The pressure tool

[jackamus]

Usually when I comment on this forum I'm either asking a question or bitching about why handles and nodes disappear when moving a guide.

However today for a change I'm praising on of AD's features that I feel is very underrated, speaking as a technical illustrator that is! This is the 'Pressure' feature in the Stroke tab. I have attached a file that shows how much more of a 3D effect you get when using this feature especially on ellipses shown in the top illustration. The lower illustration is the kind of drawing you get from an expensive full CAD program. All the lines are the same thickness and it doesn't look very inspiring.

Aligning the ellipses with each other using guides and relying on snapping does not work very well as I've said many times in previous posts. Turning snapping on and off all the time in order to get nodes and handles to coincide with a guide is a waste of time. I work with snapping off. It would be a lot easier if the handles and nodes always remained visible when moving a guide whether snapping is used or not.

As an aside can anyone work out how I decide when to use thick and thin lines? There are no prizes except a pat-on-the-back for the anyone who can figure it out.

Use of pressure.afdesign

[loukash]

6 hours ago, jackamus said:

the 'Pressure' feature in the Stroke tab.

Be aware that there's a still unresolved bug carried over from v1 where strokes with "excessive" pressure curves go havoc when converted to outline, e.g. on PDF export.

6 hours ago, jackamus said:

I have attached a file

Is there any special reason why you're using the Gaussian Blur layer effect on many of the curves? This will cause them to be rasterized on PDF export.

6 hours ago, jackamus said:

As an aside can anyone work out how I decide when to use thick and thin lines?

Yes. It's pretty logical.  

[jackamus]

All my technical illustrations were done using ADV1 and I have used the Pressure tool ever since AD was first published without any problems.

Regarding the Gaussian blur the illustration was a modified version of the attached image where Gaussian blur was used. I probably did not remove this effect when modifying the original drawing.

Drawing a gear 2.afdesign

[jackamus]

1 hour ago, loukash said:

Be aware that there's a still unresolved bug carried over from v1 where strokes with "excessive" pressure curves go havoc when converted to outline, e.g. on PDF export.

Is there any special reason why you're using the Gaussian Blur layer effect on many of the curves? This will cause them to be rasterized on PDF export.

Yes. It's pretty logical.  

You say its "logical" tell me why you think that?

[thomaso]

10 hours ago, jackamus said:

However today for a change I'm praising on of AD's features (…)

Aligning the ellipses with each other using guides and relying on snapping does not work very well as I've said many times in previous posts. (…)

As an aside can anyone work out how I decide when to use thick and thin lines?

It seems that you like contradictions, puzzles and guesses or jokes.

As an aside: "The advantage of using the British standard is that the line type definitions have largely been coordinated in their meanings across the Industries."

[Pšenda]

37 minutes ago, thomaso said:

The advantage of using the British standard

Although the OP asked a month ago if any of the Serif developers understood "engineering drawing", today they are more correctly talking about "technical illustrations", where the use of standards is freer after all 🙂 Although not using snapping is quite a shame, because it would the given illustrations gained in accuracy and precision.

[jackamus]

34 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Although the OP asked a month ago if any of the Serif developers understood "engineering drawing", today they are more correctly talking about "technical illustrations", where the use of standards is freer after all 🙂 Although not using snapping is quite a shame, because it would the given illustrations gained in accuracy and precision.

Ads soon as Serif allow nodes and handle to be visible when moving a guide I will change my tune.

[jackamus]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

It seems that you like contradictions, puzzles and guesses or jokes.

As an aside: "The advantage of using the British standard is that the line type definitions have largely been coordinated in their meanings across the Industries."

British Standards did not create a 'standard' for technical illustrations because it is an 'artistic' concept. It would like trying to apply a set of standards for paintings!