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Manual3
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CREATING YOUR OWN GRIDS
Dot lattice, Line grid, Chequer, Polar grid
The same method is used to create these four types of object. Click on the
appropriate icon to enter Create mode. The data window will show the
parameters for the object. You then have three ways of creating the object.
You can:
1. click on the Create button to create an object with the default (or
last-used) parameters or
2. alter any of the parameters before clicking on the Create button or
3. drag a box and finish by clicking Select.
Once the object has been created, you can edit it as described in Editing
the Examples in Manual1.
The other two types of object, Tiled sprite and Tessellation, cannot be
created in isolation. A tiled sprite requires a suitable sprite and a
tessellation needs an object to be tessellated.
Tiled sprite
Drop a sprite or spritefile onto the load target. (An example, sprite, can
be found in the TileSprite subdirectory.) Open the sprite menu by clicking
on the menu button and choose a sprite. The object can now be created. If
the H and V sizes are too small an error message will be displayed. More
sprites can be loaded and the sprite currently used in the object can be
changed by choosing a different sprite and clicking on Apply.
When a file containing a tiled sprite is saved, all the sprites which have
been loaded are also saved. If you wish to save the file with only those
sprites which are being used, click on Clear unused sprites before saving.
Tessellation
These objects are created in the same way as tiled sprites except that Draw
files are loaded instead of sprites. The Draw files, however, must conform
with certain criteria. In the Tessellate subdirectory is an example file,
Drawfile, that you can drop onto the load target. You will be asked give the
shape a name. Draw files in the form of Libraries may also be loaded. One
such library, TesselLib, contains all the shapes which have been used in the
Tessellation example files. When saving files containing tessellations,
remember to click on Clear unused shapes if you do not want to save all the
shapes with the file.
Designing Tessellation Shapes
GridPro requires Tessellation shapes to consist of two objects. One is the
shape which will be used in the tessellation and the other is a rectangle, a
bounding box which defines the size of the cells in which the shapes are
placed. This rectangle must be in front of the shape and grouped with it.
Tessellation objects may be created in any drawing package which allows the
creation of Draw files, but Vector is ideal for the purpose as it allows
objects to be drawn with precision.
Printing
There are two methods of printing.
Direct printing
If you have a printer driver installed you can print a sheet by ‘saving’ a
file (in Draw format) onto the printer driver icon on the icon bar. This is
satisfactory only if the design to be printed does not exceed the printer
driver page size. You can check this before printing by displaying Printer
limits (from the Display submenu).
Indirect printing
If a file is saved, it can be loaded into another application for printing.
4Mation’s Vector, Poster and Chameleon allow large documents to be printed
over more than one sheet.
GRIDPRO AND VECTOR
GridPro shares a number of common features with Vector.
Libraries
Libraries of tessellation shapes saved from GridPro can be loaded into
Vector where individual shapes can be viewed, edited, deleted or renamed.
Special objects
GridPro is able to save files very efficiently by using one of the special
object formats designed for use in Vector. Replication allows a single
object to be repeated as many times as required without taking up much more
memory than that required to store the object on its own. This means that if
a GridPro file is loaded into Vector, it won’t require the vast amounts of
memory that would be needed by other drawing programs. It also means that
grids created in GridPro can, to some extent, be edited in Vector. To edit a
GridPro object in Vector, save it as a Vector file and then load it into
Vector. Choose Untag from Vector’s Select submenu. It can then be moved and
edited as required. Note that GridPro objects make use of Vector’s
Replication facility.
Tessellation Errors
When you are using your own shapes to create tessellations, an error message
may be displayed. The following errors are reported by GridPro:
1. The object is not a group object, or a library object containing a group
object.
2. The group does not contain exactly two objects.
3. The second object in the group is not a path object.
4. The path element sequence in that object is not correct.
5. There was an error when creating or adding the shape object.
Remember that a shape must consist of a single object (or group object)
which is behind, and grouped with, a bounding box object.