SUPER UPCOMING UPDATE! (edit: released!)

Hello world, I'm here to alert as I'm finally ready!
Unless any major issue will be dicovered in the meanwhile, very shortly I will release the new update.
There are a couple really cool things, as well as a lot of changes in the designer's structure.
I'm writing this post now rather than waiting to release it because I't really exciting!
To show I'm not lying, I've attached a screenshot to show you how the new main tools described here currently looks like in our testing system. Let's go!

FIRST VERY IMPORTANT NOTE
even if the designer itself will look the same, I rewrote a lot of core functions. I tried to test as much as possible, but when releasing deep changed it is possible something will not working as expected.
So, if you will notice anything strange, please let me know ASAP with all the details needed to replicate the problem.

You're porbably not interested in things you can't see, so here are the details about the visible updates that will appear.

NEW ROTATE TOOL
Based on CSS3, the new rotate tool will simply replace the old one. It will be visible in realtime and will be much more intuitive than the old one. I have also added a slidebar to control it, and that's extremely helpful on touch devices.
However the new tool is not suported by all browsers (who said Internet Explorer?). For this reason, also the old tool is kept.
Also, as the new and the old tool are not compatible (they render different results), old tool will be there also for legacy.

If designer is launched on a browser supporting the new tool, only the newtool will be shown.
If designer is launched on a browser NOT supporting the new tool, only the old tool will be shown.

In general, it seems the only browser not supporting the tool is Internet Explorer 8 and lower. Since IE9 everything is fine.

So, in any case, only one of the tools will be visible to users.
There are however some exceptions, considered for legacy. In case an old design using the old rotate tool is used (like a saved design, a template or a past order), then designer will force the use of the old tool in any case to prevent design's corruption.

With this said, there's only one specific cas where designs will not be shown correctly: a design (like a saved design, a template or a past order) using the new tool loaded into a browser not supporting it. In that case, rotated elements will simply not be rotated at all. However, this is a very limited scenario, as it applies only to rotated entries and users still using old IE < 9.

And this brings directly to the 2nd new thing...

NEW CHECK AND ALERT FOR SUPPORTED BROWSERS
There is already an alert that appears to users loading the designer with old IE6. But now this will change.
When designer is launched, it will now check if the browser is supporting the new CSS3 rotation.
The alert will be shown also in case it does not.
In other terms, the alert will be now about "you're using an outdated browser and things may not work as expected".
Users will still be able to use the RTD, but that alert should be enough to let them think it's time to update or change browsing system.

Also, and this is much more strict, there's a new check in case you're logged in as admin.
Considering you can perform admin actions in designer, RTD will now REQUIRE you to use an updated browser when using the designer being logged into your system.
The alert will be different from the one shown to users, and you will not be allowed to use the RTD designer at all with that browser.

NEW VERTICAL TEXT TOOL
Yes, I was able to do that too!
Enabled by default (it's currently not optional: if you think it should be, please let me know), it will show a small "vertical" checkbox on top of the text item entry.
As you can guess, if checked, it will show vertical text. Simple simple

ENGINE UPDATES
Because of the new rotation style, a lot of things had to be changed in the designer itself.
This includes the way of calculatin margins, the control tags, and many other things...
Hopefully you should notice NOTHING. But if you'll do, as said on top, alert ASAP.

Another update is about the radial arch distortion: I changed something at rendering level, and now it should be faster to be shown.

Finally, about Hi-Res:
I have added transcoders for the new rotate and vertical text tools, and in my tests everything seemed fine.
Even here I had to apply some changes, so again let me know if something will look wrong.

There are other small finetunes made all around too, but all minor things.

FUTURE PLANS
There is more that I'll not release yet because still testing.
I want you to know we're in a continuous loop to make the RTD better and better everytime, but that's it: so I'm not gong to tell you what else I'm working on yet (evil!).

For now this is all, because shortly we will all be at the next ISA show in Las Vegas (April 4-6, booths 5648-5649 (toward the baclk of the hall), near the HP and Novus Imaging booths).
If you plan to be there, step by!

As for me, I'll update this thread immediately when the mentioned updates will be live.
Talk to you soon!

Alex



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2013 06:08AM by Alex.

Another proof of concept attached.
Results of a text item using vertical text, rotation and step&repeat all together.
Includes sshot of designer and both raster and vector hi-res results

No replies? You had your chance (during the weekend, LOL!)

At the end, the update is now live. That's probably the easiest way to quickly find issues, if any.
I just have 2 things to add in addition to what's posted above:

1) In the Show Advanced Admin Options area of designer (where you can turn options on/off for templates) I've added one to show/hide the new Vertical Text option

2) as now browsers will show the alert about old system when the CSS rotation will not be available, I had to change the text label used for that popup itself for every company in the RTD.
In case you want to revise it, it's the Alert: non-supported browser entry in SYSTEM OPTIONS => Configure Text Labels

That's all I think.
Will wait for comments and eventual alerts

Thanks!

Very very nice updates. Rotation tool could not be more perfect. Instant fast results without all the old guesswork. Vertical text works perfectly. Love the idea of a simple check mark to activate. Works perfectly. Now, about radial arch distortions. Being a feature I haven't used very often, so can't remember the speed but seem to recall them being slow. I can attest they are actually very fast to show results now.

All in all I would say these updates are STELLAR! Thank you Alex. Can't wait to see your secret upcoming plans.

Super Alex.

Rotation tool is awesome. First Class!

Vertical Text is a great addition. Is kerning a possibility in the future? Not needed so much in horizontal, but may be useful in vertical.

Great job.

Boostersigns - Vertical Kerning? . . . you must mean line spacing/leading? That is in the Align tool.

Hi Alex,
I know it takes a lot of work for all this programing and I do appreciate anything you can do to improve the designer.
So far I found a couple of bugs. Google Chrome does not let me resize or move items. (Version 25.0.1364.172 m) It says it's up to date.
Second is that Explorer 10 after I use the rotation tool, resize arrows don't work as well. Is this because I use a 64 bit system?
And about Vertical Text tool, if kerning is too much to ask now, can you reduce the spacing by 50%? Thank you.

Lucian

Yup. My bad.

Lucian,

No problems at all, these threads are meant to discuss problems. So lets discuss

What you say about Chrome really sounds strange to me, because Chrome was one of the first browsers supporting it all.
However I'm trying here with same version as of you, on Windows 7 64: and I'm perfectly able to move and resize, can't replicate your issue. Is it something happening for a specific product or template only? If so, can you pass e a link in some way?
And just to check if it's general or only against yoru company, can you try visiting some other RTD and see if you have the same isse even there? You can try the company we use to create templates, here:
http://designer.realtimedesigner.com/zzzsigns
But again, I'm not able to reproduce it in any way.

Resize after rotation:
That's something I'm still working on, it's not related to IE10.
Basically, rotation rotates averything at CSS level, but commands are still the same. This means that RTD will still expect you to drag the left arrow horizontally, even if you have rotated 90 and that arrow appears to point bottom (you can see this by looking the cursor appearing when you howver the arrow).
I am still working on some finetunings for this, but even if it may not be totally intuitive it's surelly better of what we had before!

Kerning for vertical:
Vertical is currently not using the multiline features, but I plan to do so.
Reason for which it's not done already is because of vector transaltion of the same effect. As soon as I'll figure out how to "convert" the kerning too I will add the option.

OK,
I changed computers and it works. Great job by the way. It may have been a problem on my home PC. I will keep trying on different computers at work to see if I can replicate it.
About the vertical text tool, I think that reducing the spacing between letters by 50% will be good enough if it's something that's possible.

Lucian

I will look what can be done in these days.
Was already testing some kerning functions, but OBVIOUSLY no luck (which means, horrible results).
I'll post again when I will have some extra news.

In the meanwhile, assuming it may still change a little bit, it may be better to wait a couple days before start building templates using the vertical text (in case you were planning to)

Nice work Alex, Thank You

Update:
I changed the vertical text spacing for designer. It should looks better now.
However, I still have to find a one-to-one way to replicate the exact spacing in vector.
I feel this version can be considered ok for designer, but consider that eventual Hi-Res generation will products slightly different results and will need manual tweaking, till this will be solved

This is better. Thank you.

Lucian

I am getting a browswer error because of the following error...

Also, and this is much more strict, there's a new check in case you're logged in as admin.
Considering you can perform admin actions in designer, RTD will now REQUIRE you to use an updated browser when using the designer being logged into your system.
The alert will be different from the one shown to users, and you will not be allowed to use the RTD designer at all with that browser.

I am using IE 9 (Version 9.0.8112.16421) - so not sure why the error is appearing. Will you please check into this?

Thank You

I would appreciate it if the vertical text option could be disabled for certain products.

@lylesigns:

The error shoul show up if the browser does not seem to support the new rotation tool (basically, it's a check against modernity in supporting CSS transormations).
As far as I know IE9 should work, at least mine does.
So please let me know a couple things:
1) can you confirm you're not able to see the new rotation tool as well?
2) if you try visiting another RTD, are you still getting the error?
For example, you can try this: http://designer.realtimedesigner.com/zzzsigns/

@ryan_kik:
we're still ocnsidering it. For the time being vertical text cannot be turned off at product level, but it can at template level.
I will let you know later on becauseof my PS note down here...

PS note:
We're currntly all out for the ISA in Las Vegas (I'm already there, writing you from the Excalibur!)
So, please expect some delays in replies for a couple days, In general we should be back to normality after April 7th - 8th.

Thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2013 06:26PM by Alex.