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Greybeard
10-22-2006, 02:20 PM
In designing a period frame, a lot of the elements I would need are already to be found in the existing library.
However, with even the current selection, it would be an enormous help if they were available as an exportable file, say as jpgs, that could be used to print out as a crib sheet.

Being able to see the available patterns as a group in printed form would allow me to design a project in rough form much more quickly.

Any thoughts or ideas if there is a way to do this already ?

John

BobHill
10-25-2006, 04:03 PM
John,

Bring your pattern into Designer as you would and when you would to make your design piece and in increments and just use your Screen Capture (Print Screen key) for full screen or ALT + Print Screen for just the open window. This will go onto your Clipboard (which is where things go that you Control C copy). Then Open a new layout in any Paint type program (or even a new document in WORD and Control V (paste), then you'll have the image. If you use a Paint type program (PhotoShop, etc.) you can just do a Save As to the JPEG (JPG) format.

There are more elaborate and handy screen captures out there which will work better for what you are looking for, as you can add marks, text, crop and otherwise work the image very easily and quickly. I've made one of this piece to give you an example. Go to www.techsmith.com and you can download a trial version of the one I use, called SnagIt.

Bob.

Greybeard
10-27-2006, 08:12 AM
:D :D :D :D

yipee, I'm back on line to the forum.(I think an isp problem kept cw site from me for the last 48 hours)

Thanks Bob.
Would it be possible/practical to capture large chunks of the library at a time by this method, ie importing lots of separate elements into one project, or would it be a case of spending an evening building up an off line crib sheet ?

Cheers
John

BobHill
10-27-2006, 09:16 AM
John,

You can use SnipIt to capture anything you see on your WEB Browser OR on your screen, and that includes streaming video with or without sound which is puts into an .avi file when you save it. If you need to save many screen images or content, just make the image files, then add them all to a single PDF file, which, of course, can then contain other documents, such as WORD text etc.

Bob

Greybeard
10-27-2006, 10:37 AM
John,

......If you need to save many screen images or content, just make the image files, then add them all to a single PDF file.....

Bob

Guess I'm just being lazy, Bob, and looking for a shortcut.
Have you counted how many items there are in the library ? :)

John

BobHill
10-27-2006, 12:28 PM
John,

Although not much of one, the only short cut I'd know would be to create a large work piece and click drag the library objects one by one onto it, then do your thing with a screen capture. I'm not sure why you'd wish to do that, however.

Bob

Greybeard
10-27-2006, 02:49 PM
If that's the only way, at least edited and printed out, it would give me a wall sheet that I could see at a glance what was available for each historical period.
Styles changed a great deal in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and designs need to be consistent.

If no one comes up with a quicker way, I'll set to, and post the results for others with similar needs.
John

Greybeard
10-27-2006, 03:52 PM
I've just done this as an example of what I would like to have as a reference while thinking about new projects.
It took me about ten minutes from opening Designer to saving a finished copy ready to print.
As there are currently 113 elements in the library, I have about 20 hours work ahead of me :(

There is also a problem I have, not previously mentioned, that I find the library thumbnails too small. Even the enlarged image below the list is really too small to be particularly useful.

What do others think ?

BobHill
10-27-2006, 04:31 PM
John,

I'm not sure what you mean by the patterns being too small. The attached JPEG shows your design at the top which I drag enlarged on a 12" by 12" work piece and then added two of the Library patterns without enlarging them on the same piece. What's too small with these? I also attached the finished MPC file which I made the JPEG from.

Rereading your post, I see that you aren't talking about the actual images, just the icon showing of them in the Library menu. Remember that icons are going to be subjective to your screen display setting so those will be particularly small for using small screens or those, like me, that use a high pixel display setting even though I use 19" monitors (I use dual monitors which gives me a lot better space available.)

Bob

Greybeard
10-30-2006, 12:17 PM
Re size of icons. I think you've put your finger on the problem - I'm only using a 15" laptop at the breakfast table, and Pip is already complaining the she only sees the back of my head for most of breakfast.
What she'd say if I brought down the 21"monitor from the workroom, I'd hate to think !

Without the cw machine to try things on, I've not had the incentive to load the software to the workroom system yet.

In the meantime, I've knocked together this example of the sort of wall sheet I have in mind.
Obviously it's biased toward my own needs, sort of gold as most of the frames I used to produce would be gilded, but I'm sure you get the idea.

I've not spent any serious time with the software yet - still thinking about possibilities.

John