I just posted about the undo problem with Dropshadows but I am having other problems with Dropshadows as well -- I just haven't figured yet out what triggers the problem.
If I try to combine multiple objects with dropshadows, it makes a single object and everything looks fine initially, but if I move the new object or merge the new object with the background, all of the dropshadows are simply lost. This is happening to me very frequently and it is horribly frustrating. Sometimes I can merge the shadows first and sometimes it doesn't matter. Sometimes my only choice is to try to copy the object into a new document where hopefully I can merge the shadow before copying and pasting it back into the original document.
However, in the case of THIS problem, if I start a new document, create two objects with dropshadows and merge them, it behaves correctly. Some other operation causes this problem, and whatever that problem is, it is saved with the image because I can reload a problematic image and the problem will occur every time. It's not some sort of corruption that occurs only during runtime... I believe the Z-ordering and/or grouping gets corrupted and it is eventually saved corrupted. In a problematic document, any new object I create will have this broken behavior.
I tend to use groups a lot and I'm not sure if that contributes to the problem. I encounter lots of problems related to groups over time. I believe Photo-Paint has problems with groups containing groups in particular.
For example, create objects A and B and group them (A+B). Create another two objects C and D and group them together (C+D). Group the the two groups of two objects (A+B)+(C+D). Click one of the objects and move it. Only the two objects in the original group (A+B) or (C+D) will move. The other group does not move even though all objects are actually grouped together. I can repeat this with a clean document. Combine this problem with the problem I described in another post regarding dropshadows and z-order, and one attempt to move followed by one undo could mess up your entire layout with no option but to manually correct it or revert to a previous save.
I'm running Corel Photo-Paint 2018 v20.1.0.708 on Windows 7 with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX960, i5-4690, 16GB RAM.
Can you post or post a link to download an unmerged and merged sample, the a sample of a file that cannot be merged. Detailed step by step instructions or a video would help.
Here is a link to a sample file..
https://www.dropbox.com/s/avuway9yn0ho1vq/Sample01.cpt?dl=0
I confirmed that this has something to do with dropshadows and Z-order yet again... just like the other problem I posted regarding UNDO.
There are 4 objects in this document. TEST, TEST1, Object93 and Object 364. All of which have dropshadows. If you try to select both TEST and TEST1 and then COMBINE, they will combine into one object without dropshadows. You may need to move or merge the image to see this as the dropshadows are initially still visually present on-screen.
If you try to combine Object93 and Object 364, they will combine fine. If you try to combine ANY other two, they will lose their dropshadows.
Move TEST and TEST1 down to the bottom of the Z-order. Combine them and they will combine fine. Object 93 and Object 364, no longer at the bottom of the Z-order will lose their dropshadows.
I can now reproduce this in a brand new document as well. Create 4 objects with dropshadows. Combine any two that are not at the bottom of the z-order and they lose their shadows.
So Z-order is affecting dropshadows and groups within groups is also broken. Both are features I use heavily so I pull my hair out regularly. I finally had to post something.
Your link only gives me code.
David Milisock said:Your link only gives me code.
Ignore what Dropbox shows for a preview. Download the file, and it is a .CPT file that opens in Photo-Paint.
Has anyone else been able to reproduce this behaviour?
Now it makes sense why copying those objects to another document and merging them there worked -- all the objects were at the bottom of the z-order in the new document where they were pasted.
I'm really surprised that this hasn't been mentioned before or already fixed. Am I really one of the few people that would combine multiple objects with dropshadows or use groups extensively?
Almost all of us do our drop shadow work in Draw not Photo-PAINT.