette is a "compatible" mode to be used with applications that have not been compiled for native use on Intel. Running EazyDraw Intel-Native is 5-10 times faster than running under the Rosette emulator, launch times are also significantly slower in the emulator mode. Universal binaries require Mac OS X version 10.4.3 or newer, this version of EazyDraw will not run on Panther or Jaguar. Jaguar and Panther users should refer to the release note "Jaguar and Panther" found on this disk image.

Increased Performance

Significant performance improvements were implemented, relating to documents and groups with large (5,000 or more) graphic elements. The optimizations improve actions such as: ungroup, group, duplicate, rotate, resize, morph, and other actions. The speed improvements are quite significant, in some cases these actions previously may have taken several minutes, they are now are instantaneous. The improvements apply to both Intel and PowerPC processor systems.

Free Transform

There is new Free Transform capabilities which provide the ability to shear or distort any graphic. This capability is accessed from the Interactive submenu on the Format main menu, or the Distort submenu on the Tools main menu. The new "Interactive" level provides on-screen handles to rotate, shear and skew any graphic. The new Distort submenu provides access to a Free Transform parameter palette that can be used to numerically enter a Free transform matrix. The Free Transform palette may be used to scale, rotate, and shear images (photos and imported bitmap graphics). Documentation is complete; enter the search phrase "shear" to quickly locate the new documentation.

Custom Arrows

The Arrows capability has been significantly expanded. It is now possible to create custom user defined arrow shapes. Arrows may now be applied as a flexible sequence along any Bezier path. The new features are found on a new Custom tab view on the Arrows palette. All arrows created by previous versions of EazyDraw are unchanged and will read and edit with no need for translation or other special actions. Documentation is complete; use the help search phrase "custom arrows" to learn more. Note that the new in-place editing view on the Custom Arrow tab has full drag and drop exchange capability between a drawing and the view. It also has a contextual menu that is very useful.

Soft Bitmap Shadows

The Shadows palette is expanded and now provides 3 distinct methods for creating drop shadows. The new Bitmap method provides a very high quality drop shadow that is drawn with the same core technology that Apple uses to for drop shadows in the Finder. You can also now save a shadow and all settings as a named shadow for convenient use. The Shadow palette now has a "mini" form.

Expanded Dash Patterns

The Dash Palette and dashed line capability has been significantly upgraded with this version. It is now possible to have an unlimited number of independent dash-space sequences. The Dash palette now has a close-up interactive inspection view. This view shows the current dash pattern and provides adjuster handles for interactively changing the relative lengths of dash and space sequences. Double click an adjuster to insert another dash-space sequence or Shift-Double Click to remove one. Documentation is complete for the expanded capability, use the Help button on the new palette to learn more about using the expanded capability. The saved property list format for dash patterns has changed, but the new version of EazyDraw automatically upgrades the format and a shadow of the old format is written in saved files, this means that older versions of EazyDraw may interpret and properly apply dash patterns from a newer version. It is now possible to save and apply named dash patterns, these are saved in a Property List file found at: ~/Library/Application Support/EazyDraw/Dashes.plist.

Zoom Button With Zoom Value

There is an upgrade to the zoom toolbar button, the more specifically the Zoom Menu custom toolbar button. This button now displays the zoom percentage. It is updated with any change to zoom, even when this toolbar button is not the source of the change in zoom. We've had several request to include visual feedback of the degree of zoom to the drawing window. This accomplishes that need without additional visual clutter of the reduction of usable window real estate. NOTE: Existing users, if the Zoom Menu button is not included on your toolbar, you will need to use Customize Toolbar and place it on the toolbar to be able to use this new capability. For the benefit of new users we have changed the default toolbar buttons so that the new feature is more discoverable.

Save Named Gradients

Added the ability to save gradients with names for easy reuse. There is a new popup menu on the Gradient Fill palette. A set of default named gradients are provided. The menu has access to save new gradients and remove named gradients. The named gradients are saved as a pList in the Applications support folder. Documentation is complete and provided on the Help page for the gradient fill palette.

Comment Only Dimension

Added the ability to have a dimension that is only a user comment, with no metric value displayed. We have had numerous requests for a dimension form that is fully under the control of the user, but still attached to a graphic. This feature is accessed from the Dimension Palette (Tools main menu), Dimension Form popup menu. Now there is a selection for "Nothing". When selected, the user defined text is entered in the Dimension palette's text inspection field, in the same fashion as a user defined prefix and suffix -just click and type. The "Nothing" form is actually one "space" character, and the user comments are entered as prefix or suffix to this space. The place holder space character cannot be removed.

Problems Solved

Improved MacDrawII, MacDrawPro, and ClarisDraw imports of text using Symbol font. Now Symbol, Zapf Dingbat, and other MacOS encoded fonts are mapped properly to OS X unicode encoding.

Fixed very rare hang-up that was caused by copying a graphic with a dash line to the clipboard, with Classic PICT format included in the copy formats. This situation would arise then only with a specific dash length and dash phase. Corrected.

Fixed problem with double - click to open, for imported files such as MacDraw or ClarisDraw. In some cases the file would not open properly and no window or a blank window was displayed. Now double click to open works for all file types, native EazyDraw, zipped native EazyDraw, and any other file format for which EazyDraw is registered as an editor, such as TIFF and PDF.

Fixed potential crash, this could occur when using "show all" for the Open file type selection, and then opening a file type that EazyDraw does not recognize. The unrecognized data would cause a blank window to open, which if closed as a blank window could cause an "unexpectedly quit". Now EazyDraw is more strict with file types and extensions. If the file is not recognized, you will get a error message and no attempt is made to read the data.

Corrected problem with rulers not updating. This would happen when the drawing is zoomed out to the extent that scroll bars were not needed. In this situation some changes in zoom were not reflected on the rulers. Corrected.

Corrected problem using the "Close" menu command on the convert menu, or double clicking an "open" end point to close graphic. Previously this command would always generate a simple polygon graphic, even if the input graphic was curved. This caused problems with subsequent actions applied to the mis-defined "curved polygon". Now close properly generates either a simple polygon or a closed-curved Bezier path.

Corrected problem for French localization group submenu. Added Ungroup PDF to the Grouping submenu which is found on the Format main menu.

Corrected duplicating and copying of Blends. Some of the parameters such as number of blend steps were not being duplicated, now all works as it should. The problem was introduced with EazyDraw version 2.0.

Corrected problem with dimensions that are part of a group of graphics. When saving and opening the file, or sometimes when forming the group, the dimension reported value would show "0.0". This could also happen when moving the whole group with the dimension to another drawing or layer. Now the reported dimension value is maintained.

Corrected saving of drawings containing windows and doors of non-default configuration. Some of the parameter settings such as "left/right hinge" were not maintained upon re-open of the drawing. Now all properties of doors, windows, and bay windows save and re-open correctly.

Corrected problem creating a group that contained a dimension or another type of connector. The front/back order of the group would reverse in some cases. Now the front/back ordering is preserved properly.

Refined the support for "Reverse Path". This menu command now applies to all graphics, previously it was reliable only for Bezier paths, not graphics such as rectangles and ovals. Previously the reverse path did not always hold after a save and re-open of a file, now the path direction is properly conserved. Note that this menu action will likely not result in a visible change to the drawing. Elements such as Arrows are swapped to maintain their drawing location upon a reverse path, i.e. no change. The main effect is the Filling of Joined or Welded graphics, for example reversing the path of the inner rectangle of nested rectangles will result in a "hole" in the fill when they are joined. This is an alternative to "Even/Odd" winding rule method to create the picture frame effect.

Corrected problem with dimensions attaching to other dimensions and jumping to the drawing origin when edited. Now EazyDraw does not allow a dimension to attach to another dimension. When drawings with dimensions are opened, they are checked for this situation and any dimensions attached to other dimensions are cleared and left unconnected.

Corrected two cursors that would disappear over a black background. These now have the required white outline so they remain visible over any background color.

Corrected French language content for ClarisDraw import.

Corrected user default formats for numeric values. EazyDraw now respects the International User Preferences settings for format for decimal numbers, comma is used as the decimal separator if that is the setting for Formats on the International System preferences panel. If the user preferences are changed, you will need to quit and re-launch EazyDraw for the change to have effect.

Corrected problem with MacDrawPro import. Another set of possible color definition conventions have been discovered and added to the color determination logic of the import conversion for Mac draw graphic files.

Corrected problem with Ungroup PICT, this option would not enable on Version 2.0.0 of EazyDraw. The problem was not found in earlier versions of EazyDraw, it was only an issue with the new Universal Binary version. Corrected.

Corrected a problem with two creation cursors, for line and paths and rotated rectangles. These would disappear over black backgrounds. This problem was not noticed on earlier versions before Tiger. New cursor graphics have corrected the issue.

Corrected problem when working with multi-layer drawings. The interactive graphic editing handles would be hidden by layers in front of the working layer. Now the handles are drawn to the front of all graphics regardless of the graphic's layer. So, the handles are never hidden by graphics on layer above the working layer.

Corrected problem with French and Japanese localized versions on the Pattern Palette. The Access popup menu would not enable "image files" selection. Problem Corrected.

Version 2.0.0

April 11, 2006

Ribbons and Free Walls, Ungroup PDF, LinkBack editing, Spotlight support and background indexing, and French locations.

Edit (i.e. ungroup) PDF

This version provides a new capability to Ungroup PDF content. Access for this feature is found on the Format main menu, Grouping submenu - near the bottom. The PDF content is imported to the drawing in the normal fashion - insert, drag and drop, copy and paste, etc. Use the Graphic Details Drawer inspector to check that the inserted image is actually PDF information. The PDF content is converted to editable text, Bezier graphics, and embedded images with the "Ungroup PDF" command. Select the PDF image and execute the menu command. The PDF image is converted to EazyDraw graphics and left in the drawing as a normal EazyDraw group graphic. The new group graphic may be ungrouped to access and edit individual components of the PDF content. Learn more with EazyDraw Help, search phrase "Ungroup PDF". This is a new feature primarily intended for access to line art. It is likely that conversion of typeset text will not format exactly as in the original. Please submit problem files to our support staff for bug fixes in future versions.

Walls - or Ribbons - or Roads

There are several new Wall and Ribbon tools, they are found on the lower portion of the Technical Tools palette. You can now draw walls at any angle. The walls at angles will support snapping together to form proper corners and joints. There are also tools for drawing curved walls which could be termed Ribbons. These are 2-dimensional ribbons, they hold a constant width even when curved or twisted. All walls and ribbons now support solid color, pattern, and gradient fills. The gradients are applied either along the length of the ribbon or across the ribbon, control for the wall's gradients is found on the normal Gradient Fill panel. There is a new Wall inspector palette, found on the Tools main menu. It provides access to several wall characteristics including manual specification of the shape of ends, corners and joints. Documentation is complete; access with search phrase "walls" or "ribbons".

French Language Support

This version now provides French language support. Menu, parameter palettes, and user interface elements are now localized for French language support. EazyDraw help is not localized and is available only in English.

Japanese Language Support

Support is available for a Japanese localization of EazyDraw. This is provided by Hideki Imanishi. It is available at: Imanishi.com. We join the Japanese EazyDraw user community in thanking Hideki for his excellent work.

Universal Type Identifiers

This version supports the latest "Tiger" standards for the info.plist for the EazyDraw application bundle. These additions cooperate with extended capabilities of Tiger to provide better association by the Finder of the different file types that EazyDraw can import or export. Power users will note that Universal Type Identifiers have been implemented and defined for the two EazyDraw file types. UTI Importer information is provided for MacDrawII, MacDrawPro, and ClarisDraw file types. This importer information will allow OS X and the Finder to properly identify these files (provide the correct file icon) even if these Classic applications are not installed on the system.

LinkBack - in-place editing

LinkBack support is provided with this version. Both LinkBack Server and Client capability is provided by EazyDraw. LinkBack is an open technology shared by several applications on OS X. It is an extension of Copy and Paste. The extended capability allows copied content to be revisited and edited at a later date, using the full capability of the originating application. The Copy/Paste Order section of the EazyDraw preferences panel has checkboxes to enable or disable Client and/or Server LinkBack capability, default condition enables both. LinkBack is a modern version of Publish and Subscribe or Embedded Graphic Objects in the Classic Mac OS environment. Documentation is complete; enter EazyDraw Help search phrase "LinkBack" to learn more.

Performance Improvement

The low level drawing routines for the graphic rulers have been significantly optimized. Previously the rulers could cause perceptible performance degradation especially for more complex drawings, full screen windows, or dense numeric label situations with slower processors. The current optimization reduced CPU load by 1000 fold or more in most situations. Now there should be no noticeable performance penalty for use of the rulers. The optimization applies to all drawing situations with additional optimization for live window resize and scrolling with the scroll bars or the drawing positioning ( "hand" ) tool.

EPS improvement - Embedded Preview

This version adds the ability to save an embedded preview with EPS exported graphic content. The preview is the DOS TIFF bitmap form. This preview form is the most universally supported. The form does not seem to be accepted by all MS-Word versions. We have tested successfully with Apple Works and Illustrator. More information is available on the Help page for EPS Export.

Toolbar button enhancement

This version adds a master palette button to the fill color, stroke color, gradient fill, pattern, and texture toolbar expanded selection views. These toolbar buttons provide a convenient shortcut to a selection of standard fills and colors. If none of these predefined elements provides the desired selection, clicking the new "Other" button will open the master palette for corresponding fill or color.

Persistence of Toolbar Tools

Several toolbar items for creating graphics, such as Rounded Rectangles, were not responsive to double-clicks. This applied to the buttons when placed on the customizable toolbar at the top of the drawing. When used from this toolbar, double clicking the button would not provide the "sticky" form of the tool which allows creation of multiple instances of the graphic without the need to click the button again. Now these buttons work just as they do on their normal tool palette. A double click with cause the button's creating action to remain in effect until the main Arrow tool is clicked..

Reverted Hand Tool to Previous Behavior

The action of the Hand Tool was returned to the design used up to EazyDraw version 1.8. Traditionally a "hand tool" is used for "pan" actions. Many users were confused by EazyDraw's use of this tool for restricted movement of graphics. For this reason the action of this tool was changed to the traditional pan action with version 1.9. This change back to the traditional definition was found to be unacceptable by most EazyDraw users. Pan actions are often handled by advanced mouse functions and always may be performed with the scroll tools. As pointed out by our users, the restricted move action proves to be a valuable productivity tool. For this reason the standard action of the Hand Tool has been returned to the restricted move actions as defined here. The Option key can be used as a modifier to the Hand Tool, holding down this key will provide the Panning action for the Hand Tool.

Problems Corrected

Corrected problem with the Door graphic. When drawn with a fill color, the fill was erratic and did not properly fill the door core and wall center. This has been corrected.

Corrected problem of duplicate overlapping points at the beginning of Bezier Paths. If Paths were drawn with single clicks at each vertex, rather than a click and drag motion; then an extra vertex was left at the first point of the line. The extra point coincided exactly with the first point and was therefore not noticeable until one tries to move that first point. Now only one point is placed at the start of the path, with both drawing styles.

Corrected problem with paragraph menu actions. In some cases the paragraph menu selections for centering, align right, align left, and justify would be disabled even when text was selected or being edited. This happened when editing text and immediately after an editing session. This is now corrected, paragraph options are enabled when appropriate and paragraph alignment actions are applied accordingly.

Corrected problem duplicating very small circles and ovals. Previously the new circles would, in some cases, have a smaller radius than the master.

Corrected problem with drag and drop from one drawing canvas to another, both EazyDraw, for scaled drawings. In some cases, such as use of Option-Drag the drop on another drawing window, the graphic placed on the new drawing would disappear or radically change size upon save and reopen. The graphic would behave properly when working on the destination drawing but after save, close, then re-open the dropped graphic's problems would appear. In the case of Option-Drag then drop on another window, there would be a duplicate of the graphic(s) left on the originating drawing. This is all corrected now.

Corrected problem exporting PDF and other file formats, from an EazyDraw file with GZip compression in effect. Previously the files would save with GZip compression but without the ".gz" extension. This would cause the file to not open properly in other applications. Now the exported files are saved without compression.

Corrected problem with line widths changing when morphing graphics. This would happen if a scaling factor with a value other than unity was supplied and Scale line widths was checked, but both scaling selections were not checked - as in the case of performing a rotation. In this situation the line width would unexpectedly scale. Now this does not happen.

Corrected problem with the Undo of the "Flip 90 CW" and "Flip 90 CCW" of graphics. The problem was only associated with the undo of a Flip of some graphic forms, the Flip itself was performed correctly.

Corrected Reverse Path action for an Arc or Pie (sector) graphic. Previously this would cause the graphic to disappear to the origin with zero size. No the reversal performs as expected, interchanging the start angle and end angle and complimenting the Clockwise parameter.

Corrected problems duplicating a Crop (group) graphic. In some cases the new copy of the Crop graphic would be of zero size at the origin, and the original graphic could become "ungrouped". All works properly now.

Corrected problem using "Export" panel to save in the EazyDraw or EazyDraw binary format. This now save data in the same manner as "Save As".

Corrected problem when typing text, in the case where a text area used a font that was not the default font and the entire text was selected for typing and replacing the entire string. In this case the new text typed would revert to the default font. This is normally not desirable as it is likely that the user would want the font to be the same as that of the text being replaced. Behavior now uses the font and all other typing attributes of the original text.

Corrected problems opening Claris Draw files that originated from the Japanese version of Claris Draw. These files would not open and import properly, often causing a crash of EazyDraw. Now drawing files from the Japanese version of Claris Draw open and import correctly.

Corrected problems opening MacDraw and Claris Draw files with Japanese file names using Japanese fonts. These file names are now fully supported with EazyDraw.

Corrected problem with the toolbar button for "no fill". The problem was that this button would turn off color fills, but not pattern or gradient fills. Now its action is to remove any fill.

Corrected occasional problems with PSFrag option for EPS export. This option could fail to work if a narrow graphic was exported, the option would fail and a small faint red square would appear in the exported EPS. All should work properly now.

Corrected problems with MacDraw and Claris Draw imports related to possible "missing" graphics. These were problems with graphics drawn with color interpretation using white rather than black. It is still a good practice to check imported drawings with a colored background to cause possible hidden graphics to be visible. Also corrected situations drawn with MacDrawPro using zero line width to indicate a graphic without stroke, previously these were drawn as hair-lines which was not correct. These now convert correctly as graphics with fill and no stroke.

Added new capability to save a human readable form of the text content of a file saved in the EazyDraw graphics format. To access this feature use the Export panel to save the drawing, select EazyDraw Graphics format. This file format is human readable and organized in the XML like pList format. However text is saved will all associated attributes such as font, font size, and font face in a native OS X binary archive format. If the "Mirror Text Copy" feature is enabled (on the Export panel) then a copy of the text contents (string) and basic font information is provided in a literal form. The popup menu provides a means to select the string encoding desired. "String" or "ASCII" would be the normal choice for the Encoding parameter. The additional text information saved with the file is for use by other applications accessing the file data. EazyDraw does not use any of the "mirror" information when opening and interpreting the file -- EazyDraw uses OS X archiving and unarchiving technology to save and re-constitute the text for the drawing. This works with both Text Boxes and Annotation Text.

Corrected serious problem for Ungrouping PICT images. The bug was introduced with version 1.9.0, in the late stages of public beta review. Ungroup of PICT images would fail and the PICT image would simply disappear. Undo would restore the image but Ungroup PICT was not possible. The problem has been corrected, performance is as it was with version 1.8.1.

Updated the support for Arrows on dimensions. Previously, setting a default dimension style with one or both arrows set to OFF, would not properly record the arrow conditions for the default - new dimensions would still have both arrows set to ON. Now this works properly with all default support, both the "Current" button on the Dimensions Palette or default control via the main Preferences window. We also added a convenience popup on the Dimension palette for selecting different Arrow styles. You may still use the Arrow palette for expanded control over the appearance of the Dimensions arrows, and now all settings will be managed properly by the default controls - on the Dimension palette. The default controls on the Arrow Palette are now independent of, and have no control over, the design of arrows on dimensions.

Corrected printing with "Hide Dimensions" set on the Layers Drawer. This capability was working properly for the screen display, but printing failed to hide the dimensions for a layer. Now the check box on the Layers Drawer will hide dimensions both on screen and for the printed drawing.

Corrected occasional problem when dragging a graphic off a drawing, for a drag and drop operation. Sometimes the drag image would be far away from the cursor or even disappear because it was positioned off the screen completely. This was more likely to occur when zoomed in to a large degree. If the drawing scrolled, by positioning the graphic near the edge of the drawing, before moving the graphic fully off the window for the first step of drag and drop, the drag image of the graphic was erroneously positioned away from the cursor by the scrolled distance. Now the drag image is positioned precisely in relation to mouse at the initial position.

Version 1.9.0

November 21, 2005

New Measuring Tape Tool, Guidelines, and Interactive Cursor; improved multi-scale / multi-layer drawing capabilities and further optimization for Tiger.

Interactive Cursor

New Interactive Cursor provides readout of canvas position or precise graphic metrics such as intersections or point and tangent of a curve. The new Measuring Tape Tool measures drawing distances in free form or snaps to graphic positions to provide exact relative distances. Intelligent guidelines will position columns, rows, seek intersections or vertices and orient to extended lines, parallels or perpendiculars; great for geometric and technical drawing. New scaling options provide improved support of imported MacDraw and ClarisDraw scaled drawings.

Live Cursor

The new Live Cursor is provided with the "Tape Cursor" tool that was added to the top of to the primary tool palette it is represented by a measuring tape icon. This tool combines a live numeric readout with the normal Arrow select tool. The X and Y (over and down) coordinates are shown in a small floating window attached to the cursor. Selecting a graphic and placing the cursor on or near the graphic will provide various measurements of the graphic -- interactively, on screen. Position over a handle to obtain a precise readout of the graphic position. For many graphics the relative position of the cursor (i.e. right or left side of a line) will provide different measurements (ie length/slope or X,Y value). This mode remains active until the Arrow tool is explicitly clicked . For documentation enter search phrase "Tape Cursor".

Guidelines

The new Guideline selection is found on the Grid and Guides submenu of the Format main menu or on the Grid Palette. When Guidelines are checked, moves and edits of graphics are aided by automatic soft snap to provide alignment with other graphics on the drawings. Guidelines are sought from the graphics that are visible on the drawing screen. If there are too many guidelines interfering, or if the desired graphic's guideline is repressed by others - zoom in closer to the region of interest. A new Cloaking submenu provides methods for managing which graphics provide guidelines. The snap vertices capability has been expanded and optimized as well. The default state has this guidelines and vertex snapping unchecked. Full documentation is available: search phrase "guidelines".

On Screen Measuring Tape

Option Clicking with the Measuring Tape Tool provides an on-screen tape measure. This is a free form measuring tape for measuring distances on the the drawing. To measure distances between graphics, select both graphics and click near a point of interest, the Measuring Tape will "snap" precisely to the graphic and measure distances from the point of interest. When the cursor is placed near a second point of interest another "snap" provides the desired precise measurement. For documentation enter search phrase "Tape Measure"

Cloak Graphics from Guidelines

A new submenu is provided on the Format main menu for Cloaking the guideline aspects of a graphic or layer. When snapping to guidelines (or vertices) it is common that too many guidelines are present and they interfere with establishing relationships to the desired master graphics. This submenu provides a method for excluding a graphic(s) or layer(s) from presenting guidelines and vertices. This can eliminate guideline clutter. Alternatively a few select graphics could be used as master guidelines by performing a "Select All" - Cloak, then select the desired master graphics and "Uncloak". Documentation is complete: search phrase "cloak".

Full Layers may be cloaked. The layer must be visible to be enabled on the submenus found on the Cloaking submenu (Format main menu). There is a separate menu for guidelines and vertices. A guideline layer may be established by cloaking all other layers: not the guideline layer. Then explicit guidelines may be drawn on the Guideline layer.

Pan Drawing With Hand Tool

The "Hand" tool has been changed to perform a Panning action for the entire drawing. Now if the hand tool is selected, a click and drag on a drawing window will move the focused visible viewing rectangle, in the same fashion as the scroll bars action. Previously this tool was a dedicated graphic moving tool. SInce the Arrow tool is normally used for this action, it was decided to change the Hand tool to the more conventional Pan function.

Assign Grid Reference Point for Graphics

A new "Align To Grid" palette is added to the Tools main menu. This palette provides fine control of the exact snapping position for a graphic, or group. This is useful for group graphics (ie a symbol) positioned and aligned with grid snapping, and necessary for electronic schematic drawings. Documentation is available: search phrase "align to grid".

Change Scale - ONLY SCALE

Two methods are now provided for changing the scale of a drawing or layer. If a scale change is performed, on the scale palette, a user panel is shown on the drawing which asks which form of scale change is desired. Previous versions of EazyDraw scaled all graphics when performing a scale change. The new panel provides for this form of scale change, or a change of scale with no corresponding "re-draw" of the graphics. This new form is especially useful when importing MacDraw or Claris Draw scaled drawings as this method provides a means to simply set the correct scale for the drawing or layer.

Several New Layer "Views"

Several new "Enabled Actions" for layers are now found on the popup menu on the Layers drawer. It is now possible to Show or Show/Select graphics on layers "above" or "below" the active layer. This can improve efficiency when working with multiple layer drawings. This convention was used with MacDraw and ClarisDraw and is a familiar practice for users of these applications that have switched to EazyDraw.

Repress Auto-Mate for Walls

A new parameter is provided for walls (doors, windows, etc). The parameter will enable or prevent the automatic matching of wall ends and wall thickness when two of these objects are snapped together. This is important, for example, when connecting a 6 inch exterior wall with a 4 inch interior wall of a building plan. The new check box is found on the Graphic Details drawer, it is called "Auto Mate". When snapping, both wall segments must have their respective Auto Mate states checked for automatic mating of corners and wall thickness. Another method for preventing "mating" of two segments is for one segment to have its end fully closed. If either end is fully closed wall thickness matching is not performed, even if Auto Mate is checked for both segments.

Duplicate on Non-Active Layer

Improved capabilities for multi-layer drawings, when selecting objects on the non active layer. Now actions such as duplicate will insert the new graphics on the same layer as the original, rather than all duplicated graphics going to the current active layer. Several undo actions were incorrect if the originating graphic was on the non-active layer, these situations now work properly. Also several grouping and ungrouping actions, of graphics on the layers other than the active layer, would introduce undesirable alterations of the painting order. Now these situations are properly performed and undo of these actions completely returns all graphics to the proper state and layer.

Press and Hold Mouse for Contextual Menu

Extended the contextual menu concept to provide the menu when the mouse is held down, without movement, for about 1 second. This will provide the same menu that pops up when a control click is performed on a drawing. Contextual menu access with simple hold down of the mouse.

Bit-Map Export, Improved Edges

A minor change for Exporting bit map graphics that have anti-aliasing capability, TIFF and JPG. When exporting just graphics, not the full drawing, a 2 point (1 /32 of an inch) margin is now added to the exported image. This margin is needed to provide shading pixels that are used for anti-aliasing curves that are near the edge of the image. Previously smooth curves like an arc could have a "flattened" clipped appearance in the exported bit map. This artifact was caused by the lack of "border" pixels to apply the anti-aliasing effects. This change will add a very minor extra border (white or transparent) around the exported image.

Hide Extensions Preference

Added default persistence for the "Hide Extensions" and "Thumbnail Preview" selections on the "Save As" panel. In the past these needed to be set with each new drawing, as they reverted to an invariable default state for each new drawing. Now EazyDraw remembers the settings properly for the individual drawing and user selections are automatically remembered when changes are made to the selection. The preference for the state of each check box is the last value overtly selected by the user. To establish your personal preferences, simply make the selection(s) and the changes are automatically saved with the primary preferences for EazyDraw.

Improved Arc and Pie Creation Behavior

Changed the way Arcs and Pie shapes are created. Now a minimum size arc of 10 degrees is initially applied to the shape during the first click and drag step of the creation process. It is still possible to create smaller sweep angles during the second step of the creation process or as an editing step after creation. However, small zero degree sweep Arcs and Pies will not be so likely to happen by accident. This inadvertent zero degree sweep angle situation was confusing new and occasionally experienced users who would then see only the blue angle control handles and assume they were the Arc rather than controls for the Arc's elliptical major and minor axis parameters.

PICT Ungroup, Better PICT Editing

Further improvements to "Ungroup PICT", related to PICT's containing bitmaps. Additional bitmap formats are now understood and converted to TIFF properly.

Other Corrections

Corrected a few minor problems with some of the lesser used parameters on the Dimension palette. All contextual help elements for this panel were improve

Corrected a confusing behavior when adding layers to a drawing. Previously the new layer would initialize at the current default scale which is not expected in many cases. Now the new layer is added to the drawing with the scale and units of the current active layer for the drawing, fully independent of the current scale preferences settings.

Corrected problem when forming groups of graphics that contain text. The text would move to the center of the group, if multiple graphics contained text all text would overlap at the center of the new group. This is corrected now, inserted text remains with the proper graphic elements of the newly formed group.

Corrected problem selecting and editing Bezier curves, when zoomed in by a large amount. In some cases the graphic would not select, and if selected clicking on a handle would deselect the graphic rather than allowing interactive editing with the handle. This is now corrected.

Correct problems with the rotate tool, related to horizontal and/or vertical lines also sometimes when rotating groups that contain groups. In some cases when using the rotate tool large black rectangles would fill the area of the rotating graphic and these would not be redrawn correctly, leaving black artifacts on the drawing screen. The problem has been corrected with this release.

Corrected problem moving multiple graphics to a new layer, via the Graphic Details drawer. Previously only the first graphic of a multiple selection was moved, the others remained unchanged. Now all graphics move and undo works correctly, even if the various graphics are derived from different layers.

Improved the dimension report for length of Arcs. The length of an Arc or Pie graphic is now reported precisely. Lengths reported for other curved Bezier graphics has been improved to provide accuracy of about 1 in 10,000 or 100,000.

Corrected some problems encountered when printing without selecting a paper size. In some cases this would cause Landscape printing to not format properly on the printed page. Now, when this happens, a warning message is provided. The message urges the proper selection of a supported and available paper size using the Page Setup palette.

Version 1.8.1

August 11, 2005

Corrects possible problem saving ClarisDraw files. New Measuring Tape Cursor. Corrections for PICT ungroup. Mirror printing, for reverses and transfers. See New Features for Version 1.8.0 Below. Optimized for Tiger.

Save File for Converted Claris-Draw Drawings

This version contains an important bug fix that fixes a uncommon but possible problem with saving data. The problem could arise from Claris Draw imported files. This update is strongly recommended for all users importing Claris Draw data. If you would like more information on this issue email: support@eazydraw.com. This version has a correction to the problem and an automatic fix of root cause of the problem. Opening and saving a file that originated from a Claris Draw import will correct all problems associated with this issue.

Measuring Tape Tool

New "Tape Cursor" tool has been added to the primary tool palette. It is found at the top right of the palette. This tool behaves exactly like the normal Arrow select (default) tool, except that a live numeric readout is added to the cursor. The X and Y (over and down) coordinates of the cursor are shown in a small floating window attached to the cursor. This mode remains active until the Arrow tool is explicitly clicked. This is a preliminary release of this new capability, the functionality of the Tape Tool will be significantly expanded in future releases of EazyDraw.

Print Mirror and Flipped Images

Added the ability to mirror (left-to-right) and/or (top-to-bottom) when printing. This is important for creating transfer sheets such as those used for printing t-shirts. This is accessed from the main options popup menu on the Print panel. The exact location will depend on the print driver in use. There will be a selection "EazyDraw" found on the printer's capabilities submenu. When the EazyDraw options selection is chosen, the new Mirror check boxes are shown on the print panel. Note that checking both selections (left-to-right and top-to-bottom) is the same as putting the paper in up-side-down, and will not cause a noticeable change on the final printed drawing.

Version 1.8.0

July 27, 2005

Over 50 new customizable toolbar buttons. Multiple drawing scales - important for Architectural drawing. Keynote export to Apple XML Keynote file format. Integrated GZIP support for compressed files. Improved EPS export with LaTeX - PSFRAG support. Improved performance for large complex drawings. Optimized for Tiger.

Print Mirror and Flipped Images

Added the ability to mirror (left-to-right) and/or (top-to-bottom) when printing. This is important for creating transfer sheets such as those used for printing t-shirts. This is accessed from the main options popup menu on the Print panel. The exact location will depend on the print driver in use. There will be a selection "EazyDraw" found on the printer's capabilities submenu. When the EazyDraw options selection is chosen, the new Mirror check boxes are shown on the print panel. Note that checking both selections (left-to-right and top-to-bottom) is the same as putting the paper in up-side-down, and will not cause a noticeable change on the final printed drawing.

This version has been built for Tiger and tested on Panther, there should be no problems running on either of these versions of OS X. This version does not run on Jaguar. Jaguar users may continue using version 1.7.1.

Many New Smart Toolbar Tools

Major additions to the customizable document toolbar. Over 50 new buttons are available for addition to the toolbar. Upgrading users should be sure to visit the Customize Toolbar option, because the user's current toolbar selections will not be changed when EazyDraw is upgraded. Many of the new toolbar buttons are "smart" menus. They are smart in the sense that they will adapt to the last used pop-down menu selection. To repeat the last used menu selection, simply click the tool - no need to fully open the pop-down menu and scroll down to the desired selection. Tiger users may add more than one copy of several of these smart buttons to the toolbar, ie duplicate buttons are allowed (Tiger only). This can be useful for elements such as the Fill Color menu button, since the button is smart the duplicate buttons will evolve with the work flow to represent different colors, thereby providing toolbar buttons for more than one color. If this explanation is hard to follow- it is easy to learn by trial, experiment by adding two Fill Color buttons to the toolbar. There are new pop-down toolbar menus for all the drawing tool palettes. This means it is now possible to add any drawing tool (rectangle, star, parabola, etc) to the toolbar. The smart buttons are fully functional, double clicks will make the tool "stick" as they do on their normal tool palette. Documentation is not complete at this time for the new buttons and the smart tools capability.

Multiple Scales For a Single Drawing

Added the ability to have more than one scale for a drawing. It is now possible to define fully independent scales (or rulers) for different layers. Each layer will have one scale for all graphics on the layer. This capability is enabled using the new check box for Independent Layers on the Scale Palette. This new feature is fully documented in the EazyDraw Help, use the key phrase "Independent Layers" for a full explanation of using multiple scales.

EPS Improvements and PSFRAG - LaTeX Support

Corrected several issues with EPS export. In some cases the bounds of the exported eps drawing would not be correct, or clip too close to the graphic. Two problems with the bounds setting were corrected, it is no longer necessary to return to document zoom of 100% to properly export eps. In some cases the EPS file would not open with other applications, there is an issue related to multiple color spaces (rgb, cmyk, grayscale, etc) in a single PDF or eps document. A new popup menu on the EPS export panel allows specification of a single color space for the export - this can avoid errors of "unable to open" when trying to read the exported eps file in other applications. A check box for support of LaTeX psfrag with EazyDraw generated EPS documents was added to the export panel. When checked, an invisible ASCII string, containing all printable ASCII characters is inserted in the exported EPS document. The inclusion of this string forces the creation of a one-to-one character lookup table which enables psfrag to properly translate the tag symbols inserted in the EazyDraw drawing. This is of interest only to users of LaTeX and PSFRAG.

Keynote Graphic File Format

Added export format for Keynote. The new selection is available on the export types menu. There is a menu selection to determine how slide(s) are created. You may convert layers to corresponding slides, or use page layout to draw individual slides on successive pages. A third selection allows one slide to be created from the current visible content of the drawing window. If a new file name is entered, a full new Keynote presentation file is created with the slide(s) defined. If an existing Keynote file is identified for the export, the EazyDraw slide(s) are appended to the end of the presentation. To access the APXL content, use the normal technique of opening the keynote file bundle's presentation.apxl file with a text editor. Page Setup has a new virtual electronic publishing printer name for Presentations and two predefined page sizes (800x600 and 1024x768) for common visual projecting equipment.

GZip Compression

Integrated support for compression of both EazyDraw file formats is added with this version of EazyDraw. The compression format used is the standard GZip format with the file extension ".gz" . This is a standard open format supported by OS X, Unix, Windows, and other operating systems. A new "Compress" popup menu is found on the "Save As" panel, lower right. Select "GZip Compression" to zip the EazyDraw drawing file as it is written to the hard drive. These files will be typically compress to 10% of their natural size. This is useful for emailing EazyDraw files. The EazyDraw binary format, with GZip compression will provide the smallest file size. The EazyDraw binary format is used for large drawings (> 1000 graphics) that may require significant time to save to the hard drive in the normal EazyDraw graphic format. Please note that contrary to intuition, the zipped or binary format should not be used for archiving data: the full uncompressed EazyDraw Graphic Format is a human readable XML like Property List and should be used for long term archival, see the help documentation for a full explanation.

Improved Performance for Move

Optimized the action of moving a graphic(s). For large complex drawings the moving action was slow and "jumpy". This has been optimized 100-fold or better. The moving motion should now be responsive and smooth even for complex drawings and graphics on slower CPU's.

Graphic Details - Live Inspector

Expanded the utility of the Graphic Details drawer to monitor position and size of a graphic as it is created, the first drawing step. Previously the geometric information was updated in a live fashion only when editing a graphic. Now the information displayed on the Graphic Details drawer has live real time updating when creating a graphic, editing a graphic and during a move of a graphic

Snap Vertices

Improved snapping to vertices (Grid and Snap Palette) to include intersections of curves as well as vertices, end points and centers. The scope of graphics for snapping to objects on other layers has been expanded to include graphics on all visible layers, previously on graphics on selectable layers were used as candidates for snapping. A visual clue is now provided when snapping occurs, the handle of the graphic being moved will now flash green when snapped to a vertex or intersection. The snapping remains a simple positioning aid, the snapped graphic is not attached or appended to the other graphic or intersection.

Uniform Resize

Expanded the use of the "Interactive" menu, found near the bottom of the Format menu. You may now apply scale, uniform scale, and the other interactive restraints to Images (pictures) and groups. The Uniform Scale - functionality is especially useful when it is necessary to hold the aspect ratio of an image or composite group graphic while changing the size. The Graphic Details information for Interactive Constrained graphics has been improved and specialized for all cases.

Inside or Outside Wall Dimensions

Added the ability to dimension from the "inside" or "outside" of Walls (walls, doors, windows, and bay-windows). The control is found on the Graphic details drawer, when the wall is selected. The choices are Center, Inside, or Outside. The convention for "inside" or "outside" is defined for a room drawn in the clock-wise direction.

Other Corrections

It is now possible to change the Font family of all text in a group. Previously, it was necessary to ungroup and make the font change individually.

Corrected several refresh and drawing update aspects related to the Tiger release. Version 1.7.1 would occasionally leave drawing trailings when moving graphics or scrolling the drawing window. Everything is now responding properly on Tiger and Panther.

Corrected direction of arrows at the end of an Orthogonal Radius path. The arrow was drawn on a 45 degree angle rather than along the direction of the path. It now draws correctly.

Corrected the Horizontal and Vertical flip command for Doors. The flip was not taking into account the Hinge side for the door. All works as expected now.

Corrected problem duplicating graphic(s) across layers, or more specifically: selecting graphic(s) on a layer other than the active layer and executing a duplicate to produce new graphic(s) on the active layer. This would create the graphics but then problems could arise when working with the duplicated graphic(s). In particular the new graphics would not delete. The duplication now works properly and the new graphic(s) may be deleted without a problem.

Added an improved contextual menu (right, or CTRL mouse click) for Text graphics. The contextual menu for a selected text graphic now provides for changing font face (favorites only), font size, and several text and paragraph style actions.

Corrected problem with Top - External dimension tool. This was drawn as an internal dimension rather than an external dimension - now draws correctly.

Corrected direction of Rotate 90 degrees CW and CCW on the Tools transform menu. This was rotating in the wrong direction for Text and several graphics found on the Charting tools palette. The bug would also cause incorrect behavior for Undo after the rotate.

Corrected possible problem for moving very thin horizontal or vertical lines when "zoomed out" and with preferences set for using a Faint Image for the Move Image (see EazyDraw Preferences). This could result in the moving line disappearing during the move. Now in this instance, if the line could disappear, a dashed line is used for the move image.

Corrected problem with drag and drop of PDF content. When dropping PDF information on an EazyDraw drawing window the image would have low quality and be upside down. This has been corrected, PDF is "dropped" with full vector quality. This problem only happened with drag and drop of PDF snippets, dropping PDF files worked properly and Copy->Paste of PDF also worked properly.

Corrected problem with EPS export, fringes of the exported eps image were sometimes clipped by the export. Now the borders are properly established. Mac OS X version 10.4.1 or newer may be required to correct this situation in all instances.

Added a new form of Text Stamp. You may now insert a File Path text stamp into a drawing. This will insert a text defining the full file - folder path of the drawing. This is a "live" stamp, if the file is moved the stamp will change to reflect the new location.

It is now possible to scale images and pictures uniformly. This may now be accomplished through use of the Interactive menu (Format main menu) to include Images. Selecting Uniform Scale will hold the aspect ratio of the image constant while changing the size with the on screen handles.

Corrected problem with the copy then paste of very small circles or ovals. This process, when total oval size was less than 1 pt, would result in pasting of a smaller oval. Repeating the process would result in ever decreasing sizes for the pasted ovals. This is now corrected, the pasted oval is exactly the same size as the original in all cases.

Corrected problem snapping Ellipses to the grid. They would not align properly with the grid. This was also a problem with many of the shapes on the Charting palette, but much less noticeable. All of these shapes now snap and align properly.

Corrected a problem with entering width and height of objects in the Graphic Details drawer. Certain sequences of entries could result in invalid numbers for the values.

Corrected problem converting Stroked Text to Bezier Paths. The stroke setting for the converted Bezier paths was lost in the conversion.

Corrected problems that would occur if a 0.0 or very small value was entered for either Scale term on the Scale Palette. An entry of 0.0 was not checked properly and would cause infinities in scaling the drawing's graphics. This action would corrupt the file and initiate unpredictable behavior for drawing actions for the file. This situation is now checked and prevented. Both scale values are limited to the range of 0.001 to 10,000,000.

A minor change to the behavior of selecting or deselecting graphic(s). Now, just selecting or deselecting the graphic will not mark the drawing as "changed". This means the "Save" menu action will remain disabled - until a more significant real change is made to the drawing.

Corrected a problem with the Spell Check tool bar button. When the Spell Check button was added to the toolbar (using Customize), the button would not enable, it always remained disabled. Now it enables in synchronization with text in the document, or text objects selected.

Corrected possible problem with spell check of Annotation text. The red highlight markers for misspelled words was not being shown in all cases. Problem corrected, spell check works properly on Normal and Annotated text.

Corrected interface problem with the stepper button on the Stellate tool palette. The problem caused the number of stellate points to increase (rather than decrease) with the up-click of the stepper, when a stellate shape was selected. The action now decreases or increases the number of points correctly.

Corrected problem with dimensions of Feet/Inches in Fraction form. There was an extra "inches" or "feet" appended to the dimension string. The dimension would read: "1 foot 2 5/8 inches inches". This has been corrected.

Version 1.7.1

March 21, 2005

Improved Knife -- Trimming Full Vector Edit PICT Content BMP and ICO -- Support for Favicon Files Independent Fine Scale Measuring Units Carbon Style Font Menu & PopChar Support.

Jaguar Version

This is the last version of EazyDraw to support Mac OS X version 10.2.x, known as Jaguar. EazyDraw users that have not upgraded OS X need to use this version until the operating system is upgraded to a version newer than Jaguar

Fine Scale for Inspector Palettes

Added a support for defining different units for fine scale parameters such as line width or arrow length. Previously these were entered in the units of the drawing, now these Fine Scale parameters may be specified independently. For example a drawing in Feet my use mm for line widths. Each parameter palette (except the Pattern palette, whose units are always pixels) has a new button found near the upper right corner of the palette. This button indicates the current Fine Scale units (inches, points, or millimeters) for the palette. Control Click the button to access a contextual menu that provides a full user interface to all fine scale settings for the palette. A Fine Scale palette is provided on the Format main menu, this palette is used to manage the Fine Scale settings for all parameter palettes including angle units and decimal points of display precision. For full documentation on the topic enter the search phrase: "Fine Scale" or "Units Button" in the EazyDraw help system.

Knife Tool for Cutting Graphics

Improved the Knife tool. It now will perform more than one cut at a time and it senses intersections, allowing for precise trimming of graphics. This provides a convenient method to perform several cuts on a straight line defined by the interactive knife line. Now one may, for example, cut a rectangle into two pieces - with one action. The improved knife tool now senses intersections, this ability has several uses including trimming and combining simple shapes to create more complex shapes. When two knife cut points move close (within the neighborhood of a handle width, ie dynamic distance depending on zoom) the two markers are shown overlapped on the intersection with a cross mark. If the cut is made at this point, both paths are cut at exactly the same point. A precise intersection cut will allow unwanted portions to be deleted, also the remaining curve segments may be "Welded" (Main Menu->Tools->Convert->Weld Bezier) together to form a new complex shape. See the new tutorial on "Trimming and Cutouts" for more information.

Better Graphic Morphing

Enhanced the Morph or Transform panel's capability. You may now specify to include or exclude Text or Annotated Text in scaling transforms. Two new check boxes control the inclusion of text in a scaling action. Scaling of text may be accomplished with a font point size adjustment or use of the text stretch parameters. Popup menus are provided to specify the method and extent of the text scaling.

Edit PICT Graphic Content

Full vector editing of PICT graphics and files is now provided. This new menu command will convert PICT images to native EazyDraw editable graphics. Documentation is complete for this new feature. Access is found on the Format->Grouping sub menu and the Tools->Convert menu. To convert a PICT: a) import the PICT if it is not already part of a drawing (Open, Insert, Paste, or Drop): b) select the PICT graphic on the EazyDraw drawing: c) Select "Ungroup PICT" or "Convert To Vector Graphics" from Grouping, or Convert Menu. The PICT is then converted to a normal EazyDraw Group graphic that may be edited in place or ungrouped for editing of individual components. Upon Export as Classic PICT: the ability to include a 512 byte null header to exported PICT files, this provides better compatibility with many other Carbon applications. Fixed problem drag and drop of PICT image data. Inverted text and low quality images were possible. If PICT information is dropped on an EazyDraw drawing, the result is a full quality vector PICT graphic

BMP, ICO and FAVICON Export Graphic Formats

Added import and export support for Windows BMP and ICO file formats. The BMP format is the old standard bitmap format for DOS and Windows. These are bitmap formats. ICO is the common format for "favicon" files, these are icon family files supported by most internet browsers. If a file name favicon.ico is placed in the root directory of a web site, the browser will use an image(s) from the file as an icon to depict the web site. Originally intended to as an icon for the Favorites menu, hence the name, these are now usually displayed in the title block next the the full link address to the web site. They are now in wide usage and sites without a favicon may be viewed as unprofessional. Documentation is complete for the support of the new file types and may be found in the EazyDraw help - search phrase "favicon".

Classic Font Menu

Added a traditional Font menu, built with the Classic OS 9 (or Carbon Apps) font names. This is accessed from the Font submenu on the Text Main menu. The names used will not be exactly the same as those shown on the Font Palette or the Graphic details drawer. These are the display names as shown on Mac OS 7, 8 or 9 and used in OS X Carbon applications. These name variants are provided for better continuity with users still using Carbon Applications on OS X. The menu also improves compatibility with PopChar and other independent font utilities designed to operate with Mac OS X Carbon applications. This menu does not necessarily show all fonts available for a particular installation, so a font or font face may be selected with the Font Palette that does not have a representation on this menu.

MacDrawII, MacDrawPro and ClarisDraw Import

Many improvements to the MacDrawII, MacDrawPro and Claris Draw import. Added support for Bitmap images to the MacDrawPro import. Embedded JPG, TIFF, PICT, etc MacDrawPro content is now converted to TIFF or PICT EazyDraw images. Further improvements for MacDrawII import - of text. Line spacing settings from the MacDraw II drawing are now properly read and translated to EazyDraw's paragraph line spacing parameter in (Text->Paragraph->Form palette). Small changes were made to the text layout metrics, the full layout of a text graphic now more closely matches the original.. Corrected problems with color shades for HSV specified colors; added support for paragraph specification; corrected problems with 3 and 4 color component gradients and several other minor corrections. Upgrading to this version is highly recommended for anyone using the MacDrawPro import capability.

PICT Content in ClarisDraw Drawings

Corrected problems opening ClarisDraw files with multiple grouped embedded PICT images. Only the first PICT would display and the problem would cause the converted file to be corrupted and not display correctly. Fixed problem with the conversion of Claris Draw drawings that have layers with zero graphics. This was causing a premature end to the conversion process - stopping at the first layer without content. Now the conversion completes. Layers with no graphics are not added to the converted drawing. Added support for ClarisDraw import of additional bitmap and color formats. These enable proper importation of additional bitmap formats not included in the initial ClarisDraw import release.

Master Graphic Marker

A new reference marker is now provided when multiple graphics are selected. This marker distinguishes the first graphic selected. This is the master graphic used for alignment and orientation actions. The first selected graphic (rather than the top or bottom position in the painting order) has always been used as the master for these actions. This convention makes it easy to select and perform relative alignments in a convenient fashion. The marker provides a clear visual aid and user feedback to predict the aligned result. The maker is a small square and cross drawn at the natural center of the graphic. This is documented on the align and orient EazyDraw help pages.

Find Hidden Inspector Palette

Added a "Palette To Front" submenu on the Windows main menu. This submenu lists all open parameter and tool palettes, in their desktop order (top/front to bottom/back). Selecting a palette from this menu will bring it to the front and fully visible. This is helpful when several palettes are overlapping on the desk top. Without this menu it was common practice to close the palette from its menu and then open it again to bring the palette to the fore for use. This required two annoying trips to the menu, now this can be accomplished with one menu selection.

Miter Limit

Added a parameter for controlling the Miter Limit of Bezier paths drawn with Join Style - Miter. The parameter is found on the Color and Style palette. Setting the miter limit avoids spikes produced by line segments that join at sharp angles. If the ration of the miter length -- the diagonal length of the miter -- to the line width exceeds the miter limit parameter, the corner is treated as a bevel join instead of a miter join. A bug that sometimes cut off the tips of sharp angle miters was corrected, the tips now always draw to the full limit and are not clipped. A new tutorial on the use of Miter joins has been added to the Tutorials folder.

Text Styles - Favorites

A new Font styles panel is provided, it is accessed from the Font submenu of the main Text Menu. This is available only on 10.3 or newer versions of OS X. The panel provides a method to investigate font an style attributes of a Text object. It does not work with Annotation text. The Font and style attributes, such as point size, bold, and italic, are shown for each "run" of an attributed text graphic. The panel will allow saving Favorite styles for future use.

Paragraph Style

Added full default support for the new paragraph palette. This palette now has a button icon for use in the toolbar (via customize). This button appears on the preferences panel with full EazyDraw preferences and default support. These settings are honored when creating new text objects. The paragraph palette's interface does not apply fully to annotation text at this time.

Double Click to Close

Added the ability to "Close" a path or curve by double clicking on an open end control handle. There is also a new menu command on the convert menu that will perform the same action.

Joined Path

Added a Convert To capability for "Joined Path". The new path is similar to a Welded Path except the independent source paths remain visually separate. Move-To rather than Line-To's are used to connect the individual source paths. This is useful, when combined with the Even-Odd winding rule, for creating graphics with void (holes) areas. Documentation is complete and found on the Convert Menu documentation page.

New Drawing Preference

New user preference added for specification of the initial view presentation of New Drawings. The selection is a submenu on the New Drawings popup on the Preferences palette. You can now specify "Top Left" to have the scroll bars positioned at the top left corner of a new drawing, this was the default. Center or Bottom Left are the other possible values for this selection. This new parameter is documented in the Help system - search phrase "New Drawings".

Cheetah3D Pasteboard

Added a pasteboard format for export and import of Bezier paths to Cheetah3D. Upcoming versions of Cheetah3D will be able to exchange Bezier curves with EazyDraw.

Other Corrections

Corrected several issues related to changing font family when the new font may not contain character codes for the text or a portion of the text. Now if a portion of the text cannot be mapped to the new font, a warning is posted and the characters that do not map remain with the previous font. If an automatic encoding mapping is applied, this is now noted in a warning message. The warning message in the later case announces that further changes of font may produce unexpected results.

Corrected problems with changing a drawings scale. In many cases dimension lines would loose their affinity with their associated graphics. This now is preserved properly with a full drawing scale change.

Corrected problem adjusting the central angle of an arc or pie shape, when using the on-screen interactive handle. The problem only occurred when the major and minor axis were rotated and drawn elliptically. The problem was corrected and the handle now tracks precisely the movement of the mouse. The problem was more pronounced when used with the command key to interactively change the major radius of the elliptical arc, this now action now tracks precisely as well.

Corrected problems converting paths and connectors to orthogonal connectors. After conversion the new orthogonal connector would not draw properly. The Connector palette was not always updating to reflect the proper radius of the connector. This has been corrected too.

Corrected problem on the Dimension palette, the "Feet and Inches" options were sometimes grayed out unless a particular dimension graphic was selected. This was not the correct behavior. Now these options are enabled for any drawing with an inches, feet, or yards scale and a graphic does not need to be selected to choose these options.

Corrected occasional problem with resize of groups containing one or more rotated ovals, or math function curves. Certain conditions could result in one of the groups elements jumping to top left of the drawing. This has been corrected.

Corrected problem when creating a "cross star" with an even number of sides. The geometry used to draw this shape does not work for an even number of points. It was possible to set the Stellate panel's number of sides to an even number, with no graphic selected, the draw an even numbered cross star, which would generate an ill defined graphic - sort of a cross between and arrow and a star. This situation is now checked and the requested number of points increased by 1 to insure a proper cross star is drawn.

Corrected problem with newly opened drawings not showing the correct area of the drawing. Now a drawing will open, showing exactly the same position, and viewed drawing region. In other words the zoom percent and viewed portion of the drawing is restored to the same position and zoom that was in effect when the drawing was closed.

Corrected issue related to copying an EazyDraw graphic with pattern color to MS-Word, PowerPoint and other classic style applications prefer the Classic PICT format. This would be a problem with graphics imported or pasted with the PICT format to EazyDraw, these would appear to have normal solid coloring, but the color was actually a solid pattern. These solid patterns are now sensed on import and converted to normal colors so their export quality is improved,for best results PICTs should now be un-grouped if that is feasible

Fixed problem entering Grid Spacings with fixed grids for scaled drawings. The units conversion was incorrect, the entry now is read in the scaled units as defined for the drawing on the Scale palette.

Fixed problem with rulers not displaying properly on opening of a drawing with rulers showing. Before the window would need to be resized before they would show and display correctly

Version 1.7.0

December 2004

Claris Draw Import, configurable menu keys, paragraph palette, improved PDF and EPS display and print quality, and other minor corrections and bug fixes.

ClarisDraw Import

The Claris Draw import has been enabled with this release. To import a Claris Draw file, use the normal "Open" panel, select "Claris Draw" for the file type (popup near bottom of the panel). Then select the file in the normal fashion, a new window with the imported contents is shown. Page Setup and Page Layout should be performed manually, select your printer, paper size, and page layout. Select the orientation - even if it shows the desired value, as this will "sync" up the information from your printer driver and the file contents. Next, save the file using "Save As" and close the window. Finally re-open the EazyDraw version of the file, this performs a full consistency check and automatic corrections if necessary. Then the drawing is ready for manual "touch up" and full use on OS X. Please report all issues encountered. Known issues: Multiple embedded PICT graphics may not all be imported properly - this happens when more than one PICT occurs in a Group, layer, or on a single layered drawing. You may work around this by adding each PICT graphic to a different simple group (they may be un - grouped after reading into the EazyDraw file).

User Defined Short Cut Keys

A Menu Keys palette has been added for user definition of short cut command keys. The palette is found on the EazyDraw main menu. Its use is rather straight forward: expand the outline view to find the menu entry of interest, click the Modify button, and use the resulting panel to define a short cut key or change the display name of the menu entry. Command key sets may be saved to a disk file for future use or backup purposes. Detailed documentation has been added to the help system, use search phrase "Menu Keys" to access the documentation. Since this is an infrequently used feature, undo is not supported, so it is advised to save important key sets to a disk file. Changes made to the menu keys will persist automatically when updating to newer versions of EazyDraw.

Paragraph Palette

A new Paragraph palette has been added. You may now use this interface to specify the detail formatting of paragraphs of text. This doesn't work with Annotations at this time, only the Text Area graphics. You can specify left margins for indenting, line spacing, right indent, and first line indent. Documentation is complete for this feature, enter the search phrase "paragraph form" with EazyDraw help to learn more on this topic.

Option Click Handle-For Symmetric Resize

Added symmetric resizing for lines, rectangles, and other bounds defined graphics. Hold down the Option key, before clicking a handle, to invoke symmetric resizing. This mode holds the center of the graphic constant and increases the size of the opposite vertex of the graphic.

Mini Palettes

A new configurable "mini" palette format is now available for some of the more frequently used parameter palettes. Palettes with the new feature have a small "disclosure" icon at the top of the blue window shade control (top right of the palette). Click this icon to switch the palette to the mini format. Control click on the window shade control to access a configuration menu for the mini palette. You may chose which parameters to include/exclude on a mini palette. This contextual menu allows user configuration of the 3 window shade points. The included parameters may be re-ordered by drag and drop (of the title text box-on the left) or via the contextual menu. The mini/normal form and user reconfiguration are saved with palette layouts and restored on quit -- restart. This is only available on Panther (10.3 or newer), not available with Jaguar (10.2.x). For more information enter the search phrase "mini palette" in the help window.