Visual AGI Picture Editor

By Joakim Möller, 2003-11-08

Version 1.0.1407.2498

 

About

 

The Visual AGI Picture Editor is used to create AGI Picture resources, and is part of the Visual AGI editing suite. Please visit the Visual AGI website for more information.

 

For information about AGI, please visit the AGI Development Site.

 

Prerequisites

 

You need to have Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 or higher installed to run this software. Find more information about this here.

 

Installation

 

Just put the “AGI Picture Editor.exe” and “AGIHelper.dll” files in the same folder and run “AGI Picture Editor.exe” by double-clicking it.

 

Known Bugs and Missing Features

 

 

How to…

 

Draw

 

Select a tool from the ToolBar, left-click in the Drawing Tab window to add control points to the command and finally right-click to finish the drawing command. Try to keep the number of commands down by adding several control points to a single command.

Select

 

Choose the "Select" command in the toolbar to enable selection of points on the current command. You can then left-click and drag the points to change lines and fills. You can also right-click on a selected point to bring up a context menu.

Add a control point

 

Select the point where you would like to insert an additional control point. Choose “Add point” from the context menu by right-clicking it, or select it from the Edit menu. The new point will be selected, and you can move it to a new position.

Move a control point

 

By clicking and holding a control point (marked with X’s), you can move it around by moving your mouse. The screen will instantly redraw your changed control point, which is good for example showing how a fill will look like.

Move a command

 

If you need to move a command in the stack, use the thumb to navigate to the command you want to move. Choose “Cut” from the Edit menu, context menu or press CTRL-X. Navigate to where you would like the command to be moved, and choose “Paste” from the Edit menu, context menu or press CTRL-V.

Optimize a command

 

The optimize tool is an advanced, recursive routine to convert Absolute Lines into less space consuming commands available in AGI. It will automatically detect and convert to XCorner, YCorner and Relative Line if the conversion will save as little as one byte. 

Open a background image for tracing

 

Choose “File->Open” or click the toolbar button named Open. In “Files of Type”, select “Background Image”. Choose a compatible image and click on OK to open it. Use the menu item “Tools->Show background” to change visible state. BMP, JPG, GIF, TIFF and EXIF is supported as background images.

 

Reference

 

Main window

 

The main window consists of the Main Menu, ToolBar, Drawing Tabs, Zoom Tabs, TrackBar and StatusBar.

 

Main Menu

 

File – New                                Creates a new AGI Picture resource

File – Open                              Opens an AGI Picture or a background image

File – Save                               Saves the current AGI Picture to file

File – Save As                         Saves the current AGI Picture to file with a different name, or as a bitmap. (BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF)

File – Quit                                 Exits Visual AGI Picture Editor

 

Edit – Add Point                      Adds a control point to the current command. You must select ONE control point first, and the new point will be added to the same position.

Edit – Delete Point(s)             Deletes the currently selected control points. If all points of a command is selected, the whole command will be deleted.

Edit – Command – Cut          Cuts the currently selected command and places it to clipboard

Edit – Command – Paste      Pastes the previous cut command to the current stack position

Edit – Command – Delete     Deletes the currently selected command

Edit – Command – Optimize         Tries to optimize the currently selected command

 

Tools – Optimize All               Tries to optimize all of the commands in the stack

Tools – Snap to Points           Enable/disable control point snap

Tools – Show Background    Enable/disable viewing the background image

Tools – Set zoom level           Changes the zoom level of the main drawing area (1x, 2x, 3x, 4x)

 

ToolBar

 

New                                           Creates a new AGI Picture

Open                                         Opens an AGI Picture from file

Save                                          Saves the current AGI Picture to file

Select                                        Enable control point selection

Line                                           Selects the Line command

Fill                                              Selects the Fill command

Visual Draw                             Allows you to select a Visual color or disable Visual drawing

Priority Draw                            Allows you to select a Priority color or disable Priority drawing

 

Drawing Tabs

 

Visual                                        Displays the Visual layer of the AGI Picture

Priority                                       Displays the Priority layer of the AGI Picture

 

Zoom Tabs

 

Visual                                        Displays a zoomed portion of the Visual layer

Priority                                       Displays a zoomed portion of the Priority layer

Background                             Displays a zoomed portion of the Background layer

 

TrackBar

 

Moving the thumb will move through the command stack that makes up this AGI Picture. The screen will draw from left to right, so be careful in which order you put your commands. You cannot for example fill on any non-white (Visual) or non-red (Priority) areas.

 

StatusBar

 

The StatusBar shows information about the current stack position, currently selected command and mouse coordinates.