I've been using xfig for many years and after I've gotten used to the handling I am able to use it pretty fast.
For a long time I worked with version 3.2.5b. I want to switch to a newer version now, but it seems that something has changed with the behavior of the mouse pointer during zooming (with the mouse wheel). While in the old behavior the mouse pointer has always been centered in the drawing window, this doesn't happen in the newer versions. Unfortunately, at the moment I'm not able to use a newer version as I always land somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I didn't find anything in the settings to restore the old behavior.
Do you have any suggestions for me to restore the old behavior?
Regards,
David
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you are right, beginning with version 3.2.5c the behavior of the canvas when zooming with the mouse (i.e., pressing Ctrl while turning the wheel) is erratic. It seems, that the zoom scale is changed and the canvas is moved. This behavior must be regarded as a bug. I am afraid, but there is no setting to restore the old behavior.
I investigated the mouse function by compiling versions 3.2.5b and 3.2.5c. Version 3.2.5b had the compile-time macro "USE_TAB" set and compiled against libXi, while 3.2.5c did not set "USE_TAB". Nevertheless, compiling 3.2.5c with "USE_TAB" set also gave erratic canvas behavior while zooming.
For the time beeing, I only can point you to the possibility of using "Ctrl-Z" to fill the canvas with the figure. Alternatively, you might consider to continue using xfig version 3.2.5b, but upgrade the backend driver fig2dev: The new export options are then only available from the commandline, not from the user interface of xfig. Since version 3.2.5b, there were more changes to the backend-driver fig2dev than to the xfig program.
Out of interest, could you tell me, to which formats you usually export your figures?
Yours,
Thomas
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thank you very much for your quick reply. I think I'll actually go back to the old version for now and wait for the next release.
Actually, I use xfig mainly to create drawings which I then use in LaTeX documents. For this purpose I use the eps format combined with psfrag in LaTeX.
Thank you for your commitment to xfig.
Regards,
David
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I suspect, that xfig is mainly used in combination with LaTeX. Probably you are interested to hear, that fig2dev 3.2.6 and later is capable of producing tikz and pict2e output. Both formats can be directly embedded into LaTeX files. The advantage is, that any LaTeX engine can be used (pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex, latex + dvips, …). As with all output formats for LaTeX, the Text Flag "Special Text" needs to be set on all text that contains characters which are interpreted by LaTeX, e.g., $x$.
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Hi,
I've been using xfig for many years and after I've gotten used to the handling I am able to use it pretty fast.
For a long time I worked with version 3.2.5b. I want to switch to a newer version now, but it seems that something has changed with the behavior of the mouse pointer during zooming (with the mouse wheel). While in the old behavior the mouse pointer has always been centered in the drawing window, this doesn't happen in the newer versions. Unfortunately, at the moment I'm not able to use a newer version as I always land somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I didn't find anything in the settings to restore the old behavior.
Do you have any suggestions for me to restore the old behavior?
Regards,
David
Dear David,
you are right, beginning with version 3.2.5c the behavior of the canvas when zooming with the mouse (i.e., pressing Ctrl while turning the wheel) is erratic. It seems, that the zoom scale is changed and the canvas is moved. This behavior must be regarded as a bug. I am afraid, but there is no setting to restore the old behavior.
I investigated the mouse function by compiling versions 3.2.5b and 3.2.5c. Version 3.2.5b had the compile-time macro "USE_TAB" set and compiled against libXi, while 3.2.5c did not set "USE_TAB". Nevertheless, compiling 3.2.5c with "USE_TAB" set also gave erratic canvas behavior while zooming.
For the time beeing, I only can point you to the possibility of using "Ctrl-Z" to fill the canvas with the figure. Alternatively, you might consider to continue using xfig version 3.2.5b, but upgrade the backend driver fig2dev: The new export options are then only available from the commandline, not from the user interface of xfig. Since version 3.2.5b, there were more changes to the backend-driver fig2dev than to the xfig program.
Out of interest, could you tell me, to which formats you usually export your figures?
Yours,
Thomas
The forthcoming version, which will be released in the next days, does have the old behavior.
Dear Thomas,
thank you very much for your quick reply. I think I'll actually go back to the old version for now and wait for the next release.
Actually, I use xfig mainly to create drawings which I then use in LaTeX documents. For this purpose I use the eps format combined with psfrag in LaTeX.
Thank you for your commitment to xfig.
Regards,
David
I suspect, that xfig is mainly used in combination with LaTeX. Probably you are interested to hear, that fig2dev 3.2.6 and later is capable of producing tikz and pict2e output. Both formats can be directly embedded into LaTeX files. The advantage is, that any LaTeX engine can be used (pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex, latex + dvips, …). As with all output formats for LaTeX, the Text Flag "Special Text" needs to be set on all text that contains characters which are interpreted by LaTeX, e.g., $x$.
Hi Thomas,
that sounds very interesting! I'll actually take a closer look at these possibilities soon.
Regards,
David