New Features in xfig 3.2.4
New Libraries and Examples

# New Features in xfig 3.2.4

The xfig documentation is nearly entirely GIF-free (TM). Only the frames images use GIF because they use a transparent background, which many browsers don't honor. PNG is used for all other images.

Xfig reference manual now available in PDF besides html. The English version is in Doc/xfig_en.pdf and the Japanese in Doc/xfig_jp.pdf. These are also available in the Help menu.

Binary and source RPM files available for systems with rpm (RedHat Package Manager).

Dimension lines - Hold the shift key down while drawing a polyline, and after specifying the two endpoints a "dimension line" is created, which is actually a compound object containing the line drawn (with arrowheads if auto arrow mode is on) in the current color, "tick" lines at each endpoint, text showing the length of the line in the current units, and a box around the text filled in the current fill color. If this compound object is rescaled or one or more endpoints are moved, the actual length is recalculated and the text is updated.

New Xfig logo courtesy of Marc-Aurele Darche.

Can now paste text in text mode using Shift+Middle-mouse-button in addition to F20 and Sun's Paste key (F18).

If xfig is compiled with #define WHEELMOUSE uncommented in the Imakefile, the wheel may be used for several things (see Miscellaneous/Wheel Mouse).

New grid/positioning option for inches mode: -grid_unit. If the value given is "1/10", "ten", "tenth", "1/10" or "10", (e.g. -grid_unit ten) then the grid and point positioning is in decimal inches. Otherwise they are in 1/16 inch units (as before). When in this mode, the grid step sizes are 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 1 inch and the positioning steps are 0.05, 0.10, 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 inch.

Background (-g to fig2dev) option for tk export honored now.

New command-line argument -correct_font_size (X resource Fig.correct_font_size) to make xfig use real points for font sizes instead of units of 1/80 inch. xfig has always claimed that the font size units are points (1/72inch), but in fact they were 1/80 inch. This new option is not the default because it will break some figures by making the text too large compared to other Fig objects, but it will be the default in a future version. The corresponding argument to fig2dev is -F (xfig automatically sets this when calling fig2dev).

Added "Stop" button to stop loading library.

Much more efficient when copying large imported pictures - existing pixmap is used instead of creating new one. This also precludes the need to remap colors when running out of colors when the colors are identical.

When changing an attribute of an imported picture that doesn't change the picture itself (e.g. depth), the pixmap is not regenerated, therefore saving time. The same is true when copying a picture.

New X resource Fig.ghostscript and command-line argument -ghostscript by which you can tell xfig what your ghostscript is called (e.g. "gs" or "gswin32").

Can now add ASCII (EPSI) preview to EPS export. See export panel.

Can now add monochrome or color TIFF preview to EPS export. This is needed by Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, etc. to display the EPS on the screen. Select from the pulldown menu of export languages. You must have fig2dev 3.2.4 for these features. See export panel.

Translations of LATEX.AND.XFIG document into two popular Chinese encodings (GB2312 and Big5). These are called LATEX.AND.XFIG.zh_CN and LATEX.AND.XFIG.zh_TW respectively. From Mendel Chan

When text becomes too small to see (e.g. small zoom), xfig will "Greek" it, meaning it draws a gray line segment for each word in the string.

When resizing canvas to a smaller height, the number of buttons per row of the mode (side) panel increases so that it doesn't protrude into the indicator (bottom) panel

Smarter redraw when turning on depths from the depth manager. If depth N is turned on and there are no active depths < N, only depth N is drawn - otherwise, the canvas is erased and the whole figure is redrawn.

If the user's pointer (mouse) buttons are switched (usually 3 2 1) xfig will automatically flip the mouse hints messages. This overrides the -flipvisualhints command-line argument.

If the user clicks on or modifies an existing text, and presses return, the new text on the next line will use the attributes of the first text instead of the attributes from the indicator panel.

Note in README and Imakefile about not casually setting the DESTDIR make variable.

Picture objects are drawn as filled gray boxes when their layer is inactive in gray mode.

xfig no longer requires fonts that are named "-adobe-..." (e.g. for RedHat systems with URW fonts).

Updating the attribute panel from a compound object will retrieve (only) the smallest depth from the compound.

When scaling an object, the line thickness is no longer scaled with it

New measuring modes: angle, length and area. See Measure Angle/length/area. From Alex Durner.

New feature to add tangents and normal lines to curves. See Add Tangent. From Alex Durner.

Splash screen on startup. Disable with -nosplash (resource Fig.splash). Interior logo by Marc-Aurčle Darche.

New command-line option -grid_color (resource grid_color) to set the color of the canvas grid (default: red).

New option to print grid when exporting or printing (see printing/ exporting section in html docs).

When drawing an arc by specifying the center point, a circle is drawn showing the radius of the arc as the user drags the mouse, then when the first end point is clicked an arc is drawn as the mouse is dragged. The user then clicks in the direction the arc should go, followed by the final angle to complete it.

If the Ruler unit is Imperial (in), you may have xfig display measurements using fractions where possible. If a measurement can be shown as an integer multiple of 64ths of an inch (or 32nds, 16ths, etc.) it will show it as such (e.g. 3-5/64 in), otherwise a decimal value will be shown (e.g. 3.085 in).

When opening a compound object, if the middle button us used to open the compound, all other objects on the canvas are kept visible. From Alex Durner.

When opening a compound object, the "point positioning" indicator is enabled, allowing you to set the bounds of the compound according to the indicator when you close the compound.

Zero-crossing lines on canvas have own command-line parameter (-zero_lines) and resource (Fig.zero_lines) for setting color separate from page border color.

Smooth factor when exporting to bitmap format is now a pull-down menu with: No smoothing, Some smoothing, More smoothing.

When flipping compound objects with text, a vertical flip will now shift the text to maintain its relative position to the other objects in the compound and its angle is rotated by 180 degrees minus the original angle. This behavior will for example, keep the orientation of a text inside a polygon consistent with the polygon. A horizontal flip of a compound containing text will change the angle in the same way.

Three-D borders for buttons, etc reduced from 2 to 1 pixel for "lean" look (resource Fig*shadowWidth in Fig-color.ad).

Additional JPEG file format (EXIF) added for import. These usually come from digital cameras.

Validation for integer spinners - doesn't allow non-numeric input when typing in values directly.

When scaling an object, the scale factor is shown in the message. window in addition to the width/height. From Alex Durner.

New url for pstoedit (mentioned in installation.html).

When picking points of an object at high zoom, the tolerance has been reduced to make it easier to pick the correct point.

When "graying" inactive depths, the inactive objects are drawn first followed by active objects ensuring visibility of active objects.

xfig now draws "grayed out" picture objects (inactive depth) as a gray box with the filename only.

Line style in edit panel now shows graphic of style instead of textual description.

Cap style in edit panel was inadvertantly left off open-splines.

Popup dialog to edit behavior of spline point now pops up near the point being edited.

When cancelling drawing a picture object from the popup editor, the empty object is removed rather than showing a <empty> in the box.

Pressing Return or Escape in popup message window will dismiss it.

In picture browser popup, double clicking or clicking and pressing Return will apply the selected picture AND close the browser.

New popup query if updating the depth in a compound object would result in any depth exceeding the maximum. The popup gives the user the option to cancel the depth update part. From Marcus Eger (eger.m@gmx.de)

More consistent placement of Cancel/Ok/Set etc. buttons in dialogs. Generally, the Cancel button is first followed by the others, and where possible, they are at the bottom of the dialog.

More meaningful message "Cut buffer is empty" if there is no .xfig file in the user's home directory.

New MetaPost driver for TransFig 3.2.4 supported.

New option for binary CGM export (must have TransFig 3.2.4 too). The ralcgm program is required for this option. See ftp://ftp.cc.rl.ac.uk/pub/graphics/ralcgm/

In popup edit panel for compound objects, one may easily shift a compound object by changing either corner's x, y values and pressing return or scale it by changing the width and/or height and pressing return.

"condensed" alias for "narrow" fonts (urw changed their helvetica- narrow to helvetica-condensed).

Pressing escape in a popup dialog will dismiss it

Zoom/Unzoom (Shift-Z/z) changes zoom by a factor of 1.5 instead of adding or subtracting 1 from the zoom value. Also, the zoom/unzoom is centered on the canvas.

Exporting to JPEG doesn't require compiling with USE_JPEG defined in Imakefile.

Minimum and maximum depths of objects in a compound are displayed in popup edit panel.

Rulers show units now every 10 units (e.g. 0cm, 10cm, ...)

"Front" and "Back" labels in depth manager to show relative positioning of depths on drawing.

If you wish to place a library object at the position it was originally created, e.g. for laser printer labels, hold down the Shift key and press mouse button 3 (`place at orign posn') to place it.

New URL for chemtool, a chemical structure editor: http://ruby.chemie.uni-freiburg.de/~martin/chemtool/chemtool.html

Named styles where user can save attributes that are often used for quick access. For example, the user may want dashed, thick, red lines often so he can save those attributes and call it (e.g.) "thickred", and easily call it up later. See the View/Manage Styles...) menu entry.

The minimum and maximum depth of objects are shown in the edit panel for compound objects

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) beta driver (for TransFig/fig2dev) from Anthony Starks with major improvements by Martin Kroeker (martin@ruby.chemie.uni-freiburg.de). Some caveats when using Mozilla-SVG to view these:

1. the file must be exported with magnification = 6.6% (0.066 in fig2dev) to scale to screen coords
2. the file suffix must be ".xml"

EMF (Enhanced Metafile) export driver (TransFig/fig2dev) based on CGM driver. Converted by M. Schrick

# New Libraries and Examples

Examples moved to Libraries/Examples so they are installed in a convenient place for viewing (via the library feature)

Poster advertizing German version of "Little Shop of Horrors" in Libraries/Examples/poster.fig. From Kai-Martin Knaak

Three new Examples from Carlo Kopp (in Libraries/Examples):
Python-4.fig - RAFAEL Python 4 all aspect agile heatseeking missile
YF-23A.fig - Development example of the USAF's Northrop-MDC YF-23A
tsr2-side.fig - Notional camouflages for BAC TSR.2 production aircraft.

Over 160 new country flags in the Libraries/Flags directory. Now organized by region of the world (e.g. Africa, Oceania).

New flags of Bosnia and Slovenia with vector coat of arms in Libraries/Flags directory from Roman Maurer

New maps of Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia

New Avery label templates in Libraries/Labels directory, including a CD label, Avery_5931, done by William Chimiak.

New Avery and PerfectData Corp CD label templates in Libraries/Labels directory, done by Len Hickey.

New computers and printers in Libraries/Computers library from Ernst Pisch

New network library devices Extreme Networks Inc. Black Diamond and Summit 5i network switches, Net Gear Hub, and new CODECs in Audiovisual library from Bill Chimiak

New DSP component library from Jakub Stastny (stastnj1@volny.cz)

Standard welding bevels library from Erik Engh (Libraries/Welding)

Canadian map from Seymour Green.

A Uno hand (card game) drawn by Roland Rosendfeld (Libraries/Examples/uno_hand.fig)

[ Contents | Introduction | Credits ]