Copyright: Copyright ©1998/2002 Xara Ltd.
Citation: Xara3D program ©2002 Xara Ltd.


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2D Objects are two dimensional objects imported in Windows metafile (WMF & EMF) format or Xara WEB & XAR format. Use Import on the File menu to import 2D objects. Or use Import button if you want to use the object as a button shape.


3D buttons
Creating buttons

You can use Xara3D to produce instant 3D buttons in a variety of shapes.

To create a button

1.	Click Button options (the U button). This opens the Button Options dialog box.

2.	Select Button in the dialog box. This creates a button showing the current text wording. The colors, texture, extrude and bevel of the button are the current settings.

3.	Select a button shape from the drop-down list (see Notes).

If the button doesn't have the right bevel or extrude depth, you can edit these in the regular way.

Notes:

ALT+U or Button on the Options menu also displays the Buttons dialog box.

For extra button shapes click Import button on the dialog box. This displays the Buttons folder. You can also add your own button shapes to this folder; this makes them easily available for future use - details.

You can also import a 2D shape and use it to create a 3D button - more details.

After creating a button you can edit the wording in the regular way. See Altering the text. (But see the next Note.)

See this page for details of changing the text size or position on the button.

Related topics

Buttons


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Adding comments to X3D files

You can store comments (descriptive notes) in Xara3D format (X3D) files. These formats are just for information - they have no effect on the appearance of the 3D heading. You see these comments in the Save, Open and Import dialog boxes.

To add a comment:

1.	Choose Add comment on the Edit menu (or type CTRL+M).

2.	Type in the comments.

To start a new line type CTRL+ENTER.

3.	Click OK to add the comments. Saving the heading saves the comments in the X3D file.


Altering effects on selected characters
Altering the effects applied to individual characters

You can alter any of the effects (such as color or extrude depth) applied to an individual character or selected group of characters. This lets you give, for example, one character a different bevel shape to the other characters in the heading.

Altering the effects:

1.	Select the character or characters you want to alter - more details.

2.	 While the characters are selected, any changes you make apply only to those characters.

Related topics

Altering characters


Altering the 3D extrude

Pressing the E button (or ALT+E on the keyboard) displays the Extrusion Options dialog box. This lets you change the extrude 3D depth.

More information on the Extrude Options dialog box.


Altering the Bevel

To adjust the bevel (the type of corner applied to edges):

1.	Press the B button to display the Bevel dialog box.

2.	Select from the list of bevel types (see Notes).

Set the bevel size by typing into Depth.

Select Miter or Round (see notes).

Notes:

ALT+B also displays the Bevel dialog box.

Bevels go along the sides, not the face. So, for example, selecting the 'Curved' bevel produces a budge effect to the extruded part. This also means the bevel takes the color of the sides. (The color of the face can be different to the color of the sides.)

Square Faced & Square Cornered bevels are particularly effective when the sides are a different color to the face. This can give the effect of a two-colored face to the text.

Beveled objects are slower to display than objects with no bevel.

The Miter and Round options affect the corners of objects. Usually text has sharp mitered corners, but you can round the corners by selecting Round. This is usually only obvious for fonts that have sharp corners or serifs. (Selecting Display as Flash on the View menu dims these buttons as Flash vector format supports only Miters - more on cresting Flash files.)

You can apply a different bevel to a part of the text. Select the characters you want and then change the bevel.


Altering the background color or texture

To use a flat color as the background behind the text:

1.	Choose Background Color from the View menu. This displays the Color Options dialog box.

To use a bitmap texture as the background:

1.	Choose Background Texture from the View menu.

You can also drag-and-drop textures onto the background.

Bitmap texture backgrounds are useful where you want a 3D text heading to appear on a web page that has a texture background.  Using the same bitmap as the web page background ensures that any 3D heading 'fits in' with the whole page background. You can import any BMP, ICO, PNG, JPEG or GIF file as a background and Xara3D repeats this (tiles it) in exactly the same way as a Web browser.

After choosing a texture you can move it relative to the the text. Either drag on the background (not the text) or, for more precise control, use the Texture dialog box.

Note for Version 2 users:

The texture is now stored in the X3D file. If you give the X3D file to someone, you no longer need to give them the texture file as well.


Altering the font

Use the drop down list on the Text Toolbar (at the bottom of the window) to alter the font. Any installed TrueType font is available in the font list. With Xara3D you may find that some of the more unusual block and ‘curvy’ fonts work particularly well.

Click B (or press CTRL+B) to make the text bold.

Click I (or press CTRL+I) to make the text italic..

Notes:

You can also click the T button at the top of the window to display the Text options dialog box. This lets you preview the different fonts installed on your computer. Click on a font name and use the up/down cursor (arrow) keys on the keyboard to step up and down the list of fonts.

You can apply a different font to a part of the text. Select the characters you want and then change the font.


Altering the lights

Xara3D has three lights shining on the objects. These lights can be any position and color.

To view the lights:

1. Press the ‘light bulb’ button. (You can also press CTRL+TAB.)

This shows the three lights, represented by colored arrows. A fourth arrow (striped arrow) controls the position of the shadow.

To change the color of a light:

1.	Double click the appropriate light arrow. Or select from the View menu.

This displays the Color Options dialog box.

Details of changing the color of the shadow.

To reposition a light:

1. Drag the arrow. This rotates the light around the text object.

To move a light behind the objects, just keep dragging right or left until it rotates behind the objects.

Notes:

An alternative way to control the light colors is right-click on the window. Or use the View menu. Either brings up a pop-up menu that lets you control the lights as well as colors or bitmap textures.

You can rotate the lights in some animation types - see Creating an animation.


Altering the Shadow

Xara 3D includes an advanced shadow tool that can give a very realistic effect of the object hanging in front of a surface. The position of the shadow is controlled by one of the arrows in the lighting control. The shadow blur and darkness is controlled from the Shadow Dialog Box - click the S button. You can even control the color of the shadow for special effects.

Notes:

GIFs with shadows are usually larger than with no shadow. Also the further the shadow is away from the text, or the more blurred, the larger the file. To get the most realistic shadow effects on your web page, ensure the Xara3D background matches that of the web page. See Shadows and Backgrounds for details.

Selecting Display as Flash on the View menu disables shadow options because Macromedia Flash vector format does not support shadows. More details.

What do you want to do...

adjust the shadow position?

blend the shadow into a background?

display or remove the shadow?

change the shadow style (type)?

change the shadow color?

change the shadow transparency?

change the shadow blur?


Altering the text

Maximum number of characters: 120

You can either directly edit the text in the window or use the Text Options dialog box. Text Options is easier to use when editing complex text that is slow to redraw on screen. Click the T button to open the Text Options dialog box (or press ALT+T.)

What do you want to do...

add characters to the end of the text?

delete characters from the end of the text?

start a new line?

add or delete characters in the middle of a line?

change only selected characters?

change the spacing between characters?

make characters wider or narrower?

change the height of selected characters?

change the spacing between lines of text?

change the alignment of lines of text?

make text hollow (outlined)?

type in accented (international) characters?

start a new page in a multipage animation?

merge two pages in a multipage animation?

move or resize the text on a 3D button?


Altering the text color

You can make the text any color. This color is then modified by the three lights shining on the text.

Changing the text color:

1.	Choose Text Color on the View menu. This displays the Color Options dialog box. (Or double-click on the text.)

2.	Select the color you want. (See Notes.)

If you select anything but a very light or pale color you'll find the light colors have relatively little effect.

Note that you can use the same color on the faces (front/back) as on the sides. Or you can have the faces a different color to the sides and bevel. Select the required option from the drop-down list in the Color Options dialog box.

Shiny or matt text surface

The surface of the text can be shiny or matt - this alters the reflectivity of the surface. The Extrude dialog box controls this. Press the E button (or ALT+E on the keyboard) to display this dialog box.

However the difference won't always be obvious unless the lights are at the necessary angle to reflect off the surface. This is usually by moving a light behind the text (keep dragging the light right or left so it goes behind) so it can reflect off the surface of the text.

Notes

You can apply a different color to a part of the text. Select the characters you want and then change the color. Note you can tint a texture to change its color slightly.

The sides (and bevels) can be a different color to the face of the text.

If you are creating a 3D button, select Button text to change the text color. The front and sides options change the button colors.

Changing the color automatically removes any texture already applied to the text or background. Select Texture to reapply the texture.

If you want to tint a texture (modify its color), select Texture and Tint.

See also:

Coloring the text using a texture


Animation dialog box

You can create Animated GIFs and AVI movies using Xara3D. You can preview the effect of the current Animation settings by clicking Start/Stop Animation on the Toolbar. More details of creating animations.

To display this dialog box:

1.	Either click Animation Options on the Toolbar at the side of the window

or choose Animate on the Options menu

or press ALT+A.

Frames per cycle

Dimmed for Step animations, Typewriter animations and Pulse animations.

This is the number of frames for each complete cycle through the animation sequence. The greater the number of frames the smoother the animation. The drawback is that the file is bigger - this is a big disadvantage for web graphics. You may need to try different values to get the best results.

Multipage animations: this is the number of frames for each page.

Frames per second

Dimmed for Step animations, Typewriter animations and Pulse animations..

The animation speed. Slow speeds can give jerky movement. High speeds can also give jerky movement as the program displaying the animation may not be able to keep up. Again you may need to try different values.

Pause

You can pause Animated GIFs, screen savers and Flash movies but not AVI movies.

This pauses the first frame before continuing the rest of the animation. Type in a value in centiseconds (1/100ths of a second) - a 2 second pause is 200 cs. Note that this applies only to the first frame; use Frames per cycle and Frames per second to control the overall speed of the animation.

Multipage animations: Pause applies to each page in the animation.

Loop

This applies to Animated GIFs only.

This lets you specify how many times the animation should repeat itself. Note that some browsers take any value other than 1 to mean 'loop forever'. Therefore, your animation either plays once or forever. Other browsers may display the animation correctly.

Style

This controls the type of animation:

Rotate options:

Rotate 1 rotates all the text as one; Rotate 2 rotates each character. (Buttons have a single Rotate option.)

Front face only - normally the animation shows only the front face of the text and not the back. This looks better and makes the exported file smaller (because there's only half the number of frames.)

Rotate text/Rotate lights - select whether you want the text to rotate or the lights or both. You cannot rotate the shadow as this would create very large files.

Direction - selects the direction of rotation.

Swing options:

Swing 1 swings all the text as one; Swing 2 swings each character. (Buttons have a single Swing option.)

Angle - how much you want the heading to swing.

Angle check box - when selected the heading rotates through 180º. This button mainly applies to multipage animations. With Angle selected, the animation moves to the next page after each complete rotation (a complete left & right or up & down cycle). With Angle unselected,  the change to the next page is at the start of each swing (for example, as the heading starts to swing left and then again as it starts to swing right). This means you can create animations with half the number of frames as with Angle selected.

Direction - selects the plane of rotation. Clockwise only has an effect if you Pause the animation.

Pulsate options:

Pulsate 1 pulsates all the text as one; Pulsate 2 pulsates each character. (Buttons have a single Pulsate option.)

Minimum text size - how far back to pulsate the text.

Shrink+Grow & Grow+Shrink - only have an effect if you Pause the animation. These options select the starting point for the animation (maximum or minimum.)

Overlap pages: this applies to multipage animations. With Overlap pages unchecked, you see each page separately in sequence. When checked, each page pulsate out of the previous page.

Fade options:

Fade in - the heading emerges from the background color.

Fade out - the heading merges into the background color.

Step options:

This displays a series of static (non-rotation) headings in a multipage animation.

Frame duration - how long to display each page in the animation.

Typewriter options:

The text appears as sequential characters, the same effect as you would get by typing in the characters.

Frame duration - the delay between characters.

Pulse options:

This enlarges or shrinks each character in turn through the text message.

Frame duration - how long to display each character for.

Size - the percentage size of the pulsed character. 100% is no change.

Wave options:

An option for Rotate 2, Swing, and Pulsate animation types. Wave is particularly effect with Pulsate.

Wave looks best with longer lines of text. The effect is that of a wave flowing along the text.

% - how large to make the wave.

Direction - the wave direction for single line headings is only horizontal. (Both buttons dimmed.) The wave direction for multiple line headings wave is either horizontal or vertical

Direction - .

Import animation:

This lets you import the animation settings from another X3D heading.

Related topics:

Animations


Bevel dialog box

The bevels are the joins between the face and sides of the 3D objects, More details on using bevels.

To display this dialog box:

1.	Either click Bevel Options on the Toolbar at the side of the window

or choose Bevels on the Options menu

or press ALT+B.

Bevel types

Select from the list. Macromedia Flash vector format does not support all bevel types so selecting Display as Flash shows a smaller list of bevel types.

Miter/Round

These affect the corners of the letters. Miter gives square edges; Round rounded edges. Which you use depends on the effect you want. (Selecting Display as Flash on the View menu dims these buttons as Flash vector format supports only Miters - more on creating Flash files.)

Depth

This is the depth (size) of the bevel.


Button aspect ratio
Making buttons wider or narrower

By default the width of Xara3D buttons is the same as the height. You can change the button to make it wider or narrower (change the aspect ratio).

To change a button's aspect ratio

1. Click Button options (the U button). This opens the Button Options dialog box.

2. Use Stretch to set a different aspect ratio (width:height). 100% creates buttons with the same width as height; above 100% makes the button wider.

If the button doesn't have the right bevel or extrude depth, you can edit these in the regular way.

Notes:

ALT+U or Button on the Options menu also displays the Buttons dialog box.

See this page for details of making the text wider or narrower.

Related topics

Buttons


Button corners
Changing the corner radius of buttons

You can alter the radius of the corner of Xara3D buttons. Alternatively you can make the corners square (no radius).

To change the corner radius

1. Click Button options (the U button). This opens the Button Options dialog box.

2. Use Corners to set the radius (curvature) of the corners. 100% is the default radius; above 100% increases the radius.

Deselect Corners for the default radius.

Notes:

ALT+U or Button on the Options menu also displays the Buttons dialog box.

Deselecting Corners (or using small corners) for the Rounded option creates a diamond.

This option is dimmed for imported button shapes.

Related topics

Buttons


Button dialog box

To display this dialog box:

1.	Either click Button Options on the Toolbar at the side of the window

or choose Button on the Options menu

or press ALT+U.

Macromedia Flash vector format does not support buttons. Selecting Display as Flash on the View menu dims all button options.

Button

Select this to create a button with the current text in the center.

Drop-down list

Select the required button shape.

Stretch

At 100% the button has the same width as height. Below 100% the width is less than the height. More details.

Corners

Check Corners if you want rounded corners to the button. You can then change the radius by typing into the text field. 100% is the default radius for the selected button type. More details.

Import button

Import a 2D shape (Windows metafile WMF/EMF, Xara WEB/XAR) or Xara3D XAR file as the button shape. More details.

Related topics

Buttons


CD
Resources on the CD version

The CD is mailed to you when you purchase Xara3D. The CD contains extra examples, textures, and fonts.

Example 3D graphics

Example 2D graphics

Textures

Fonts: there's a range of extra fonts. See Installing fonts.

Tutorial movie

To access these folders on the CD:

1.	Load the Xara3D CD in the CD drive.

2.	Double-click the My Computer icon. This displays the drives on your computer.

3.	Right-click (do not double-click) on the CD icon. This displays a menu.

4.	Choose Open - this displays the contents of the CD.

5.	Double-click on the folder you want to use.

You can use the examples and textures either direct from the CD or copy them to your hard drive. Copying all the examples and textures requires about 40Mb of hard disc space. Do you see several files with the same name?

You must install the fonts before you can use them - details of installing fonts.


Example 2D graphics

These are in the 2DShapes folder. You can use these examples to create 3D buttons or as extruded shapes. Customize to your requirements and then export. Simple.

Examples are divided into categories to make navigation easier.


Many of the examples have long descriptive names such as "Hollowed Red.x3d" and "Hollowed Blue.x3d". This makes it easier to identify them. Unfortunately some older CD drivers limit filenames to a maximum of 8 characters (plus suffix). If you have drivers like this you see both files as "Hollowed.x3d". This is beyond the control of Xara3D. Check with your local dealer to see if there are updated drivers available.


Example 3D graphics

These are in the Examples folder. You can use these examples as templates for your own heading. Find an example similar to the heading you want to create. Customize it to your requirements and then export it. Simple.

Examples are divided into categories to make navigation easier.


Textures:

These can be used either on the face of your headings or as backgrounds behind them. Textures are regular GIF files so you can use them as background on your web pages.

Using textures to color headings

Using background textures

Textures are divided into Coarse (very large patterning), Medium, and Fine (small patterning.) These are subdivided into high contrast (large color changes), middle, and low contrast (subtle color changes.)

Wood & Stone are collections of textures based on wooden or stone/gravel photographs. All these textures are duplicated in the Coarse, Medium, or Fine folders.

Words are text messages that you can use to create 3D buttons. Xara3D includes a range of button shapes (more details). You can also import your own shapes (see Importing 2D objects) and then use these textures to add a message. There's more details on the web site at www.xara.com/support/xara3d/helpv5/techniques.html


Changing button size

After creating a Xara3D button you can resize it in the regular way by either

resizing the window

or selecting a point size from Font size on the Text Toolbar.

You can also resize the text - more details.

Related topics

Buttons


Changing the Default document

(The Default document is the document you see when you click New.)

1.	Open a new document.

2.	Make the changes you want (for example, changing the text).

3.	Choose Save as Default on the File menu.

To restore the original Default document, delete the file Default.x3d in the folder where you installed Xara3D.

Related Topics:

Customizing Xara3D


Changing the short-cut
Changing the short cut

Installing Xara3D places a short cut to the program in the top level of the Programs menu.

To move the short cut to a submenu:

1.	Right click on the Start menu on the Taskbar and select Open.

2.	Double-click on Programs. This displays the contents of the top level menu with Xara3D shown at the bottom.

3.	To move Xara3D to another folder simply drag-and-drop it over the desired folder.

To create a short cut on the Windows desktop:

1.	You can drag the Xara3D icon onto the Desktop to create a short cut for launching the program.


Color Options dialog box

The Color Options dialog box lets you select any hue and any shade of color.

To display this dialog box:

1.	Either click Color Options on the Toolbar at the side of the window

or choose Color on the Options menu.

To select a color for editing:

1.	Select from the drop-down list at the top of this dialog box.

Note that you have three options for the text: edit both the faces and the sides, the faces only, or the sides only.

The current color is displayed in the square on the right of the dialog box. This square shows hatching if the text uses multiple colors.

To adjust the shade:

1. Click or drag on the central area of the Color Options dialog box. You'll see the exact color in the top right corner of the dialog box.

To alter the hue:

1. Click or drag on the rainbow strip along the lower part of the dialog box.

HSV and RGB

If you want a exact color type in values:

HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) Hue is a color wheel with values in the range 0-360 degrees. Saturation and Value are percentages.

RGB (Red, Green, Blue) Enter values in the range 0-255 or 0-FF (see Hex below.)

You can create the same range of colors using either HSV or RGB - use the one you are familiar with.

Hex

You can define RGB colors as either 0-255 (Hex off) or 0-FF (Hex on.) These are identical (256 steps), just different ways of showing the same value.

Many color lists show RGB colors as six characters such as FF057F. You can type this directly into the # field..

Texture:

Select this if you want to display a bitmap texture on the face of the text or the background. You can use Text texture or Background texture on the View menu or the Texture Options dialog box to select a texture. (This duplicates the Texture button in the Texture Options dialog box.)

Macromedia Flash vector format does not support textures. Selecting Display as Flash on the View menu dims all texture options.

Tint:

(Dimmed unless Texture selected. This duplicates the Tint button in the Texture Options dialog box.)

Unselected: display the original colors of the texture bitmap.

Selected: tint (modify) the bitmap colors by the color selected in this dialog box. Note that dark colors can hide detail in the bitmap.


Contents
Help for Xara3D

Welcome to Xara3D, a ‘slimware’ program that produces both still and animated super high quality 3D headings, graphics, logos and buttons.

This Help is deliberately simple and lacking illustrations to keep the download size small. An enhanced version of the user documentation is available on-line at www.xara.com/support/xara3d/helpv5/

The web site also contains extra support information such as tutorials, introductory movie and FAQs - see www.xara.com/support/xara3d/

(Blue text and [image] denote links to an Internet page; click to go to that page.)

Getting Started:

These pages help you when you first install Xara3D.

Introduction

The basics

The free fonts included with Xara3D

Moving the Xara3D short-cut

Purchasing Xara3D

What's New in Version 5

Resources on the CD

License terms

How do I...?

Use these pages if you want to find out how to do something in Xara3D.

What does this do?

Use these pages to find out more about the menu options or the dialog boxes.

Other information

Customizing Xara3D

Direct3D

Keyboard short cuts

Hidden and advanced options

Technical Support

Version 5.01 August 2002

All trademarks acknowledged.

Xara, Xara X, Xara Webster and Xara3D are trademarks of Xara Ltd.

Flash is a trademark of Macromedia Inc.

Adobe and Photoshop are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated

Geotype, Greek Diner, Russel Write, and Whimsy fonts kindly provided by Gary David Bouton.

Many of the WMF symbols on the CD are letters from EFF fonts - Creatures, Chess, Symphony, Picturesque, Birdie and ArrowPi - which are some of the variety of quality fonts from the EFF range which can be purchased from our web site www.buyfonts.com/

Other WMF symbols are courtesy of James Parry or come from the Publish Art CD produced by Ekits. Details about this graphical resource can be found at: ekitsonline.com [image] or from jim@ekitsonline.com

Still more WMF symbols were produced from Gary David Bouton's symbolic fonts Geotype, Haxton and Sympols. GeoType and Haxton are included on this CD, Sympols can be downloaded from Gary's site www.theboutons.com/


Correcting mistakes

You often need to experiment to get the best results. Xara3D makes this easy - if you don't like the result use the Undo button to discard the change. (Undo is also on the Edit menu or press CTRL+Z.) It's not just the last operation you can undo. Xara3D has unlimited undo so you can step all the way back to the beginning.

If you step back too far, click the Redo button (also on the Edit menu or CTRL+Y) to undo an Undo. You can use Redo at any time until you make new changes.


Creating Flash format graphics
Creating Macromedia Flash format graphics

Macromedia Flash format (SWF) files are popular on web sites for both static and animated graphics. Flash format is not ideal for 3D graphics and can produce very large files. You will often get smaller file sizes using other formats such as GIF or PNG.

Xara3D supports both types of Flash file:

Vector format: this usually creates smaller files than bitmap formats such as GIF or JPEG. Also you can scale up vector files without losing quality. The disadvantage is that Flash vector format does not support many Xara3D features - full list. You can use Xara3D features not supported in vector format except shadows but these get exported as bitmaps within the Flash file and can make the file much larger.

If you want to create Flash vector files, we suggest selecting Display as Flash on the View menu. This disables Xara3D options not supported by Flash vector format. The advantage only using only features supported by Flash is that you can scale the SWF file to any size without losing quality.

Our suggestions for creating the smallest possible Flash files:

- avoid bevels.  Some bevels are better than others, but if you leave them off altogether it will make a BIG difference.  Typically a non beveled image was 5 to 10 times smaller without a bevel.

- use sans serif fonts.

- some animation types are better than others.  But in particular the fade animation is especially good for small file sizes.

Bitmap format: this exports the graphic as a bitmap so you can use any of Xara3D's bevel types and shadows. The disadvantage is that bitmap files are usually larger than vector files. Also if you scale up a bitmap file, the individual pixels that make up the bitmap may become noticeable.

When you have created your graphic, select Flash vector or Flash bitmap as the file export type.

Exporting Flash vector files

Exporting Flash bitmap files


Creating animations and movies

It's easy to create GIF & Flash (SWF) animations, animated cursors (ANI format) and AVI movies in Xara3D. You can preview animations by pressing the Start/Stop Animation button. You can control the animation speed and frame rate using the animation dialog box (click the A button).

You can either animate a single heading or a sequence of headings (called multipage animations).

For rotating animations Xara3D includes an option to show only the front face of the objects. This restricts the rotation to 180 degrees so that, although it appears to perform a continuous rotation, it actually skips 180 degrees and text is always readable. This has another significant advantage of reducing the file size of the animation, particularly important for Animated GIFs. You can also choose 360 degree revolution if you want to see the back of the objects.

Steps to producing a movie or animation:

1.	Resize the Xara3D window to the required image size. (Or for smaller images display the Frame.) Remember that animations need be very small to have an acceptable download time.

2.	Select the Animation dialog box (the A button) and choose the number of frames for a complete cycle through the animation. Again for animations the fewer the better.

3.	Choose the number of frames per second (animation speed). A slow animation speed with only a few frames per revolution can give a jerky animation - you may need to experiment to get the best results.

4.	Choose the animation style (type.) More details of the animation styles.

5.	Select Export animation on the File menu. Select the file type. Give the file a name and press Save. This displays the Export quality dialog box where you can select the size, number of colors etc., see Export options for AVI movies, Export options for Flash bitmaps, Export options for Flash vector format, Export options for Animated cursors and Export options for Animated GIFs

When previewing an animation, the program displays a much lower quality to be as fast as possible - however when exporting an animation or movie Xara3D always renders all frames at the maximum quality. To preview an Animated GIF simply drop the file onto your web browser window.

Xara3D can produce, in minutes, top quality animations and movies that would take hours using traditional 3D design programs.

Notes:

Xara3D Step animation displays a static (non-rotating) image. It is best used in multipage animations where a sequence of headings is displayed.

Flash vector format animations: Flash vector format does not support several Xara3D features. We recommend selecting Display as Flash on the View menu as this disables unsupported features. Flash files can be large and you may find animated GIF or AVI format gives smaller files.

See also

Previewing AVI movies

Tips for reducing the size of Animated GIFs:

Animations


Creating button templates

Xara3D includes a range of predefined button shapes.

You can also create your own button shapes for use as templates in the future. This is very handy if, for example, you want to use a consistent shape, bevel and extrusion for the buttons on your site.  Just save this shape into the buttons folder.  It also means that you can create irregular shaped button templates from imported shapes or TrueType symbols.

To create a button template:

1.	You can use either a character from a font (see Notes) or an imported 2D shape for the button shape. Load the character or shape you want to use.

2.	Select the required bevel shape and size.

3.	Select the required extrusion.

4.	Save the character or shape to the Buttons folder. This is in the folder where you installed Xara3D.

Notes:

Angles, colors, textures and shadow in the template are ignored when creating a button.

Symbolic fonts often contain a range of shapes suitable for use as button templates.

A template can contain more than one character. However only the first character is used as the button shape. Other characters are ignored.

Related topics

Buttons


Creating cursor (CUR & ANI) files

You can use Xara3D to create static cursors (CUR files) and animated cursors (ANI files) for use within other programs. Using these files requires some programming knowledge - please note that we cannot give advice on this.

Generally cursor files are small, Standard sizes are 16x16, 32x32 and 48x48 pixels although you can create custom sizes. Some programs have a maximum size of 256x256 pixels.

A cursor shows you exactly where in the window you are clicking (for example which menu item). However, a cursor often covers two menu items. To determine which item to select, the cursor has a 'hotspot'. The item under the hotspot is the one you click on. Display hotspot on the View menu displays a cross showing you where the hotspot is for that graphic. Drag the cross to move the hotspot - by default the hotspot is in the center of the graphic.

Export options for CUR files

Export options for ANI files


Creating icon (ICO) files

You can use Xara3D to create ICO files for use within other programs. Using these files requires some programming knowledge - please note that we cannot give advice on this.

Generally ICO files are small, Standard sizes are 16x16, 32x32 and 48x48 pixels although you can create custom sizes. Some programs have a maximum size of 256x256 pixels.


Creating multipage animations

You can create animations that display a sequence of different headings. Xara3D calls these "multipage" animations.

To create a multipage animation:

1.	Create the first heading in the regular way.

2.	Insert a page break (CTRL+ENTER) to create a second page.

3.	Create the heading for this new page.

4.	Repeat steps 2 & 3 until you have created all the pages.

5.	Open the Animation options dialog box. (Click the A button on the Toolbar.)

6.	Set the required animation options.

7.	Export the animation as either Animated GIF, Flash SWF or AVI (Export animation on the File menu).

Notes:

All headings are at the same angle and share the same background color or texture.

You can also insert a page break by clicking Insert page break (the button showing a diamond) in the Text options dialog box.

You can use the PageUp/PageDown keys to move between pages. CTRL+PageUp or CTRL+PageDown moves to the first or last page.

You can also use the Page Up/Page Down buttons on the right hand scrollbar to move between pages.

To select all the text on the current page use CTRL+P. To select all the text on all pages use CTRL+A.

See this page for general information on creating animations.

Related topics:

Animations


Credits

Program written by Gavin Theobald from the depths of Loughborough, England & Fort William, Scotland.

Original Help written by Charles Moir; revised, expanded and updated by Mick Robinson.


Customizing Xara3D

What do you want to do:

Change the Default document?

Display or hide Toolbars?

Dock dialog boxes?


Direct3D

Xara3D doesn't use Direct3D as the Xara3D engine is more advanced in many ways than the Microsoft Direct3D software solution (for example, the anti-aliasing). Obviously having a hardware accelerator would be faster; however these are also usually inferior and unpredictable quality and would not support the advanced features of Xara3D such as soft shadows.


Displaying Toolbars

The Window menu lets you control display of:

the Standard Toolbar at the top of the window

the Dialog Box Toolbar at the side of the window

the Time Line at the top of the window

the Text Toolbar at the bottom of the window

the Status Bar, also at the bottom of the window

The Toolbars can be either docked to the top or bottom of the window or free-floating - more details.

Related Topics:

Customizing Xara3D


Docking dialog boxes
Docking dialog boxes and Toolbars

This applies to

Bevel, Button, Color, Extrude, Shadow, Texture, and Animate options dialog boxes

the Toolbars.

These can be either free-floating (you can move them independently of the main window) or docked (attached to the edge of the window.)

To dock a dialog box or Toolbar:

1.	Drag the dialog box over either the left hand edge or right hand edge of the window.

Drag the Toolbar over either the top, bottom or side of the window.

The dialog box or Toolbar outline changes to a thin line when it can be docked.

To undock a dialog box or Toolbar:

1.	Drag the dialog box or Toolbar away from the window. The outline changes to a thick line when undocked.

Tip:

If you don't want a dialog box or Toolbar to dock, CTRL-drag it.

Related Topics:

Customizing Xara3D


Edit Menu

Edit

Display the text caret ready for on-screen editing of the text. More details of editing text.

Undo

Undo the last edit. More details of Undo & Redo.

Redo

Undo the last Undo operation. More details of Undo & Redo.

Cut

Delete the selected text and put it on the clipboard. You can then paste it as plain text into other applications. Note that this loses all lighting and 3D effects.

Copy

Similar to Cut except that this doesn't delete the text.

Paste

Paste the clipboard contents into Xara3D. This option is dimmed if Xara3D cannot interpret the clipboard contents. (For example, if the clipboard contains a bitmap.)

Delete

Discard the selected text.

Select All

Select all the 3D objects on all pages ready for editing.

Select Page

Select all the 3D objects on this page ready for editing. Objects on other pages remain unselected.

Select Line

Select the line containing the text cursor. (By default the bottom line.) For a single line of text this is the same as Select All.

Insert Page Break

Page breaks separate pages in an animation that shows a sequence of messages.

Add/Edit comment

Lets you add comments (notes) to X3D files. These comments are just for information - they do not change the appearance of the 3D heading  You see these comments in the Save, Open and Import dialog boxes.


Export dialog box

This controls exporting of BMP, CUR (cursor), static GIF, ICO (icons) JPEG and PNG format files. Not all options apply to all formats - for example Progressive applies only to JPEGs and is dimmed for other formats.

Size

Current Window Size lets you export just the area surrounding the text (Crop on) or the entire window area (Crop off.)

User Defined lets you specify the dimensions of the bitmap. With Fit to Width (on the Text Toolbar) selected, the text and the background scales to suit the values you type in. If you specified a font size, the size of the text does not change but the background scales to the values you type in. This is useful if you want to create several headings, all the same height and width.

Color depth

Dimmed for JPEG as this is always 24-bit color depth. GIF format supports up to 256 colors only. Only BMP supports 16-bit High Color.

To keep files sizes small, we recommend using the smallest number of colors that gives acceptable results.

BMP export formats:

Many other Windows programs can import BMP files but often they do not support the full range of color depths available in Xara3D. For example Adobe Photoshop cannot import High-color (16 bit) BMPs. This is beyond the control of Xara3D. If you have problems importing BMPs, try a different color depth.

Dithering

Dithering is a technique of smoothing color transitions for 256 colors or less. None produces the smallest file size but can show 'banding' when two colors blend together. Ordered and Diffused use different algorithms to reduce banding. You may need to try the different options to decide which is the best for a particular graphic.

Ordered dithering is available only with 256 colors.

Palette

This is the range of colors used in the exported bitmap. Optimized selects the most commonly used colors and usually gives the best results. High-color and True-color depths contain the full range of colors and so Palette is dimmed for these options.

Options

Transparent - dimmed for BMP and JPEG as these formats do not support transparency. Transparency makes background areas not covered by the graphic or shadow, transparent so you see the web page background in these areas (see Note below). Transparency has two meanings:

for True-color PNGs, transparency is graduated so you partly see the web page background through the shadow.

all other formats (including PNGs of 256 or fewer colors) use simple on-off transparency. That is, the shadow is solid and the Xara3D background color shows through the shadow.

Note: Xara3D 'anti-aliases' the edge of a transparent bitmap to the Xara3D background color. For best results you need to make the background color the same or similar to the color of the page the graphic will appear on. For an illustration of this, see the web page Transparency

Interlaced - applies only to GIF and PNG. When displayed on a web page, interlaced bitmaps appear first as a low-resolution image. The quality increases as more of the bitmap downloads. This is particularly useful for large bitmaps as the viewer sees the basics of the bitmap more quickly.

Progressive - applies only to JPEG. This is similar to Interlaced in that a progressive JPEG displays with increasing detail as more of the file downloads.

Quality

JPEG only. JPEG format compresses files by discarding unnecessary information. Quality controls how much information is discarded. Default is 80%, which usually gives the best balance of quality and file size. Above 80% produces larger files with little improvement in quality.

Below 75% the quality loss may be noticeable and you may need to use a higher setting. Our advice for the best results is use the lowest quality setting that gives acceptable results.

File size

This tells you the size of the bitmap with the current settings. The smaller the file size, the faster it will download over the Internet.

Preview window

This shows you how the exported bitmap will look with the current settings. It is a useful check that you have selected the best settings for this particular graphic.


Export options for AVI movies

Experimentation has shown that exporting AVIs as True-color (24-bit) produces the smallest file size. Perhaps surprisingly, exporting as 256 color (8-bit) produces larger files but usually higher quality. This is because it uses a different compression system.

Current Window Size lets you export just the area surrounding the text (Crop on) or the entire window area (Crop off.)

User Defined lets you specify the dimensions of the bitmap. With Fit to Width (on the Text Toolbar) selected, the text and the background scales to suit the values you type in. If you specified a font size, the size of the text does not change but the background scales to the values you type in. This is useful if you want to create several headings, all the same height and width.

Note. It’s very important to make sure the compression option is switched on. Even at 100% quality, compression makes the file up to 10 times smaller.

See also:

Creating a movie or Animated GIF

Previewing AVI movies


Export options for Animated GIFs

To learn more about exporting animated GIFs see Creating animations and movies

Because Animated GIFs can be quite large, you may find that a 16 or 32 color, optimized palette per frame, produces the best results for the smallest file size. However you might need to experiment.

Dithering always makes GIFs look better, but also makes them larger. When outputting at 256 colors you may find that there is no need to turn dithering on.

Current Window Size lets you export just the area surrounding the text (Crop on) or the entire window area (Crop off.)

User Defined lets you specify the dimensions of the bitmap. With Fit to Width (on the Text Toolbar) selected, the text and the background scales to suit the values you type in. If you specified a font size, the size of the text does not change but the background scales to the values you type in. This is useful if you want to create several headings, all the same height and width.

See also

Tips for reducing the size of Animated GIF files

Animations


Export options for Flash bitmap format
Export options for Flash bitmap format (SWF) files

These options apply to both static and animated SWF files. More information on creating Flash files. To learn more about exporting movies see Creating animations and movies

Current Window Size lets you export just the area surrounding the text (Crop on) or the entire window area (Crop off.)

User Defined lets you specify the dimensions of the bitmap. With Fit to Width (on the Text Toolbar) selected, the text and the background scales to suit the values you type in. If you specified a font size, the size of the text does not change but the background scales to the values you type in. This is useful if you want to create several headings, all the same height and width.

Color depth: the more colors, the larger the file size. For animations where each image appears for only a short period you may find 256 colors gives satisfactory results.

Dithering (dimmed except for 256-colors). None creates the smallest files but you may see bands of colors instead of smooth color graduations.

Transparent (dimmed for High-color): select this for a transparent background to the animation. Deselect for a solid background.

Lossless and Quality (dimmed except for True-color): quality values below 100% give smaller files but at a lower quality. Lossless is equivalent to 100% quality. You may need to experiment to get the best tradeoff between quality and file size.


Export options for Flash vector files
Export options for Flash vector format (SWF) files

These options apply to both static and animated SWF files. more information on creating Flash files. To learn more about exporting movies see Creating a movie or Animated GIF

Note that Flash vector format does not support some Xara3D features (such as shadows and textures). You can use Xara3D features not supported in vector format except shadows but these get exported as bitmaps within the Flash file and can make the file much larger. If you intend to output in SWF format, we suggest using the Display as Flash option on the View menu.

Current Window Size lets you export just the area surrounding the text (Crop on) or the entire window area (Crop off.)

User Defined lets you specify the dimensions of the bitmap. With Fit to Width (on the Text Toolbar) selected, the text and the background scales to suit the values you type in. If you specified a font size, the size of the text does not change but the background scales to the values you type in. This is useful if you want to create several headings, all the same height and width.

Quality: the higher the quality, the larger the file. You may need to experiment to get the best tradeoff between quality and file size.


Export options for GIF or BMP
Exporting GIF, PNG or BMP files

GIF export is the most common and probably the best format for use on the Web. GIF images can have no more than 256 colors, which you might think is a limitation. However, using Xara3D’s advanced dithering and palette optimization features, you can get near perfect quality images using only 256 colors. Indeed you’ll be surprised at how good GIFs with just 16 colors can be.

For all export formats you have control over not only the number of colors but also whether the image is dithered and has an optimized palette. These are techniques to improve the image quality while using a reduced number of colors. For example using only 16 color GIF nearly always produces the smallest file size, but with no dithering the shading can be poor. By using an optimized palette and diffusion dithering you can substantially increase the quality of the result.

There are no hard and fast rules as to which combination of export options is best - it depends on the image and your requirements. Therefore we recommend exporting in a number of different formats to see which is the best and has the smallest file size. Typical options to try include 16 color with diffusion dithering, or 256 color with no dithering.

For examples of the different quality settings see the web page GIF quality settings

When exporting as a GIF or PNG you have the option of making it interlaced  (progressive rendering as it’s downloaded) and whether the image is transparent.  For more details on the transparent options see the web page GIF & PNG transparency

For more information on the available export options see Export dialog box.

BMP export formats:

Many other Windows programs can import BMP files but often they do not support the full range of color depths available in Xara3D. For example Adobe Photoshop cannot import High-color (16 bit) BMPs. This is beyond the control of Xara3D. If you have problems importing BMPs, try a different color depth.

Additional quality control:

Purchasers of Xara3D can download a free copy of Xara Webster, which provides even more advanced color reduction facilities and can be used to further reduce the size of files by selecting intermediate numbers of colors. To do this, export the image as a True color 24-bit BMP image and use Webster to color reduce the file to a specific number of colors.

Also available from Xara is Xara X, an enhanced and updated version of Xara Webster.

More details on Xara X


Export options for JPG
Exporting JPEG files

JPEG bitmaps are always 24-bit, true color, but the JPEG compression system means that the quality is often not as good as a GIF.  The Quality setting determines how small the resultant file is - the higher the quality, the larger the file. Quality settings less than 80% usually produce inferior images to those available from using palette optimized GIFs.

A Progressive JPEG is similar to an interlaced GIF. The JPEG displays first as blurred (low resolution) image. As more of the file loads, the image comes into focus. Note that some older browsers do not support progressive JPEGs - the image displays when all the JPEG has loaded.

For more information on the available export options see Export dialog box.


Export options for Animated cursors (ANI)

To learn more about creating cursors see Creating cursor (CUR & ANI) files

Because animated cursors can be quite large, you may find that a 16 color, optimized palette per frame, produces the best results for the smallest file size. However you might need to experiment.

Dithering always makes cursors look better, but also makes them larger. When outputting at 256 colors you may find that there is no need to turn dithering on.

Current Window Size lets you export just the area surrounding the text (Crop on) or the entire window area (Crop off.)

User Defined lets you specify the dimensions of the bitmap. With Fit to Width (on the Text Toolbar) selected, the text and the background scales to suit the values you type in. If you specified a font size, the size of the text does not change but the background scales to the values you type in. This is useful if you want to create several headings, all the same height and width.


Extrusion dialog box

To display this dialog box:

1.	Either click Extrusion Options on the Toolbar at the side of the window

or choose Extrude on the Options menu

or press ALT+E.

Color

The opens the Color Options dialog box ready to change the color of the 3D objects. More details of changing colors.

Gloss/Matt

Gloss make the object surface reflective, Matt non-reflective. The best results with Glossy requires careful positioning of the lights. See Altering the text color for more details.

Front Face

Switching off display of the front face creates hollow objects and can give interesting effects. See Hollow text for more details.

Back Face

Similar to front face but controls display of the back of the objects. This has no effect unless you also turn off Front Face or rotate animated text through 360 degrees

Outline

Produces outline objects. This is different to switching off face display. See Hollow text for more details.

Outline Width

Controls the thickness of the outline. See Hollow text for more details.

Depth

Controls the extrude depth. See Extruding for more details.


File menu

New

Open a new document. You are warned if the existing document has unsaved changes.

Open

Open (reload) an existing Xara3D .X3D file. (A file previously saved using Save or Save as.) You cannot reload GIFs, JPEGs, AVIs, or PNGs exported from Xara3D.

Save

Save the document as an .X3D file. This lets you reload it back into Xara3D in the future.

Save as

Save the document under a different name.

Save as Default

The default document is the document you see when you select New. If you want a customized default document, make the required changes then select Save as default.

Import

Lets you import a 2D object (Windows metafile WMF/EMF or Xara WEB/XAR.) Xara3D can then turn it into a 3D heading (more details.)

Import Animation

Opens the Import Animation dialog box. Lets you import a X3D file and apply the animation settings in that file to the current heading.

Import Button

Lets you import a Xara3D file (X3D), Xara WEB/XAR or Windows metafile and use that as a button shape. Any existing text appears on the face of the button (more details).

Import Style

Opens the Import Style dialog box. This lets you copy features (such as colors and lighting) from an existing X3D heading into the current heading.

Export Bitmap

Create a GIF, JPEG, or PNG bitmap file of the current document. Note that you cannot reload bitmaps back into Xara3D (except as background or text textures) so if you want to make further edits in the future, save the document as an .X3D file. (See Save and Save as above.)

Export Animation

Create an Animated GIF or AVI movie of the current document.

Export to Screen Saver

Create an SCR screen saver file

Recent file list

A list of the last few files edited. Advanced users can change the number of files in this list - see Hidden options.

Quit

Exit Xara3D


Flash vector format

Flash vector format does not support these Xara3D features:

Creating a button

Rounded bevels (Flash supports only Miter bevels)

Rounded or curved bevel types

Shadows

Textures

Selecting Display as Flash on the Main Toolbar dims or hides these options.


Hidden or advanced options

Wire-frame mode:

You can turn on a wire-frame mode that can speed up the moving and positioning. To do this press CTRL+SHIFT+W Press it again to turn wire-frame off.

Perspective:

You can adjust the Z distance of the objects using CTRL and + or  - keys on the numeric keypad. Note that at maximum zoom you get a rather unrealistic perspective, as if the image were very close to the eye, causing a fish-eye lens effect. This exaggerates the perspective. The default perspective is about right for the typical distance these images will be viewed on screen.

To cancel any changes to perspective hold down CTRL and click * on the numeric keypad.

The following options are Registry entry changes. Do not attempt these changes unless you fully understand editing the Registry.

Editing mode

Registry key: Software, Xara, X3D5, Settings, Edit mode

0 - apply any changes (such as font or size) to the selected region or (if there is no selected region) to all text.

1 - apply any changes to the selected region or to new characters you type in.

Compact save

Registry key: Software, Xara, X3D5, Settings, Save compact

0 - save text and background textures as part of the X3D file. If you use textures, this creates larger files but is often more convenient.

1 - do not save textures in the X3D file. (This is how Xara3D2 worked.)

Recent file list

This controls how many file names appear in the recent file list on the File menu.

Registry key: Software, Xara, X3D5, Settings, MRU count

Enter a value between 1 and 10. Values below 1 default to 5.

Flat buttons

You have the option of flat buttons on toolbars  (the default) or buttons raised out of the toolbar.

Registry key: Software, Xara, X3D5, Settings, Flat buttons

0 - raised buttons

1 - flat buttons


Hollow Text
Creating hollow text

You can turn off display of the faces of the text (show only the sides) to create interesting effects. There are two options:

as outlined text with thick sides. Both the inside and outside edges show a bevel.

turn off display of either the front or back face. This creates totally hollow text - the sides are wafer-thin and you can see inside the text. Only the outer bevel is shown.

The two options are illustrated on the web help pages - click here to view them

To create outlined text:

1.	Click Outline on the Text Toolbar.

Or, for more control, display the Extrusion Options dialog box. (Click the E button.) This duplicates the Outline button and also lets you control the width of the outline.

To turn off display of the faces:

1.	Display the Extrusion Options dialog box. (Click the E button.)

2.	Deselect Outline.

3.	Deselect Front Face and Back Face for the result you want.

Note:

You can make selected characters hollow. Select the characters you want and then select Outline. Similarly, text can have different outline widths.


How do I...?

Use these pages if you want to find out how to do something in Xara3D.

The basics

Text & 2D objects:

positioning & rotating

changing the size

changing the wording

changing text spacing

changing the font

changing the color

changing the bevel (edges)

changing the 3D extrude (depth)

changing the effects applied to selected characters

changing the lighting

creating hollow text

shiny & matt surfaces

selecting text

typing international (accented) characters

importing styles from an existing heading

importing animation settings from an existing heading

importing 2D objects

creating 3D buttons

Colors

changing the text color

changing the background color

changing the colors of the lights

changing the shadow color

changing the texture color (tint)

Shadows

general information

moving the shadow

creating and deleting shadows

changing the shadow color

changing the shadow transparency

changing the shadow blur

shadows and backgrounds

Textures

and text

and the background

changing the texture color (tint)

The lights

changing their color

changing their position

Buttons

creating buttons

moving the text on a button

making the buttons wider or narrower

changing the curvature of the corners

changing the size of buttons

making buttons from imported shapes

Animation

creating an animation/movie

creating a multipage animation

Step animation

previewing an AVI movie

importing animation settings from an existing heading

the Time Line

Saving

saving for reloading later

saving a graphic

saving screen savers

creating an animation/movie

previewing an AVI movie

Correcting mistakes

Undo & Redo

Customizing Xara3D

changing the default document

displaying Toolbars

docking dialog boxes


Import Animation dialog box

This lets you copy (import) features of an existing X3D animation into the current heading.

To display this dialog box either:

choose Import animation on the File menu

or type CTRL+SHIFT+A

or click the Import animation button on the Standard Toolbar

To import an animation:

1.	Select the X3D file you want to use. The preview shows you how the selected animation affects the current heading.

2.	Click Open. This updates the current heading to match the selected animation.

Related topics:

Animations


Import Style dialog box

This lets you copy (import) features of an existing X3D heading into the current heading. You select which features you want to copy.

To display this dialog box either:

choose Import style on the File menu

or type CTRL+SHIFT+Y

or click the Import style button on the Standard Toolbar

To import styles:

1.	Select the X3D file you want to use.

2.	Select which features of the file (such as colors and lighting) you want to import. The preview shows you how the selected features affect the current heading.

3.	Click Open. This updates the current heading to match the selected features.


Importing button shapes

As well as the range of predefined button shapes, you can also use imported shapes. Suitable formats are Xara3D X3D files, Xara WEB/XAR files and Windows metafiles WMF/EMF (see notes).

To import a button shape:

1.	Either:

choose Import button on the File menu

or click Import button on the Button Options dialog box.

Both options open an import dialog box.

2.	Browse to the appropriate folder.

3.	Click Open to load the shape. The existing text appears on the face of the button.

If the button doesn't have the right bevel or extrude depth, you can edit these in the regular way.

Notes:

Importing X3D files: the first character is used as the button shape. All other information is ignored.

There are some points to note when importing WEB/XAR files and Metafiles.

Related topics

Buttons


Installing fonts

Included on the Xara3D CD are 50 extra fonts. You can preview the fonts by double clicking on them in this folder. Details of finding fonts on the CD.

To use these fonts in Xara3D or other Windows programs, you need to install them using the Fonts Control Panel.

To install the fonts:

1.	Open the Control Panel by double-clicking on Control Panel in My Computer.

2.	Open the Fonts Control Panel by double clicking on its name.  This shows all the TrueType fonts installed on your system.

3.	Drag the fonts over the Fonts Control Panel window.

Notes:

In step (1) you can also click Start on the Taskbar then choose Settings, Control Panel.

In step (3) you can also select Install New Font on the File menu of the Font Control Panel, and then locate the fonts on the CD.


Introduction

Xara3D is a ‘slimware’ program as opposed to the increasingly complex 'bloatware' that is released from the major software developers nowadays. This does not mean that Xara3D is low quality or produces inferior results compared to more complex 3D programs; on the contrary, it produces better output, and faster than just about anything else.

'Bloatware', while often very capable, includes so many features that most people never get to use more than 10% of the functionality. It's often huge, impractical to download over the Internet, requires huge amounts of disc space, and is nearly always so complex that to use its advanced features takes a considerable learning effort.

Xara3D is designed to be a program that does one thing, and does it supremely well, that is dead simple to use, and costs very little. It's designed to be small enough to be easily downloaded from the Internet.

Xara3D produces high quality three-dimensional  images and nothing else. These images would typically be used on Web pages or other on-screen presentations although they can be used anywhere. Xara3D can create animated 3D images with absolute ease (AVI movies, animated GIF of Flash SWF). You have control over the text, the font, the depth of the 3D extrude, the type of the bevel on the edges, the lighting, color, texture, shadow and animation settings. You can even convert your heading into a web button with a single click.  You can position and rotate the 3D objects just by dragging, and it updates the image in real-time, interactively. You resize the image just by resizing the window. It couldn't be easier.


Keyboard short cuts

Open new document	CTRL+N

Open existing document	CTRL+O

Save document	CTRL+S

Export image	CTRL+SHIFT+E

Export animation	CTRL+SHIFT+X

Add comments	CTRL+M

Import 2D object	CTRL+SHIFT+I

Import animation	CTRL=SHIFT=A

Import button shape	CTRL+SHIFT+B

Import style	CTRL+SHIFT+Y

Undo last operation	CTRL+Z

Redo (cancel Undo)	CTRL+Y

Open Animation Options	ALT+A

Open Bevel Options	ALT+B

Open Extrude Options	ALT+E

Open Shadow Options	ALT+S

Open Text Options	ALT+T

Open Button Options	ALT+U

Open Textures Options	ALT+X

Display text bar	CTRL+T

Display as Flash	CTRL+F

Display hot-spot	CTRL+H

Display Frame	CTRL+R

Alter Frame size	ALT+R

Display Time Line	ALT+L

Alter Frame size	ALT+R

Display lights	CTRL+TAB

Start/stop animation	CTRL+SPACE

Add new page	CTRL+ENTER

Cancel rotation	ALT+HOME

1 degree rotation	ALT+arrow keys

15 degree rotation	CTRL+ALT+arrow keys

Change color of heading	ALT+C

Change color of faces	ALT+K

Change color of sides	ALT+D

Apply texture to heading	CTRL+SHIFT+C

Apply texture to faces	CTRL+SHIFT=K

Apply texture to sides	CTRL+SHIFT+D

Change text color on button	CTRL+SHIFT+B

Change color of background	ALT+G

Apply texture to background	CTRL+SHIFT+G

Edit light 1 color	ALT+1

Edit light 2 color	ALT+2

Edit light 3 color	ALT+3

Edit Shadow color	CTRL+SHIFT+S

Make text bold	CTRL+B

Make text italic	CTRL+I

Make character to right of cursor upper case

CTRL+U

Make character to right of cursor lower case

CTRL+SHIFT+U

Swap case of character to right of cursor

CTRL+W

Select all text (all pages)	CTRL+A

Select line of text	CTRL+L

Select all text (this page)	CTRL+P

Negative kerning	F5

Positive kerning	F6

Shift selected text up	F7

Shift selected text down	F8

Outline text	CTRL+SHIFT+O

Display text cursor	CTRL+E

Insert page break in multipage animation

CTRL+ENTER

Move to next page in multipage animation

PageDown

Move to previous page	PageUp

Move to first page	CTRL+PageUp

Move to last page	CTRL+PageDown

Copy heading to clipboard	CTRL+C

Paste clipboard contents	CTRL+V

Change Quality settings	ALT+Q

Display as wire-frame	CTRL+SHIFT+W


License terms

Xara3D is provided under the following license agreement which defines what you may do with the product and contains limitations on warranties and/or remedies.

Please read these conditions before using Xara3D, the bundled fonts, images or textures  ('The Software'). If you use the Software you agree to become bound by these conditions. If you do not wish to do so, do not use the Software.

If you are using the trial version of the Software then any rights to use the Software or images created with it terminate with the expiration of the trial period.

For any further information please contact Xara Ltd.

The license distributed with Xara3D grants you the right to install and use the Software on a single client computer at a time and by a single user at a time, subject to the restrictions listed below and the disclaimer relating to warranties, support and damages.

1. Disclaimer: This software is provided on an "as is" basis, without any other warranties, or conditions, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantable quality, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, or those arising by law, statute, usage of trade or course of dealing. The entire risk as to the results and performance of the Product is assumed by you. Neither we nor our resellers or suppliers shall have any liability to you or any other person or entity for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages whatsoever, including but not limited to loss of revenue or profit, lost or damaged data or other commercial or economic loss, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages or they are foreseeable; or for claims by a third party. You may have other rights which vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

2. Restrictions: This license gives you the right to use this software but all rights not specifically mentioned in this agreement, including ownership rights, intellectual property rights, trademarks and copyright, are reserved by Xara Ltd. You may not decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise reduce the software to a human perceivable form. You may not modify, rent or resell for profit the software, or create derivative works based upon the software. Any reproduction of the Software is prohibited.

The bundled fonts and textures cannot be redistributed, sold or published in any form, commercial or otherwise. Haxton Logos, Geotype, Greek Diner, Russel Write, and Whimsy fonts are provided by kind permission of Gary Bouton and remain © Gary Bouton, see  www.theboutons.com/ [image]. In all cases copyright is reserved by Xara or its licensors and is protected by international copyright law.


Making buttons from imported shapes
Xara3D lets you create 3D buttons from a range of shapes. But you can also import a 2D shape and use it to create a 3D button. The CD contains a range of text messages and symbols you can use on the face of such buttons. There's full details on the Xara3D website:

www.xara.com/support/xara3d/helpv5/techniques.htm


Making characters larger or smaller
To make selected characters larger or smaller

You can change the height of all the characters by either

resizing the window

or selecting a value on Font size on the Text Toolbar at the bottom of the window. (When you have no selected characters.)

You can also make selected characters larger or smaller than the other characters:

1.	Select the characters you want to change - see Selecting text.

2.	Change Font size - 100% is no change; less than 100% makes the selected characters smaller. Any changes then apply only to the selected characters.

Note:

You can also use Font size in the Text Options dialog box. Font size is dimmed unless you have selected characters.


Merge pages
Multipage animations display a series of separate headings or "pages". Pages are separated by a Page Break (CTRL+ENTER) character.

So to merge two pages, you just need to delete the page break.

In the main Xara3D window:

1.	You need to display the text cursor - click Show/hide cursor (the I-beam button) on the Standard Toolbar.

2.	Use Page Up/PageDown to move to the page you want to merge into

3.	Move the cursor to the end of the text on that page.

4.	Press DELETE.

In the Text options dialog box, Page breaks are shown as diamonds. You can delete these diamonds in the regular way.

Related topics:

Animations


Metafile import
Importing 2D objects

As well as using regular text in Xara3D, you can also import 2D objects and extrude them. 2D objects can be in Windows metafile .EMF or WMF format or Xara .XAR or .WEB format.

After importing you can recolor, scale, and extrude 2D objects in exactly the same way as text. You can even slant the text using the Italic option on the Text Toolbar.

To import a 2D object (add to the existing heading):

1.	Choose Import on the File menu.

2.	Select Windows Metafile or Xara filter as the file type.

3.	Browse to the folder containing the EMF, WEB, WMF, or XAR file.

4.	Click Open to import. This adds the 2D object to the end of any existing text or 2D objects.

To open a new document showing only a 2D object:

1.	Choose Open on the File menu.

2.	Select Windows Metafile or Xara filter as the file type.

3.	Browse to the folder containing the EMF, WEB, WMF, or XAR file.

4.	Click Open to import. This opens a new document containing only the 2D object.

Notes:

Simple shapes work best. Complex shapes often lose detail when converted to 3D.

Any color information in the imported file is discarded. The 2D objects take the current text color.

More information on XAR/WEB files

More information on metafiles

See this web page [image] for the latest information on importing 2D objects.


Metafiles
Notes on metafiles

Very complex shapes can take a long time to process. Some metafiles may be too complex for Xara3D to translate; in this case, only part of the shape is imported into Xara3D. If this happens, simplify the original shape and create a new metafile.

If the imported file contains

only filled objects (for example, colored circles): these are imported.

only lines (also known as stroked paths) or unfilled objects: these are imported as outlines.

a mixture of filled objects and lines/unfilled objects: only the filled objects are imported.

bitmaps: these are not imported. Some packages such as Paint Shop Pro create metafiles that contain only a bitmap.

Some drawing packages convert curves to a series of polygons in the metafile. This is a feature of the drawing package. These polygons can be noticeable in Xara3D because the light catches the faces of the polygons. To reduce the effect, create the original drawing larger than required, then scale it down in Xara3D. A web page [image] shows this.

Some drawing packages can export both WMF & EMF format files. We recommend using EMF.


Moving or resizing the text on a button

After creating a button you can move the text (or even rotate it) relative to the button. You can also change the size of the text.

To move a button's text

1.	Click Texture options (the X button). This opens the Texture Options dialog box.

2.	From the drop-down list choose Button text.

3.	Change Size to make the text larger or smaller.

Change X or Y to move the text relative to the button.

Change Angle to rotate the text around the center of the button.

You can either drag the sliders or type in values.

Notes:

ALT+X or Texture on the Window menu also displays the Texture dialog box.

To change the size of the button either

resize the window

or select a point size from Font size on the Text Toolbar.

Related topics

Buttons


Multipage animations
Multipage animations display a sequence of headings or "pages". Pages are separated by a Page Break (CTRL+ENTER) character.

So, to start a new page, just press CTRL+ENTER. You can do this either in the main Xara3D window or the Text Options dialog box. (The Text Options dialog box has a special button for easy insertion of page breaks.)


Options menu

Text

Open the Text Options dialog box. This dialog box provides a range of options for changing the appearance of text. More details on this dialog box.

Color

Open the Color Options dialog box. This dialog box lets you change the text, background, shadow, and lights colors. More details on this dialog box.

Extrude

Open the Extrusion Options dialog box. This lets you change the depth of the 3D extrude. More details on this dialog box. More details on extruding.

Button

Open the Button Options dialog box. This lets you create 3D text buttons. More details.

Bevels

Open the Bevel Options dialog box. More details on this dialog box. More details on changing the bevels.

Shadow

Open the Shadow Options dialog box. More details on this dialog box. More details on shadows.

Texture

Open the Texture dialog box. More details on this dialog box. More details on textures.

Animate

Open the Animation Options dialog box. More details on this dialog box. More details on creating animations.


Position, rotation
Positioning & rotating 3D objects

To position or rotate the objects:

1.	Drag on the window. The operation of this has been made as intuitive as possible.

Hold down CTRL to move only horizontally.

Hold down SHIFT to move only vertically.

Alternatively you can use the vertical and horizontal scroll bars to rotate the objects vertically or horizontally.

If you want a precise rotation, use the cursor (arrow) keys on the keyboard to change the rotation in 1 degree steps. CTRL+ the cursor keys gives 15 degree steps.

ALT-drag moves the objects relative to the background.

You can also rotate the objects around their center line. Either:

CTRL+SHIFT drag

or hold down SHIFT and use the up/down cursor keys for 1 degree steps

or CTRL+SHIFT+up/down cursor keys for 15 degree steps.

Note that when the text is horizontally face-on, rotation around the center line gives the same effect as vertical movement.

ALT+HOME cancels any rotation and displays the objects face-on.

See this page for details of positioning and rotating textures.


Previewing AVI movies

There are several different movie players for Windows. The easiest way to preview a movie is to use the current player for your computer.

To preview a movie:

1. Double-click on the movie file icon in a folder window. This launches the default movie player on your computer.


Previewing GIF and JPEG files

The easiest way to see how your saved GIF or JPEG files will appear on the web is to preview using your web browser.

To preview GIF and JPEG files:

1.	Drag the file from the folder in which you saved the file and drop it over your web browser window. This works for both Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The same applies to animated GIFs.

Note that Netscape versions prior to Navigator 4 do not get the timing right for animated GIFs - they always ran about half the speed they should. Later versions of Navigator and Internet Explorer display animations with the correct inter-frame timing.

See also

Previewing AVI movies


Pulse animation
Pulse animation is one of the animation types in Xara3D. Each character pulses (enlarges or reduces) in sequence.


Purchasing Xara3D

This page applies if you are running the time-limited trial version of Xara3D.

This version of the software displays a background message, which you cannot change. (With the full version you can use any color or bitmap as a background.)

When you start up Xara3D a dialog box reminds you that you are running the trial version - click Buy Xara3D now on that dialog box. This lets you purchase Xara3D using a fully secure transaction process, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We also have resellers around the world who offer local sales and support - for a current list see  www.xara.com/ordering/world.asp

As soon as you purchase Xara3D, you can download and install a full (unlocked) version. We also automatically mail you a CD, which contains a full version of the program. Please make sure you enter your correct address when purchasing Xara3D. You should receive the CD within 28 days.


Quality Settings

This option on the Window menu lets you alter the quality settings for display and export. (Keyboard short cut ALT+Q.) Usually the default settings give excellent results, but you may wish to try different settings to fine-tune Xara3D to your requirements.

Screen Quality controls the quality of the on-screen display. Increasing the quality setting means that the preview takes longer to redraw on screen. Static and moving images have separate controls: animations can use a lower setting.

Anti-aliasing is a technique of blurring the edges between color transitions. Turning anti-aliasing on gives better results but takes longer to redraw.

True perspective displays the heading with slightly non-parallel sides. (As if drawn from a distant vanishing point.) This gives better results for some images than displaying parallel sides. The drawback is the extra processing can slow down redraw. This may be noticeable when previewing animations.

Export Quality controls images exported as static bitmaps. Increasing the quality may give better results for some graphics in shadow or highlight areas. The drawback is that graphics may take longer to display on screen.

Animation Quality controls images exported as animated GIFs and AVIs. As the viewer sees each frame only briefly, the quality is less important than for static bitmaps. Note that increasing the quality too much can cause jerky animation on slow computers.


Save X3D
Saving for reloading later

You can save Xara3D graphics in two types of format:

as Xara3D X3D files. You can reload these into Xara3D for further editing but cannot use them on web pages.

as bitmaps (PNG, GIF, JPEG, ICO, CUR, SCR or AVI) or Flash (SWF) You cannot edit these in Xara3D. Saving in these formats.

So if you want make future changes to a graphic, make sure you save it in X3D format.

To save in X3D format:

1.	Click the Save icon on the Toolbar. For a new graphic, you are prompted to type in a name.

You can also use Save on the File menu. Or Save As to save under a different name.


Saving an image

When you've positioned and sized the objects as required you will need to export the image as a bitmap or Flash file. Xara3D can export static images as Flash SWF (bitmap or vector), BMP, PNG, GIF or JPEG, or animations as  SWF (bitmap or vector), AVI movie and Animated GIF. For screen saver (SCR) format see this page.

If you want to make future edits, make sure you also save the file in X3D format - more details.

To save an image:

1. For static bitmaps choose Export bitmap on the File menu.

For animations choose Export animation on the File menu.

(Or click the Export button on the Toolbar. This exports an animation if the image is rotating otherwise a static image.)

2. Select the appropriate type from the drop down Save as type list on the Export dialog box.

3. Enter the required name.

4. Press OK. This displays the export options dialog box which provides all the control over the quality of image.

The export options depend on the export format.

Exporting GIF, PNG or BMP

Exporting Animated GIF

Exporting bitmap SWF

Exporting vector SWF

Exporting JPG

Exporting AVI movies

Exporting cursors (CUR) and icons (ICO)

Exporting animated cursors ANI

See also

Previewing GIF and JPEG files

Previewing AVI movies


Screen Saver
Export as Screen Saver (SCR)

You can export Xara3D graphics as a Windows screen saver (SCR) file. Screen savers prevent a static image from burning the screen, so we would suggest:

Use a black or dark colored background, not white or light colored.

Create the animation such that there are not light-colored static areas.

To create a screen saver:

1.	Create the animation in the regular way or select from one of the sample screen saver animations in the sample folder.

2.	Choose Export screen saver on the File menu.

3.	The default size is 640x480, which should give good results on most screen areas such as 800x600. Larger screen areas (such as 1024x768 or above) may need a different value - we recommend selecting a value half the screen area. (For example 512x384 for a 1024x769 screen area.) This should give a good quality image without creating a large file size.  Sizes larger than this require a faster computer to animate smoothly.

4.	You have two options as to where to save the file:

Install - this saves the screen saver into the Windows system folder and makes it the default screen saver. (You can save to a different folder but we recommend using the default system folder as screen saver files in this folder are easier to reinstall in the future.)

Save - this saves the screen saver to a folder of your choice. This does not make this screen saver the Windows default.

5.	Enter a name  for the screen saver file.

6.	Click Save.

Because Xara 3D has to generate each frame of the animation, this process can take a few minutes.

Tips

To create a smooth screen saver animation it's recommended you have create an animation with a fast animation speed (15 to 20 frames per second) and between 50 and 100 frames in each cycle.

Windows stretches the animation to fill the screen. If you want the text to partially fill the screen, select a point size, such as 72pt from the text size drop down, instead of Fit to width.

Previewing a screen saver file

1.	Browse to the screen saver (SCR) file.

2.	Right-click on the file. This pops-up a menu.

3.	Click Test to preview.

Using a screen saver file

If, in step 4,  you installed the new screen saver as the default, everything is already set up for you. No further action is necessary.

Otherwise to change the screen saver:

If you saved the screen saver to the Windows system folder:

1.	Click Start on the Taskbar.

2.	Choose Settings.

3.	Choose Control Panel.

4.	Double-click Display.

5.	Click the Screen Saver tab.

6.	The screen saver drop-down list shows all screen savers in the system folder. Choose the screen saver you want.

7.	Click OK to make the selected screen saver the default.

If you saved the screen saver to a different folder:

1.	Browse to the screen saver file.

2.	Right-click on the file. This pops-up a menu.

3.	Click Install to select the screen saver. Then click OK to make the screen saver the default.

Related topics:

Animations


Shadow blur
Changing the blur of the shadow

This can give the effect of either a pin-point light source (little blur) or diffuse light source (greater blur.) For best results we suggest always blurring the shadow slightly - in real-life shadows don't have sharp edges.

1.	Click the Shadow Options button on the Toolbar.

2.	Type a value into Blur.

Related Topics:

Shadows


Shadow color
Changing the color of the shadow

1.	Double-click on the shadow. This displays the Color Options dialog box.

2.	Edit the color.

Note: you can also click the Shadow Options button then click Color.

Related Topics:

Shadows


Shadow display
Displaying/removing a shadow

1.	Click the Shadow Options button on the Toolbar.

2.	Select Shadow to display a shadow.

Deselect to remove a shadow.

Related Topics:

Shadows


Shadow move
Moving the shadow

You can move the shadow relative to the 3D objects. You can also move it closer to the objects or away from them.

To move the shadow:

The easiest way to move the shadow is to drag it in the window. Make sure you drag the shadow and not the text or the background.

Alternatively the shadow is cast by a special light, which does not affect the color of the 3D objects:

1.	Select the Show Lighting light bulb on the Toolbar. This displays the three colored lights and the shadow light (striped arrow.)

2.	Drag the shadow light. Shadows look "right" if they are slightly below and to the left or right of the text.

To move the shadow closer:

1.	Hold down the ALT key and press the + (plus) key on the numeric keypad.

To move the shadow away:

1.	Hold down the ALT key and press the - (minus) key on the numeric keypad.

To cancel any movement of the shadow:

1.	Hold down the ALT key and press the * (asterisk) key on the numeric keypad.

Related Topics:

Shadows


Shadow transparency
Changing the transparency of the shadow

This controls how much of the background color or texture shows through the shadow. Semitransparent shadows are more realistic than solid shadows.

1.	Click the Shadow Options button on the Toolbar.

2.	Type a percentage into Transparency.

Related Topics:

Shadows


Shadow type
Changing the shadow style (type)

This controls the angle of the background.

1.	Click the Shadow Options button on the Toolbar.

2.	Select 1 or 2.

1 is a blurred copy of the objects. Artistically this is not a true shadow but it looks "correct" for simple drop shadows (the most common type on web pages.)

2 is a true shadow, thrown by the Shadow Light. This type looks best in animations where the eye is more aware of the shape of a shadow.

Related Topics:

Shadows


Shadows and Backgrounds

Because Xara3D shadows are semi-transparent, to ensure the best, most effective results on web pages make sure Xara3D is using the same background GIF or JPG file as your web page. You can save a web page background to your local disc by using the right mouse button. Click over a part of the background in a browser window and select Save Background As. You can then just drag and drop the file onto the Xara3D background.

GIF files (especially animated GIF files) with soft shadows over background textures are larger than those with no soft shadow.

Related Topics:

Shadows


Shadows dialog box
Shadow dialog box

More information on using shadows.

To display this dialog box:

1.	Either click Shadow Options on the Toolbar at the side of the window

or choose Shadow on the Options menu

or press ALT+S.

Shadow

Select this to display a shadow.

Style

1 is a blurred copy of the objects. Artistically this is not a true shadow but it looks "correct" for simple drop shadows (the most common type on web pages.)

2 is a true shadow, thrown by the Shadow Light. This type looks best in animations where the eye is more aware of the shape of a shadow.

Color

Displays the Color Options dialog box ready to change the shadow color. Normally the shadow is gray and shows some of the background color through.

Transparency

Controls how much of the background color or texture shows through the shadow. Semitransparent shadows are more realistic than solid shadows.

Blur

This can give the effect of either a pin-point light source (little blur) or diffuse light source (greater blur.) For best results we suggest always blurring the shadow slightly - in real-life shadows don't have sharp edges.

Note:

Flash vector format does not support shadows. Selecting Display as Flash on the View menu dims all shadow options.

Related Topics:

Shadows


Step animation
Step animation is one of the animation types in Xara3D. It displays a static (non-rotating) image and so is suitable only for multipage animations. These display a sequence of images - see Creating multipage animations.


Technical support

We hope you don't have any problems with Webstyle but if you do, you will find a helpful list of FAQs on our web site on  www.xara.com/support/Xara3D [image] These support pages are available 24 hours and can provide immediate answers to common questions.

If the answer isn't on these support pages, you can contact our support department directly using the form on those pages.

This product is Xara3D 5 - Technical Support may need this information.


Text - dead keys
Typing international (accented) characters

You can insert accented characters using either dead keys (where supported) or the Character Map. The Character Map also lets you select non-Latin alphabets such as Greek or Cyrillic.

Dead Keys:

Xara3D lets you enter a wide range of accented characters using "dead keys". These work by:

1.	pressing CTRL+the accent character then

2.	typing the regular character.

So, for example, to enter è (e grave) you first type CTRL+' (single quote) then type e. Common accent characters are

' ` ,^ " ~ / for è é ç ê ë ã Ø

Not all fonts include a full set of accented characters. This is a feature of the font and beyond the control of Xara3D.

If you know their number, you can enter characters by holding down ALT and typing the number on the numeric keypad. For example ALT+0233 gives é.

There's more details on a web page

Character Map:

You can also select characters using the Character Map in the Text Options dialog box. To display this, click More in the dialog box.

In the Character Map:

click a character for an enlarged view,

double-click a character to insert into your 3D heading.

There are two types of fonts: regular fonts (which have up to 256 characters) and Unicode fonts (which have many more characters).

For regular fonts the Character Map shows all the available characters. Note that many fonts do not include a full set of characters; unused positions appear as rectangles.

Unicode fonts contain several sets of characters (such as Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Phonetic). The U button and the drop-down list gives you access to the different character sets. Note that nearly all Unicode fonts contain several character sets. A ">" next to a character set in the drop-down list shows that this character set is included. This relies on information contained in the font which might not be accurate. You may find that some options just display blank characters (rectangles) because these characters are not included in the selected font.


Text - editing the middle of a line
Editing text in the middle of a line

In the main Xara3D window:

1. Click Show/Hide Cursor (the I-beam) on the Standard Toolbar to select it. This displays a vertical cursor.

2.	Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the cursor.

3.	You can then type in new text or delete existing text using BACKSPACE or DELETE.

In the Text Options dialog box:

1.	Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the cursor.

2.	You can then type in new text or delete existing text using BACKSPACE or DELETE.


Text - selecting characters
Selecting characters

(For example to change them to a different font.)

The first step is to select the characters you want to change:

1. Close the Text Options dialog box if you have this open.

2.	Click Show/Hide Cursor (the I-beam) on the Standard Toolbar to select it. This displays a vertical cursor.

3.	Using the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the cursor to where you want the selection to start.

4.	Use SHIFT+arrow keys to select characters. (See Note.)

Any options you change then apply to the selected characters only. You can change options such as font, size, color, and bevel type.

Note:

SHIFT+left/right arrow selects the character to the left or right of the cursor (and moves the cursor).

CTRL+SHIFT+left/right arrow selects from the cursor to the start (left arrow) or end (right arrow) of the line.

CTRL+A selects all the text.

CTRL+P selects all the text on the current page - this is useful in multipage animations.


Text Size
To control the size of the 3D objects:

You can control the size of the objects by:

resizing the Xara3D window or the Frame (details below)

or specifying a size in points. Change the size using the Text Size field on the Text Toolbar. Either type in a new value or select one from the drop down list.

To switch between the sizing options:

1.	If the Text Toolbar is not displayed at the bottom of the window choose Text Toolbar on the View menu.

2.	In Font Size select Fit to Width to resize the text as you resize the window or Frame. Alternatively specify the text size in points.

Everything in Xara3D is WYSIWYG - so with either method, the size you see in the window will be the size of the resultant image on your Web page. (Although you can override the size setting when you export the image.)

Xara3D uses one of the most advanced 3D rendering engines around. For instance, it automatically anti-aliases the image to produce the highest quality jaggy-free image. However as the anti-aliasing process can take a second or two, when you are ‘interacting’ with Xara3D (that is when you are dragging the text or altering other aspects in real time, such as the lighting) the program produces a lower-quality non anti-aliased display. When you stop moving or altering things, the program automatically redisplays the top quality version. (You can use Quality on the Window menu to select on-screen quality.)

Resizing the window or Frame

You can display larger images in the regular Xara3D window. To resize the image just drag the edges or corners of the window, as is usual for windows.

Display smaller images in the Frame (a separate, smaller window) - this keeps the Xara3D window at a usable size. Again to resize the image, just drag the edges or corners of the Frame.


Text dialog box

To display this dialog box:

1.	Either click Text Options on the Toolbar at the side of the window

or choose Text on the Options menu

or press ALT+T.

If you have some text selected, any changes you make apply only to the selection. Otherwise changes apply to all text.

Bold - make the text bold. This button duplicates the Bold button on the Text Toolbar. Has no effect on 2D objects.

Italic - make the text italic. This button duplicates the Italic button on the Text Toolbar. Also slants any 2D objects.

Outline - select for outline text. This button duplicates the Outline button on the Text Toolbar.

Size - this lets you make 3D objects larger or smaller. Its main use is to change the size of selected characters. Size is relative so if you change Font Size (on the Text Toolbar) the characters scale in proportion.

Aspect Ratio - change the width relative to the height. This duplicates Aspect Ratio on the Text Toolbar.

Alignment - change the alignment (justification) of two or more lines of text. Has no effect for a single line of text. Duplicates the Alignment button on the Text Toolbar.

Line Spacing - changes the vertical space between lines of text (more details). This duplicates Line Spacing on the Text Toolbar.

Tracking - changes the horizontal space between characters (more details). This duplicates Tracking on the Text Toolbar.

Baseline Shift - move the selected text vertically. Keyboard short cuts: F7 shift up; F8 shift down.

Kerning - change the horizontal space between two characters. Dimmed if there is selected text. Keyboard short cuts: F5 reduce spacing; F6 increase spacing.

Note the difference between Kerning (which affects a pair of characters) and Tracking (which affects several characters.)

Page break (CTRL+ENTER) - create a new page in a Multipage animation.

Font list - this lets you select the font (typeface). If you click on a font name, you can then scroll up and down the list using the arrow keys on the keyboard. The preview (on the right) then shows you how the text looks in the current font.

Preview window - shows you the text. You can select text in this preview (by dragging or using the arrow keys) and then apply any of the options in this dialog box to just the selection.

More - this displays the Character Map, which lets you select any character in the selected font. For more information see Typing international characters.

Right-click menu:

Right-click on the text preview to display a menu.

Zoom to fit - display all the text in the preview window.

Zoom in -  enlarge your view onto the text

Zoom out - display more of the text in the preview window

These options just change your view onto the text. They have no effect on the actual size of the text.


Text justification
To change the alignment of two or more lines of text

(Also known as Justification.)

Click the three align buttons on the Text Toolbar at the bottom of the window. These buttons have no effect for a single line of text.


Text line spacing
To change spacing between lines of text

Change Line Spacing on the Text Toolbar (displayed at the bottom of the window.) This value is a percentage of the regular line spacing. 100% is regular spacing. Less than 100% moves the lines closer together. Line spacing has no effect for a single line of text.

This always affects the entire line. To move selected characters vertically, use Baseline Shift on the Text dialog box. Or use F7 to move the selection upwards; F8 downwards.


Text spacing
Changing the spacing between characters

To change the spacing between several or all characters:

1.	Change the value in Tracking on the Text Toolbar (displayed at the bottom of the window.) Tracking is measured in ems. One em is the width of the letter 'M' in the current font.

If there is some text selected, the tracking change applies just to the selection. (See Selecting text.) Otherwise the change applies to all characters.

You can also use the Text dialog box.

To change the space between two characters:

1.	Open the Text dialog box.

2.	In the dialog box move the cursor between the two characters.

3.	Change the value in Kerning. Positive values increase the space between characters; negative decreases the space.

Keyboard short cut:

F5 reduce spacing

F6 increase spacing


Text width
To make the objects wider or narrower

Change Aspect Ratio on the Text Toolbar (displayed at the bottom of the window.) 100% is regular width. Less than 100% compresses the characters. Note the difference between Aspect Ratio (change the width of characters) and Tracking (change the space between characters.)

You can change the aspect ratio of just a part of the text. Select the characters you want and then change the aspect ratio.

See this page for details of making 3D buttons wider or narrower.


Texture dialog box

More information on using textures

To display this dialog box:

1.	Either click Texture Options on the Toolbar at the side of the window

or choose Texture on the Options menu

or press ALT+X.

Drop-down list

Normally the options are Text texture and Background texture.

If you are creating a button the options are Button text, Button texture and Background texture.

Note that some options in this dialog box apply only to Text/Button texture.

Texture (Text/Button texture only)

Select this to display a texture on the text or on the background.

Tint (Text/Button texture only)

(Dimmed unless Texture selected. This duplicates the Tint button in the Color Options dialog box.)

Select this if you want to tint (slightly recolor) the texture. You can then use the Color Options dialog box to modify the color of the texture.

Size

(Text/Button texture) - scales the texture bitmap. Only you know the best size for a particular heading. At large scalings, the individual pixels that make up the bitmap may become noticeable - this can create interesting effects. At smaller scalings you see multiple copies of the bitmap.

(Button text) - scales the text on a 3D button. More details.

X

Move the bitmap (or button text) sideways. This lets you position the bitmap precisely. Movement is relative to the bitmap size - for a small bitmap (as you get with low values of Size), movement is less noticeable. Note that if you rotate the texture, you also rotate the angle of X movement.

Y

Move the bitmap (or button text) vertically. Similar to X.

Angle

(Text/Button texture) - rotate the texture.

(Button text) - rotate the text around the center of the button.

Load texture (dimmed for Button text)

Opens the Load Texture dialog box. This duplicates Text texture or Background texture on the View menu.

Note:

Flash vector format does not support textures. Selecting Display as Flash on the View menu dims all texture options.


The Frame

For large images, you can alter the image size by resizing the Xara3D window. For smaller images this can make the Xara3D window too small for easy use. In this case, you can display the image in a smaller, separate window (called the Frame). You can then resize the Frame to change the image size.

To display/hide the Frame:

1.	Either click the Display/Hide Frame button on the Standard Toolbar

or choose Display Frame on the Window menu.

Resizing the Frame:

1.	Either

drag the edges or corners of the Frame - Image Size (at the bottom of the Xara3D window) shows you the current size.

or

for precise control, choose Frame Size on the Window menu. You can then type in the width and height in pixels.


The basics

To create a 3D heading is easy:

step 1: start typing to enter the text you want. You can delete existing text using Backspace.

step 2: select the font for the heading.

step 3: change the bevel and extrude if you wish (using the B and E buttons).

step 4: drag the text to get the angle you want.

step 5: change the color of the text or background (using the color palette button)

or you can import a bitmap texture for the text or background (using the X button).

step 6: resize the Xara3D window to set the size of the text.

step 7: select Export bitmap on the File menu to save the heading as a BMP, PNG, GIF, JPEG, Flash SWF, ICO (icon) or CUR (cursor).

Want an animated heading?

Simple. After step 4 change the animation options (using the A button). You can preview the animation by clicking the Start animation button. Then in step 7, select Export animation on the File menu to save as an AVI movie or Animated GIF, Flash SWF or ANI cursor.

Want to change the lighting angles or colors?

Simple. Click the light bulb button. This displays the three lights that color the text (and a special striped light that creates the shadow). Drag the lights to change the angles or double-click on a light to display the color picker.

Want to copy styles from an existing Xara3D heading?

You can import the settings (lighting, colors, and so on) from any existing X3D file by using Import style on the File menu. Or you can import animation settings from an X3D file by using Import animation on the View menu..

Want to import your own 2D graphic?

You can import Windows metafiles (EMF or WMF) or Xara XAR/WEB files. Then you can convert them to extruded 3D graphics. More details.

Detailed information on using Xara3D


The fonts
The fonts included with Xara3D

Included with Xara3D are six free fonts The CD includes 50 extra fonts. Details of finding fonts on the CD.

The download fonts are:

Balthazar - an unusual old fashioned ‘pen’ font

Dayton - a modern blocky font

GeoType - a wonderful collection of symbols and shapes

Greek Diner - an open face font

Russel Write - a distinctive modern display font

Whimsy - an informal, angular font

Geotype, Greek Diner, Russel Write, and Whimsy fonts kindly provided by Gary David Bouton.

Note:

Two of the fonts downloaded with Xara3D are from the large range of fonts available for individual download at www.buyfonts.com


Time line
The Time line

This lets you start, stop and step through animations.

To display/hide the time line:

1.	Choose Time line on the Window menu (or click ALT+L)

Controls on the time line

Start/Stop the animation. (Duplicates Start/Stop animation on the Standard Toolbar.)

Pause the animation.

Stop the animation and display the static image.

Display the first frame in the animation. Note: this is different from the static image you see by clicking Stop.

Step back one frame

Step forward one frame

Display the last frame in the animation

Displays progress through the animation. You can also drag the slider to move to a  particular point in the animation.

 Shows the current frame number (11 and total number of frames (20)

Related topics:

Animations


Tip of the day

This pops-up a message giving hints and tips. A different message appears each time you start Xara3D.

To disable "Tip of the day"

1.	Uncheck Show tips on start-up on the Tips dialog box.

You can display the Tips dialog box at any time using Tip of the day on the Help menu.

To re-enable "Tip of the day"

1. Choose Tip of the day on the Help menu. This opens the Tips dialog box.

2.	Check Show tips on start-up on the Tips dialog box.


Tips for reducing the size of animated GIF files;
Tips for reducing the size of Animated GIF files

Images of any type that are larger than, say, 50Kb are not really welcomed by Web users.

Make the image as small as possible by selecting the Crop option on export.

Select 'Front face only' for "Rotate" animations.

Have no more than about 20 frames per animation.

For multipage animations avoid having too many pages.

When exporting try selecting 16 colors (4-bit) with no dithering and optimized palette. When images are animating, the banding is far less obvious than with a static image.

When exporting GIFs (animated or static) that have a complex background, try exporting them as transparent GIFs.

Rotating the lights changes the file size only slightly.

Related topics:

Animations


Typewriter animation
Typewriter animation is one of the animation types in Xara3D. Each character appears sequentially, similar to typing in each character.


Using textures
Using textures to color the objects

You can use bitmap textures to color the objects. Use Text Texture on the View menu to select a bitmap. You can also drag-and-drop textures onto the objects. You can use any BMP, ICO, PNG, JPEG or GIF file. For light colored textures you can use the normal lighting. Darker textures need bright lights (white or pale colors) to give the best results.

If you select part of the heading, then you can apply the texture to just the selected objects. (This is new for Xara3D5.)

You can change the size, position and angle of the texture from the Texture Options dialog box. (Texture on the Options menu or ALT+X.) If you make the bitmap smaller than the heading, you see multiple copies of the bitmap. This dialog box lets you create a wide range of effects.

You can tint (slightly recolor) a text texture. In the Texture Options dialog box or Color Options dialog box (Color on the Options menu) select Tint. Then use the Color Options dialog box to modify the color.

See also:

Altering the text color


View menu

Text Color/Button Color

This option reads Text color unless you are creating a button.

Display the Color Options dialog box ready to edit the color of the faces and sides of the heading or button. More details of the color options.

Text Texture/Button Texture

This option reads Text texture unless you are creating a button.

Select a bitmap texture to display on the surface of the text. More details of using textures.

Front and Back Color

Display the Color Options dialog box ready to edit the color of the faces of the heading or button. More details of the color options.

Side Color

Display the Color Options dialog box ready to edit the color of the sides of the heading or button. More details of the color options.

Background Color

Display the Color Options dialog box ready to edit the color of the background.  More details of changing the background color.

Background Texture

Select a bitmap texture to display as the background. More details of using textures.

Button Text Color (dimmed unless you are creating a button)

Display the Color Options dialog box ready to edit the color of the text on a button. More details of the color options.

Display Lighting

Show the three colored lights. You can then change their positions or, by double-clicking, their color. More details on the lights.

Light Source 1

Display the Color Options dialog box ready to edit the color of Light 1. More details on the lights.

Light Source 2

Display the Color Options dialog box ready to edit the color of Light 2. More details on the lights.

Light Source 3

Display the Color Options dialog box ready to edit the color of Light 3. More details on the lights.

Shadow Color

Display the Color Options dialog box ready to edit the color of the shadow. More details on shadows.

Display as Flash

Some Xara3D features do not exist in Macromedia Flash format. More details.

Display Hotspot

This is used by cursor files (CUR & ANI) to denote the active part of the cursor - more details.

Start/Stop Animation

Start or stop the on-screen animation. More details on animation options.


What does this do?
What does this do...?

Use these pages to find out more about the menu options or the dialog boxes.

The menus

File menu

Edit menu

View menu

Options menu

Window menu

Dialog boxes

Animation dialog box

Bevel dialog box

Button dialog box

Color dialog box

Extrusion dialog box

Shadows dialog box

Text dialog box

Texture dialog box

Import Style dialog box

Import Animation dialog box


What's new
What's new in Version 5

The main features added are:

New Features

Create 3D animated Screen Savers.

Import Styles. This is a means to copy some or all of the attributes of any existing file. The preview in the filer dialog shows you what your current heading would look like with those styles applied. You can select some or all of the attributes of a style.

You can now apply texture and texture attributes per character. These options can be set for either front or side faces as with color.

There are now thumbnail views of X3D files in folder windows. (To save space, X3D files included with the downloaded trial version do not inhave thumbnails.)

Four new bevel types: fancy incut 1 and 2, bumpy and ridged.

You can now apply button text colors per character.

View frame. This allows saving and reloading of images at a specific size.

Setting of hotspot for cursors.

Smaller GIFs.

Graphics are now optimized for the Pentium 4

Full Unicode support for all operating systems including Windows 98.

Move text around by holding down ALT and dragging.

Text editor now allows text to be zoomed in or out (use right mouse click). Text can also now be scrolled.

Add comments to X3D files. Lets you add or edits comments in the saved files, which show up in the preview.

There's an image preview and file size information displayed in the export dialog box for static bitmaps.

New Export Formats

Flash bitmap export.

Flash vector export. Flash vector format doesn't support all Xara3D features so Display as Flash on the View menu disables features, such as textures and shadows, not supported by Flash.

Create icons (ICO) files and cursor (CUR) files.

Create animated cursor (ANI) files.

A Progressive option for JPEG export.

New Animation Features

Import Animation. Accessed from within the animation dialog or by clicking the icon on the Standard Toolbar or from the File menu. Allows you to copy the animation attributes of any existing file to a new heading. Opens an animation folder that include a collection of ready made files using all the existing animation types. The preview shows you what your current heading would look like with those animation attributes applied to it.

Most of the animation options can now be applied per character. Exceptions are:

 Rotate light options

 Fade in/out

 Frame duration

 Overlap in Pulsate.

A new Animation Time line. Lets you save any single frame of an animation.

For more information on the following options see Animation dialog box

More pulsate animation options. You can now pulsate along any one of 3 axes individually and in a wave along an axis. There's also a new overlap option which results in smaller animations (multi-page animations only).

Can also wave in Rotate 2 and Swing.

Can rotate lights and text separately.

New Typewriter animation type.

New Ripple animation type.

New Pulse animation type.


Fancy incut 1 & 2 - create a molded rebate around the text

Bumpy - similar to Rolled but but has three ridges instead of two.

Ridged - like Rolled, this has three ridges but they are angular instead of rounded.


Window menu

Display Frame

Display the image in a separate window (the Frame). This duplicates the Show/Hide Frame button on the Standard Toolbar. The Frame is a convenient way of viewing small images.

Frame Size

Open the Frame Size dialog box. This lets you precisely set the Frame (and hence image) size.

Quality Settings

Change the on-screen viewing quality. More details.

Standard Toolbar

Display the Toolbar at the top of the window.

Toolbar

Display shortcuts to the dialog boxes.

Text Toolbar

Display the Text Toolbar at the bottom of the window.

Time Line

Display the Time Line.

Status Bar

Display the Status Bar at the bottom of the window.


XAR/WEB files
Notes on Xara WEB/XAR files

These are produced by XARA X or Xara Webster.

Installing from the CD automatically installs the Xara file importer.

To keep the download small, the file importer is not included with the trial version of Xara3D. You can download it separately from

www.xara.com/downloads/plugin.html

Notes on imported files:

Line widths are ignored.

Dash patterns, joins, end caps, and arrows on lines are ignored.

Objects on all visible layers are imported.

Objects on the current frame are imported; other frames are ignored.

Bitmaps are ignored.

If the imported file contains

only filled objects (for example, colored circles) or text: these are imported.

only lines or unfilled objects: these are imported.

a mixture of filled objects/text and lines/unfilled objects: only the filled objects/text are imported.

More details on Xara X


Xara3D lets you create multipage animations that run through a sequence of 3D headings. We refer to each separate heading as a "page".


Typing characters as normal adds them to the end of the text. Or you can Import a 2D object.


BACKSPACE deletes characters from the end of the line.


Press ENTER to start a new line.