Hi,
Can anyone please help me with making custom nibs in PhotoPaint X3. Yes, I can create the nib from a mask, but it gets appended to the exising set of nibs. When you save it, the complete set of nibs get saved, including Photopaint's built in ones. Trying to delete some of the nibs doesn't work. It looks like they delete, but they stay right where they are. I want to create a completely new set, with only my nibs in it. Is it possible? Also, I notice that the nibs saved from Photopaint creates the .nib file but it doesn't create a .msk file. I believe both must be present?? Any Ideas?
Corel's nibs are finicky at best, but I think the total nib/thumbnail thing is one big hairy bug. If you append a nib to Corel's default nibs, you get thumbnails. Otherwise not. About the .msk files. They are there. It gets created the moment you add something to the blank .nib file. It only has the hidden and system attributes set. It is this file that actually holds the nibs. the .nib file is just a pointer to the nib in the .msk file. What I noticed about Corel's own files is, in addition to the .nib and .msk file there are two others. A ??defnb.ini identical to the .nib file and a ??defbr.msk file. I think this .msk file holds the thumbnails, and the .ini file is the pointer to it. I will keep on fiddling, and maybe I'll get it right.....
Recently I've tried making brushes after a long while and here are tge results. I made a large (999pixels) brush and all the brushes dissapeared. (there were however, thumbnails of my old brushes left in the brush docker which I had no access too)At some point I got the default brushes back. That was yesterday.Today I hauled out a few of the selections that had been turned into brushes in the past, remade them as such;"create from contents of mask""nib save as"and chose a location.They do not show up in the docker. Attempting to load them causes a. ALL brushes to dissappear.b. nothing."restore to default nibs" does not work.However, "nib load" to C:\Program Files\Corel\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 13\CorelPHOTO-PAINT\ppnib.nib DOES get the default brushes back. (I created a shortcut to this file in my personal Corel folder. :( )Currently I cannot load any of the brushes I have made. I just looked at them and they are simply .nib files of no great size- to small to actually contain the graphic elements so something is missing. Some brushes show up and others don't. In most cases the brush on view is not the one that gets stroked down.Made a new brush; "add current nib" doesn't add anything."nib append" WELL FINALLY. ----Later---Just remade most of my selections into brushes and I know they exist somewhere even though I never know which one will come up when I try to access them. Actually, I can't figure out how 'load and append' even work. I think when I wrote 'WELL FINALLY' I got the brushes all in one place but I'm feeling cross right now since nothing is making sense.---still later---I checked that link out and realize I don't have mask files with my nibs or selections although obviously the selection is intact on the source imagery of the brush. I downloaded some of Sue Chastains brushes and even there it's total guess work despite the masks being present in the same folder.So I don't have mask files but I still get brushes to show up randomly.I have brush sets with masks that show up randomly....----I thought I would share this experience.
Anybody?
EDIT: it's about half an hour later and the nib Alfred provided doesn't do anything for me.
I did discover that the "nib options" and "toggle nib rotation" icons are capable of switching places...
EDIT: 5 minutes later...resetting nib to defaults does work- only if I choose it, close the whole docker, then reopen it.
Like I said before, a bug, and it doesn't seem like Corel is aware of it, or Corel users don't really use custom nibs (Google - you wil find very few complaints about nibs - so its possible that its only us few complainers). Maybe they plan a fix for X4.
The two problems seems that first of all, custom nibs don't show in the thumbnail list, unless you add them to the default nibs. And secondly, the list does not refresh automatically.
I think we will have to live with it until Corel wakes up.
Why would Corel users use something that is obviously not working? Someone on another forum is having 'lost brushes' issues and I'm about to link him here. Actually, on the subject of users complaining- there are very few places a person CAN complain or even leave comment where it might be seen- and such places were practically non-existand a few years ago to the average user who didn't know about user groups and forums- simply searching Google with one or two keywords. I really hope Corel does wake up to this because they are loosing customers thru the back door; ie Adobe offers fully functional programs like Elements with the purchase of scanners and tablets while Corel packages the horribly running Painter Essentials. Add to that the fact that a HUGE majority of people would rather cut their teeth on ripped Adobe software than shell out a few hundred bucks for a product that most artists aren't using and you wind up with people like myself who are so unsatisfied and discontent with the product they invested in that despite the strong sense of loyalty and the persistance in attempting to get something to work they wind up converting over to a product that is not their first choice but gets the job done as promised.