Adobe Illustrator Replacement Suggestions?

drgonzo1969 said:
do ipads come with an apple pencil?
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No they are extra.
Make sure you get the correct one for your iPad. There are 2 different types (the new new 3rd one really the second one with extra features)

The old one has a USB plug at the end.
The newer one has magnetic charging and goes on the side of the iPad.
 
I’ve been using Inkscape on Mac and Linux for laser engraved faceplates and it works ok. There are definitely bugs but not too bad for a free open source software. I tried Vectornato on iPad but couldn’t really get into it (even with the pencil) so I went back to Inkscape.
 
Just a word on Corel, I used it to convert some fonts to curves and exported that as .svg so I could import it into Visio which is where I draw all my amp layouts and other stuff. It's specifically oriented around converting feet to inches, etc and I can do a better, easier job of drawing in it than Corel. I've been using BOTH since version 1.

After a while, not right away, Visio started crashing. Freezing for 5 minutes, then coming back or sometimes staying frozen. Looked like a hardware error. So I cleaned the inside of my PC, ran chkdsk, removed - cleaned - and replaced all my sata connectors and still had the same problem. I removed the heading I had made (stretched the font, and after converting to curves) and bingo, Visio was back to it's fast acting stable self.

So I converted the .svg to a jpg and learned the lesson, Visio does NOT like .svg imports.....

Just in case any of you run into such a thing........................

The offending heading at the top of my Blackface Tremolux 6g9b layout

Tremolux 6G9B v06012023.jpg
 
Nice! I’m gonna mess around with this later and get a feel for it. Any foreseeable issues using this for UV printing Tayda service?
 
I have used bitmaps for Tayda UV prints with no problem in the past. I know others have too. What are you tracing?
 
I am just dipping my toes in on the tayda UV. im going to try and put together a layout for a pedal tonight. ive been doing waterslides and hand painting my enclosures but this forum has inspired me to pursue loftier goals. ive never vectorized anything or used inkscape before but ive got a few tutorials qued up on youtube. im gonna work my through it and see if i cant figure it out
 
Duly noted. I usually steal a few images off of google and then paste them together in microsoft Paint into something cool for a pedal. so i imagine i may need to vectorize things but i will keep that in mind for the stuff i draw in myself. I literally know nothing of these things. I've been using microsoft paint and real paint for years to do my shit hahaha
 
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The Boost of Boba Fett. I used waterslides on this one and then covered with epoxy (it was my first epoxy job, probly wont do anymore).
 

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Just tried inkscape, very much like coreldraw's early versions. I'll keep using Visio, the freehand drawing is way smoother!
 
ThePanda said:
How early?
Corel 4 and 8?

That is very suprising!
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ummm..... I'm not good at remembering what features were with what release. Being the IT manager (and lead programmer analyst), one of my jobs at the time was supporting Marketing's software, which was all drawing and word processing packages. I had to learn all of them, ugh. But I think most of the releases up through 8 looked like this. After that I believe corel was purchased and instead of adding features the new company obfuscated the toolset, requiring expensive training.

The thing I really like about drawing in visio is that it draws in lines with curving control points and interpolates and averages changes in direction. And when you stop it re-evaluates the entire line since the last stop to reduce the number of control points making the line as simple as possible.

Corel draws in points of change of direction requiring a squat load more points for a simple line which means that much more to edit if you want to move things around.

Visio also seems to almost know what you're trying to draw, it's kinda eerie.....
 
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