The Artrage Pen-Only Toolbar is ready!

[Meisie]

Steve, is the mediafire downoad the only option available at this time? It is a blocked domain on my server at this time.

[Steve B]

Meisei,
Let me look into that. I might be able to host an alternate download on File Factory. I've had some notes that some of the current download links aren't working, so I'll see what I can do.

[Steve B]

There's a new version of the Pen-Only Toolbar up. Go to the first to get the link. I've just subbed it in for where the old, original link went. I go over things there, but it includes--
1) Text to Speech capabilities for the Tool Tips and the Main Menu, for those who might need it
2) a new Drag and Drop method to start Hover Icons that is much much easier
3) some UI improvements to the Hover Icons in general

Don't forget- the Toolbar is totally usable with the new Workbench Mode, and provides a number of helpful additions to the native Artrage UI. For example, you can

-Resize to above 100 in Workbench Mode, using only your pen, with the Toolbar.
-place and access your Pods wherever you want in Workbench Mode, using the Hover Icons
-easily and quickly Select and Transform, Rotate, Repeat Undo and Redo, use the Eyedropper, Save, Flip Canvas, etc, etc. all in Workbench Mode, only using your pen.

Here's a few pics showing how some of these new features work.

This is the new window that appears the first time you use the new Toolbar.



Select how you want things to work, and go from there. Change your mind, and you can go into the Advanced Features to have access to the Audio and Visual Features.

This is how things work to access the Hover Icons with the new Drag and Drop Method.

Step 1-


Step 2-


Step 3-



And, of course, here the Toolbar is with Hover Icons activated, looking juicy and oh-so-useful in the Workbench Mode.


Hope you guys have fun with this. We've had a good time making it. I think it's a fantastic compliment to the new version of Artrage.

[Bobbyray]

Steve

I have lotsa room on the ArtRageUS website to host this for you if you want or need to.

Let me know. Lotsa exposure too that way.

BR [email protected]

[Saphire]

Will this work on a Mac or is it pc only

[Steve B]

PC only. AutohotKey (the language it's in, that lets the buttons talk to Artrage) is a PC only language, afaik. Sorry on that one. We've had people ask before, but the language was never translated or ported.

[markw]

Hi Steve B
First off, let me say I know very little about programming, so feel free to laugh heartily at these suggestions for possible ways of getting APOT onto Macs' someday. Maybe they're worth a look if you haven't already considered them.

1: IronAHK; this looks to me like a strait attempt at reproducing what AutoHotKey dose, but on Macs.
http://www.ironahk.net/

2: Project Sikuli; which looks like an attempt at achieving the same/similar ends but by a different route.
http://doc.sikuli.org/devs/system-design.html

[Steve B]

Hey MarkW,
I'm also not a programmer-- LOL! That's my teammate Luc. I design the UI and propose functions that would be useful to an artist, help decide if things function properly in the real world, test and bug hunt, and do this sort of "support" on the public face of things.

RE: Iron Hotkey. I've seen that before, but it looked like it never got all the way off the ground when I last looked (about 6 months ago). Perhaps it's changed since then?

I've not seen the other option, but it would be interesting to explore it. I know Luc has very little time as it is, and we're still developing this Toolbar more (looking at Radial Pop-Up Menus, Buttons that let you drag __on__ the button to zoom, resize, undo and redo, etc) all kinds of jazz-- and one for Paint Tool Sai, while exploring using modified versions for Photoshop or Sketchup Pro (a tool I use professionally). If anyone is curious about porting this to Mac, let us know, but the code is all there in the folders. It's open source.

[Claudine]

Hi,

Thank you for that very useful Toolbar. Is there a detailed user guide pdf ?

Is it possible to create such a toolbar ?

Thank you for your help !

[Steve B]

Hi Claudine,
Glad you found the toolbar!

We currently have no plans to set up the Toolbar as you are picturing it exactly though. This is mostly based on the issue one gets when one might try and use them in such a setup. Hover Icons are activated by hovering over them with your pen tip. Thus, if they are right next to each other, and you have to pass over one icon to get to another, you will unfortunately activate the wrong Hover Icon. As such, I usually place them towards the top of my screen, for example, in a row, but slightly spaced. This allows me to easily access all the Pods without making mistakes, while still saving screen real estate.

What you're showing is the Main Menu of the Toolbar, plus the various AR 4 Pods, correct? By the look of it, what you're wanting to figure out is how to get all your Pods to be viewable in a compact space, I take it. If you're not interested in the buttons that are generally on the main toolbar (Rotate, Undo/Redo, etc) but want access to only the Pods, I would suggest this-

-use the Main Toolbar Menu to create all the Hover Icons through the Drag and Drop Method
-use the Main Toolbar Menu to then minimize the toolbar itself to your tray
-use the Hover icons without the Toolbar being viewable (but still running in the background, powering the Hover Icons)
-place your Hover Icons where you want

I know that's not exactly what you were looking for, but I hope it's a work around that is still helpful for you.