The Xara Xone Tutorials
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As always, we will be using Pixels as our units of measure. Right click on the screen and select Page Options... from the pop up menu. In the Units tabbed section, select Pixels for the Units and 0-255 for the Color Units. In the Grid and Ruler tabbed section set the Major Spacing to 100pix (key it in exactly like this please) and the Number of Subdivisions to 10. Press OK to close the dialog and apply the changes.

To see a tutorial on Xara Basics visit Workbook 20.

NOTE: You will notice from time to time I apply arbitrary colors to objects. I do this to make the objects easier to see. If I do not specify a fill for an object, you do not have to apply a fill or outline color.

When I show an ellipse or rectangle that has just been created, that has no fill, it is because I have set the fill to none before I exported the illustration. By default, all ellipses, rectangles and Quick Shapes have a black outline and a black fill. There is nothing wrong with your copy of Xara.

Naming Conventions. I use bold face to indicate the names of tools, galleries, keyboard shortcuts, and dialogs. Items such as unnamed icons and drop down lists, which have names when you let your cursor rest over them for a moment, are displayed in italics.

The Infobar is the context sensitive menu at the top of the screen and changes to reflect the options for the selected tool.

Some of the tool icons have changed in Xara X1, and this may cause some confusion for new users. If you are using an older version of Xara, click here to see my Rosetta Stone for translating the old buttons into the new.

New Users? I have created some quick start mini-tutorials to get you though the basics. Workbook 20, Workbook 30, and Workbook 31 cover the main things you need to know to get started.

While you should be able to create all the steps in previous versions of Xara, some of the tool icons have changed, and this may cause some confusion for new users. If you are using an older version of Xara, click here to see my Rosetta Stone for translating the old buttons into the new.


Even the most complex drawing is nothing more than a series of short steps. I think this tutorial will serve to illustrate this point.

Xara Xtreme Brass Hinge tutorial April 2006

Select the Rectangle Tool (keyboard shortcut Shift F3). Create a rectangle 190 pixels wide by 350 pixels tall. (You can see the size on the Infobar at the top of the screen as you draw the rectangle). Press the Curved Corners icon on the Infobar. Drag any of the inside control handles (the small black boxes) towards the corner with the Rectangle Tool cursor to reduce the roundness of the rectangle as shown above.

TIP: If you resize your rectangle the corner roundness may not be perfectly round. Draw the rectangle and resize it to the correct height and width. Draw a new rectangle on top of the resized rectangle and now when you apply curved corners, the corners should be perfectly rounded.

 

Xara Xtreme Brass Hinge tutorial April 2006

Using the Rectangle Tool (Shift F3), make a small rectangle 30 x 60 pixels, make a several duplicate copies (Ctrl d to duplicate) and use them as spacers as shown above in blue. Create two centered circles 40 and 32 pixels in diameter and then make two duplicates. Position the circles as shown above. I have dragged guidelines from the screen rulers (Ctrl L to display rulers) and aligned the guides to the blue rectangles to aid in placing the circles.

 

Xara Xtreme Brass Hinge tutorial April 2006

Using the Rectangle Tool (Shift F3) drag a 36 x 70 pixel rectangle. Make 4 duplicates and stack them as shown above right.

TIP: You can drag the rectangle downwards while holding down the Ctrl key to constrain the direction to up and down. Before you release the left mouse button, press the right mouse button to drop a duplicate. Repeat this until you have all 5 rectangles.

 

 

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