OpenVector, OpenGridPro & DrawPlus

OpenVector and DrawPlus 3.41.2 (19 May 2012)
OpenGridPro version 3.41 (10 May 2012)


Bugfixes: 'Merge at pointer' merges at pointer
Saved files contain only one font table and settings
Solid dragging of masked sprites is possible
More accurate bounding-box calculations
Saving no longer results in font chaos
More reliable merging onto the current layer
Resolved a cause of rare but catastrophic crashes
Rulers scroll consistently with their document windows
Textarea columns are created on the same layer as the parent textarea
Textarea columns are not imported onto undefined layers
Even with 'Reset layer' turned off, objects from a library will not be pasted onto undefined layers
Compressed drawfiles and libraries can be loaded on Cortex-A8 with alignment exceptions enabled
Compensated for a RISC OS bug causing problems associated with text-to-path conversion
Capabilities: Invert selection (CTRL-N)
Zooming (Page Up/Down) centres on a selection or where the mouse is pointing
Pasting a library object creates a named group
Unlocked objects can be arranged to locked ones
Select-click can be turned off
Path-edit menu includes an option to place the origin at the currently selected point
Path-edit menu includes an option to move the whole path with selected point to the origin
'Stroke path' will replace a path of non-zero thickness with an equivalent filled outline
When an auto-save is due and the user is prompted, the user can switch to unprompted auto-saving
Document windows respond to scroll requests as generated by mouse wheels on some systems
Bezier control points can snap to grid while being dragged
OpenGridPro and OpenVector understand 'osunit' dimensions
Quick access to Touch/Enclose/Centre drag-select setting through the Select document submenu
Object control points can snap-to-grid when being dragged to resize the object
Shift-ADJUST can set the origin precisely to any point on a path being edited
When editing a path, points that overlap can be cycled through by ADJUST double-clicking
The Library window can be resized so as to increase the visible portion of the list of objects
In the Library window, a MENU click over the object list will select one if no other is selected
Clicks with the Alt key down will act as if there is no object beneath the pointer


Contents

Introduction

Requirements

Installation

Contacts


Introduction

OpenVector, OpenGridPro and DrawPlus are all enhancements to Draw. Vector and GridPro were developed from DrawPlus as commercial applications for 4Mation by Jonathan Marten. Vector included layering and object library capabilities. GridPro was customised for drawing grids and other regular object layouts.

The applications available for download here are built from the GPL open source software release of Vector, GridPro and DrawPlus. After Jonathan released the sources, the first 32-bit conversion was performed by Spellings Computer Services. The sources have since been uploaded to an SVN repository at <riscos.info> and developed further by myself. The versions downloadable here were built from revision 45 of those sources.

Thanks are due to Jonathan Marten, 4Mation, and Spellings Computer Services for developing the applications and releasing the sources. But please note that none of them have any responsibility for this release. So please do not bother them about any problems you may have with it.

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Requirements

In theory, any machine running RISC OS 3.10 or later, with the latest 32-bit Shared C Library, can run these applications. In practice, they have been incompletely tested on a BeagleBoard with RISC OS 5.17, an Iyonix with RISC OS 5.16, a StrongARM RISC PC with RISC OS 4.02, and RISC OS 3.50 under emulation. These applications could do with a great deal more testing by long-time Vector users on a variety of RISC OS platforms. Consider them beta quality and let me know if they fail to run as expected on your system.

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Installation

Simply download the ZIP archives for the applications you want and extract the applications inside to wherever you want. (It does not matter if your system is limited to 10-character filenames. The apps will still run if truncated.)

Also available is a detailed list of bugfixes and enhancements over older releases by Jonathan and <Spellings.net>. This is probably the most comprehensive source of information about OpenVector's new capabilities. (Would anyone like to volunteer to write an updated manual?)

OpenVector DOWNLOAD
(271 Kbytes ZIP)
This archive contains the complete !OpenVector 3.41.2 application.
OpenGridPro DOWNLOAD
(122 Kbytes ZIP)
This archive contains the complete !OpenGridPro 3.41 application.
DrawPlus DOWNLOAD
(205 Kbytes ZIP)
This archive contains the complete !DrawPlus 3.41.2 application.
You will probably want this only if you need to access drawfiles created previously by DrawPlus.

If you are looking for manuals... Sorry, I don't have any and couldn't release them even if I did.

Some documentation can be found on Jonathan's website. (Scroll down to near the bottom of the page, ignoring the source archives you'll pass on the way.)

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Contacts

My name is Christopher Martin. You can email me through account 'belles' at internode-on-net. (Replace the dashes with dots, etc.)

Richard Torrens hosts a mailing list. I receive all posts to it and occasionally get time to read them and respond.

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