drawtool is an extended version of idraw (originally from the InterViews 3.1). Based on the ivtools
OverlayUnidraw library, it adds the following features:
- double-buffered graphics drawing
- 3d Motif-like menus and buttons
- readable text save/restore
- polygon intersection and clipping tools
- graphical object attribute annotations
drawtool is derived from idraw, and implements the same set of pulldown commands and palette of
toolbuttons. Read the idraw man page for details on that part of the drawtool user interface. This page
lists only the extensions to idraw embodied in drawtool.
drawtool saves and restores documents in a readable text format. This allows for manual or programmatic
creation of drawtool files. idraw-format documents can still be imported with the "Import Graphic"
command, and exported with the Print command (both under the File menu).
In addition to idraw format, the "Import Graphic" command supports the importing of encapsulated drawtool
files, and the following image file formats: TIFF, X11 Bitmap, PBM, PGM, and PPM. Compression via
compress (.Z) and gzip (.gz) is recognized and handled for the script files themselves and the PBM, PGM,
and PPM image formats.
There is also support for opening (via command line or dialog box) and importing via the net (to the
-import port) any arbitrary PostScript file using the pstoedit filter, and any GIF, TIFF, or JPEG image,
using respectively the giftopnm, tifftopnm, or djpeg filters.
The "Export Clipboard" command writes the contents of the clipboard out in idraw or drawtool format.
Commands have been added to the Edit menu for selecting by attributes (on the graphic objects) and
clipping one polygon against another.
The View menu has been expanded with zoom and pan commands, plus commands to hide/show graphics and fix
graphic sizes and locations. In addition the viewer's panning and zooming can be chained to other
viewers, and the pointer device can be put into a continuous "scribble" mode useful when drawing
multilines or polygons.
The tools have been extended with a possible six new tools: Annotate, Attribute, ClipRect, ClipPoly,
ConvexHull, and GraphicLoc. Annotate brings up a text editor in which graphic-specific text can be
entered and/or edited. Attribute brings up a dialog box to create/edit property lists for the selected
graphic. ClipRect and ClipPoly clip polygons, rectangles, lines, and multilines if drawtool has been
built with the clippoly library (otherwise just lines and rectangles). ConvexHull is a convex hull
drawing tool available if qhull can be found in your path. GraphicLoc displays the coordinates of a
mouse-click relative to the graphic that has been clicked on. This is relative to the original screen
coordinates of the graphic when created (or the origin of the raster if an image). Subsequent rotations
and transformations can give this a non-obvious value.