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MHanson
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Aug 15, 2009
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SLC, UT
· Joined Dec 2005
· Points: 0
Nice work. Let me know if I missed it, but is there a way to delete things?
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verticon
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Aug 16, 2009
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Europe
· Joined Jul 2008
· Points: 25
Hi Alma, The latest version is really great. As rgold and Jordan Ramey mentioned, the only missing feature for the program to be perfect is a couple of different line patterns (dotted, dash-dot), for drawing hidden parts of the route, alternatives or variants. For the moment I draw independent lines with different sizes, but changing size alters the line-weight and the result is inconsistent with the rest of the drawing. Thank you.
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Alma Madsen
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Aug 17, 2009
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Maple Valley, WA
· Joined May 2009
· Points: 50
MHanson wrote:Nice work. Let me know if I missed it, but is there a way to delete things? Just click on something with the select tool [V] (a red border/glow will appear around it) and hit the delete key!
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rgold
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Aug 17, 2009
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Poughkeepsie, NY
· Joined Feb 2008
· Points: 526
Well, I'd still like to have another "missing" feature, one that would be very helpful, which would be a way to fill text boxes with a color, typically the color of the route they refer to. I don't think this is a "bell or whistle," because sometimes it is really quite hard to read text against the background the environment provides. Now it isn't hard to switch over to a photo editing program for this as I've done in the sample below cropped from a much bigger image: (The shading of the text "lozenges" here is a conceit that I included merely because it was available; there is certainly no need for that.) Of course the entire route diagram can be done in a photo editing program too, and the advantage of Alma's terrific work is the very considerable labor-saving devices for drawing in the route lines. It sure would be nice to get the whole job done in BetaCreator!
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Alma Madsen
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Aug 18, 2009
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Maple Valley, WA
· Joined May 2009
· Points: 50
Version 1.4.0 (8/18/09) - Added line style selector - Added text background toggling To toggle the background on a text box, just have it selected and hit Ctrl + / Also, while the background is turned on, the text color is automatically adjusted to white or black based on what will contrast best with the selected background color. Let me know if you find anything I inadvertently broke. :)
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Nat Thiem
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Aug 18, 2009
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Boulder, CO
· Joined Sep 2008
· Points: 0
MHanson wrote:Nice work. Let me know if I missed it, but is there a way to delete things? I've also had problems with the delete feature. After selecting the offending object, as you describe, I've tried both pushing the delete key and using the edit menu to delete or cut. However, the program does not remove the object in either case. Is this perhaps a Mac bug?
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Alma Madsen
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Aug 18, 2009
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Maple Valley, WA
· Joined May 2009
· Points: 50
Nat Thiem wrote:Is this perhaps a Mac bug? Upon further inspection, it looks like part of the problem is the old mac keyboard I've been working on doesn't have the two delete keys as the new macs do. The one above the backslash is labeled "backspace" and the key to the right of the backslash is the delete key in reference. They are different keys, with different key codes, so they are programmed differently. I'll see what I can do to make both keys work for deleting items. Sorry for the confusion.
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verticon
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Aug 19, 2009
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Europe
· Joined Jul 2008
· Points: 25
The background color for the text and the two additional line types are very useful. Thank you for your work.
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rgold
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Aug 19, 2009
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Poughkeepsie, NY
· Joined Feb 2008
· Points: 526
Alma, you're better than the tooth fairy, who, reputation notwithstanding, doesn't always grant wishes. The latest version does just about everything one needs for making useful route diagrams. One remaining feature I'd like to see is the automatic saving of the data layer whenever a diagram is saved. I guess some folks might not like this because of the proliferation of files. So perhaps the best solution would be for the save command to bring up a dialog box asking whether or not to save the data layer (with the default being "yes," in my opinion). If the data layer is going to be saved, the program should automatically name it and then display the standard save dialog box, giving the user the opportunity to change the name of the data layer in case, for example, they want to create a history of edits, or perhaps want one data layer optimized for color rendition and another data layer optimized for black and white rendition. By the way, I think you could also drop a feature---namely, the basic photo editing functions. I would think that anyone doing this already has access to photo-editing software, which would typically be used to prepare the photo before using BetaCreator. Not to raise a possibly very touchy subject, but I for one think it is entirely appropriate for you to be paid at least a modest shareware fee for all your efforts...
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Alma Madsen
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Aug 19, 2009
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Maple Valley, WA
· Joined May 2009
· Points: 50
rgold wrote:One remaining feature I'd like to see is the automatic saving of the data layer whenever a diagram is saved. Well it just so happens I just completed 1.4.1 which includes this very feature. Originally I had a second save dialogue pop up for the data layer, after the image was saved, but I thought it might be confusing to some who might think the image didn't save correctly or something. I then changed it so the data file is just automatically saved as the same name as the image (but with a different extension). This however doesn't prompt you if it's overwriting another data file. :( I'll wait to release 1.4.1 until I get a little more feedback from you all as to which way you would prefer. Auto save and overwrite, or immediate second save dialogue for data file?
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verticon
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Aug 19, 2009
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Europe
· Joined Jul 2008
· Points: 25
Since you're asking for feedback on this one, sometimes I'd rather save different data files than overwrite the old ones. I use your program for drawing route guides, but also for planning trad projects, and very often the actual climbed route might look different than the project, so I'd like to have different data files for comparison. Thank you again for this program, which as rgold said "does just about everything one needs for making useful route diagrams"
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Jon Bitter
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Aug 19, 2009
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Waco, Tx
· Joined Aug 2009
· Points: 65
This is such an awesome tool. Thanks for all of your work setting it up, and also for posting all the topos in Rock Canyon. I will definitely be using this to post up topos of Am Fork and LCC. I hope you get lots of good karma for all this.
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rgold
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Aug 19, 2009
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Poughkeepsie, NY
· Joined Feb 2008
· Points: 526
Alma, I think it is a bad idea to automatically overwrite the data layer without giving the user the choice to intervene. My suggestion: upon saving, bring up a dialog box that says, "Route diagram saved. Replace previous data layer with current one?" This would have a yes/no option---I'd prefer "no" to be the default, but either works. If the user selects "no," then they get the standard save dialog box with the option to change the data layer name. If they select "yes," then the previous data layer is overwritten. The comment about the route diagram being saved is meant to allay user fears that appropriate saving may not have happened. There is a small problem with this (which I think users of free software will have no problem overlooking). The dialog really shouldn't refer to a "previous" data layer the first time the file is saved. Ideally, for the first save, there should be no dialog; after that a dialog like the one above would appear.
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Alma Madsen
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Aug 19, 2009
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Maple Valley, WA
· Joined May 2009
· Points: 50
rgold wrote:Not to raise a possibly very touchy subject, but I for one think it is entirely appropriate for you to be paid at least a modest shareware fee for all your efforts... Since you brought it up... I began this project as a free piece of software for the climbing community, and I would like to keep it that way. I think of it as my contribution to the sport. However, I have added a donate link with this release, so if you feel inclined to donate a little towards my first set of cams, please do. :) Also, I decided in favor of the second "Save As" prompt for data saving in conjunction with image saving. If this proves to cause problems for people I can add some sort of intermediate prompt as rgold suggests. Version 1.4.1 (8/19/09) - Added data export option to save panel - Both delete and backspace keys remove objects - Fixed bug with imported text with background - Added donate menu link - Other minor tweaks
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saxfiend
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Aug 19, 2009
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Decatur, GA
· Joined Nov 2006
· Points: 4,221
I finally downloaded your app after reading about it all this time; it's really quite nifty and easy to use. Thanks for sharing! JL
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Tristan Higbee
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Aug 19, 2009
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Pocatello, ID
· Joined Mar 2008
· Points: 2,970
I just downloaded the newest version after not having done so since the original release. Man. This thing is cool! One thing that would be nice but not at all necessary: using ctrl + the scroll wheel on the mouse to zoom in and out and/or an option where you can choose what percent of zoom to view the image (ex: 25%, 100%, 200%, etc). Again, great job.
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verticon
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Aug 20, 2009
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Europe
· Joined Jul 2008
· Points: 25
Just some ideas for further development(or some wishes for the Betamaster Fairy) :o) - a background color for the belay tool (the same option as for the text)? - some line editing tools like "explode" (for breaking the line into separate segments that can be than modified independently (color, pattern), or a tool for moving around the bending points of a line instead of moving the whole line. Of course, these tools would be active only if the line was not converted to curves. (Maybe some kind of Bezier tool for editing curves ?!)
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rgold
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Aug 20, 2009
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Poughkeepsie, NY
· Joined Feb 2008
· Points: 526
I'm pretty satisfied at this point with what you've got (of course one can always add features that will be useful). I do like the idea of being able to fill the belay symbols. Here is a very minor tweak that will, I think, be very helpful. When saving, the first save dialog box is for the .jpg, which is as it should be. When the second dialog box for the data layer comes up, it would be very nice if the default file name that is displayed would be the name for the .jpg with, instead, .bcd appended. What happens now is that the dialog box displays the .jpg file name in the data layer save dialog, which means that if you accidentally just accept the file name, the data layer overwrites the .jpg and you have no picture, just a data layer labeled as a .jpg. If you didn't sensibly have the original .jpg saved under some other name, you could permanently lose your picture this way.
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Alma Madsen
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Aug 20, 2009
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Maple Valley, WA
· Joined May 2009
· Points: 50
rgold wrote:What happens now is that the dialog box displays the .jpg file name in the data layer save dialog, which means that if you accidentally just accept the file name, the data layer overwrites the .jpg and you have no picture, just a data layer labeled as a .jpg. If you didn't sensibly have the original .jpg saved under some other name, you could permanently lose your picture this way. Hmmm... This doesn't happen for me when I test it (both Mac OS X and Windows XP). Instead the names are blank if it's the first save of the session and the names are the same as previous if saving again, but each keeps the right extension, and the correct file extension is added if you don't manually enter one (which I assume most aren't doing). Anyone else experiencing this problem? If so, what operating system are you running on your computer? Thanks.
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verticon
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Aug 20, 2009
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Europe
· Joined Jul 2008
· Points: 25
Win Xp SP3 here, no such problem. When I save the picture for the first time there's no default name or extension for it (the field is blank). The same for the data file. When I save it again, the program "remembers" the name of the file and displays it by default.
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