Line (Stroke) Width Tool

[Patrick Connor]

8 minutes ago, anto said:

Stroke shows the wrong width. And it doesn't change when you change the line width.

Interesting. Dragging wider than the current Max increases what 100% pressure represents, as you demonstrated, so should dragging thinner reduce that 100% thickness again (if possible). I guess it could, but it works as 100% is still that wide.

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, anto said:

Stroke shows the wrong width. And it doesn't change when you change the line width.

Doesn't @Sean P's answer earlier cover that? 

On 4/29/2024 at 3:27 AM, Sean P said:

This is the correct behaviour - the stroke panel will always show the stroke's width, and not the width at the current point. As the Line Width Tool functions by adjusting the pressure curve then decreasing the width, will decrease the pressure at that point. However as the pressure is 0-100% of the current stroke's width then increasing it past this point HAS to increase the stroke's width to accommodate the value you are pushing it too. 
If you look under the options on the context toolbar you will see a 'Lock Line Weight' button - this will prevent you from pushing the stroke past its currently set width.

 

[anto]

7 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Doesn't @Sean P's answer earlier cover that? 

 

It's all very confusing.
The icon shows Lock Line Weight, and the Stroke panel changes width. And at some point, the width becomes the weight and does not change.

 

 

[anto]

And when I draw a point with the Stroke with tool, I don't change the width of the line, as the Width field in the Stroke panel shows. I'm only changing the width (?) (or whatever I'm changing) at a single point. Is the width of the line still the same. Or is it still a line? It's already a shape.

[anto]

I think that when you click on the Stroke Width Tool icon, the Pressure scale should appear as a separate panel (like Transform, Navigator) and show all the changes above this line.

 

[anto]

And one more argument.
I have a 50-point line. I will add one point and change it at this point. I'll lock the width on the panel at 285.7 pts, and return the width of this point to its previous position. That is, in reality, my line has a width of 50 points, and on the panel I see what?
Next. I'll draw another line with a width of 50 points. Compare these lines and what do I see? One is 50 points width and the other is 285.7 points width. How is this possible? They are the same.

 

 

 

[Return]

That's indeed a strange/bad outcome of this tool and with no indication in the layers panel or anywhere else for that matter.
Also requested before, that some features should have an indication in the layers panel by some sort of icon like the raster brushes have.

[lepr]

10 minutes ago, anto said:

Compare these lines and what do I see? One is 50 points width and the other is 285.7 points width. How is this possible? They are the same.

Compare the pressure graph for the stroke of each line. The 285.7 pt is being scaled by greatly reduced pressure to become equivalent to 50 pt.

[anto]

1 minute ago, lepr said:

Compare the pressure graph for the stroke of each line. The 285.7 pt is being scaled by greatly reduced pressure to become equivalent to 50 pt.

You can't see it visually. That's why I say that the Pressure scale should be a panel and in a prominent place.

[Return]

3 minutes ago, lepr said:

the pressure graph

Yes, that's the only indicator but it's a teeny-tiny representation of the stroke settings and should have, as requested, a more visible/workable panel or window.

[lepr]

1 minute ago, anto said:

You can't see it visually.

It's visible in your video.

[anto]

8 minutes ago, lepr said:

Compare the pressure graph for the stroke of each line. The 285.7 pt is being scaled by greatly reduced pressure to become equivalent to 50 pt.

But what is the real width of the stroke? Which line shows the true width?

[lepr]

2 minutes ago, Return said:

Yes, that's the only indicator but it's a teeny-tiny representation of the stroke settings and should have, as requested, a more visible/workable panel or window.

I agree that we need a larger pressure graph. My message was an answer to anto's "how is this possible?"
 

[Return]

Perhaps the "weight" of the stroke should stay in the context toolbar just like the contourtool.
And show an icon in the layers panel that a contour or linewidth or whatever is applied and editable with said tool.

[Sean P]

13 hours ago, anto said:

Stroke shows the wrong width. And it doesn't change when you change the line width.

 

 

This is the correct behaviour. You have enabled 'Lock Line Weight' - once enabled the the stroke width will not change by increasing or decreasing the point size using the stroke width tool. If you unlock the 'Lock Line Weight' option you will find it does update to be a smaller value if you reduce the widest point of the stroke.

 

[Sean P]

11 hours ago, anto said:

One is 50 points width and the other is 285.7 points width. How is this possible? They are the same.

Because this is exactly how Stroke Variance is designed to work in accordance with the Pressure Graph. Notice at around 24-25seconds the pressure graph is rescaled, so whilst the stroke is 287pt it looks a lot thinner as it has a very low pressure graph. This is pretty much how the app has worked since its inception.

[anto]

@Sean PAre you saying that these two lines have the same width of 100 pt, as shown in the Stroke panel?  Are you serious?

[anto]

I understand that no one is testing this tool anymore, as it has a lot of flaws. Even based on common logic.
How to get a program crash.

 

 

[Sean P]

10 minutes ago, anto said:

I understand that no one is testing this tool anymore, as it has a lot of flaws. Even based on common logic.
How to get a program crash.

 

 

Thanks for that - I can reproduce that and will get it logged - it does appear to be a regression over 2430

[Frozen Death Knight]

7 hours ago, anto said:

@Sean PAre you saying that these two lines have the same width of 100 pt, as shown in the Stroke panel?  Are you serious?

That is correct. It's the curve profile that makes one line smaller and the other bigger. Would you call it a flaw if you draw with pen pressure and parts of the line are thin and others thick while having a single line width?

You can even do this without the Stroke Width Tool by just adjusting the curve profile. Resizing your curve without affecting the Width value is not a flaw.

[anto]

10 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

That is correct. It's the curve profile that makes one line smaller and the other bigger. Would you call it a flaw if you draw with pen pressure and parts of the line are thin and others thick while having a single line width?

I mean that the width of the line in both cases needs to be distinguished. The “clean” width that appears in the Stroke panel and the “pressed” width. There must be another parameter. If you look only at the Stroke panel width field, you get nonsense.

Or an asterisk on the side, an exclamation point - which would mean that the line width was changed by another tool.

[Frozen Death Knight]

10 minutes ago, anto said:

I mean that the width of the line in both cases needs to be distinguished. The “clean” width that appears in the Stroke panel and the “pressed” width. There must be another parameter. If you look only at the Stroke panel width field, you get nonsense.

Well, the Pressure Profile panel could definitely be improved, sure. I would even prefer it if it was a dockable panel or you were able to preview and edit it on the canvas with the Stroke Width Tool using a shortcut. That said, that is a UX problem and not a bug with how stroke width and stroke pressure work together.

[anto]

@Sean P It seems another error. The width is not blocked if you simply put a point on the line and click block if this line has already been blocked before. That is, the line width is not calculated in real time.

[Frozen Death Knight]

7 minutes ago, anto said:

@Sean P It seems another error. The width is not blocked if you simply put a point on the line and click block if this line has already been blocked before. That is, the line width is not calculated in real time.

 

 

It makes sense that it doesn't change since you haven't changed any of the values yet. That being said, it would be nice if there was a button on that top toolbar that basically just made the Width value match the highest pressure value on the stroke as a way to normalise the values.

[Aldus]

I experience more issues with this tool than I like, but to mention one thing I just found disrupting:

• Of course the pressure graph "window" is too small - incredibly small  ... astonishingly small ... no, jawdropping tiny!
• It does not stay open / float
• It does not show what section/point on the curve I am actively adjusting either

I got some unsatisfactory and "non-traditional" "non-smooth" (I was raised civilized) results using the width tool that I could actually smoothen and repair in this window without much effort, but the above issues makes it a no no to use for serious work.