The Graphics Muse Tools
TransGFX

Welcome to TransGFX Online from the Graphics Muse!.  TransGFX takes the active selection or layer and rotates it the specified number of degrees.  You can choose to rotate the preview by hand or type in a specific angle.  Rotations can be turned into new layers or anchored to the existing layer.

On this page you'll find everything you need to know in order to get started with and make the most use of ArrowGFX.  Once you've gotten the hang of this plug-in, be sure to check out the other GFXMuse Tools plug-ins:

Table of Contents
  1. A tour of the TransGFX dialog window
  2. Interactively changing the rotation angle
  3. Dialog Buttons
  4. Resetting the dialog
  5. Performing the rotation and closing the dialog
  6. Undoing the rotation
A tour of the TransGFX dialog window

Using TransGFX is fairly easy.  There are a number of features you can modify.  Starting with the upper left of the dialog window you will find the Rotation Angle Preview.  This is an interactive display that you can use to adjust the angle to rotate the active selection or layer.  We'll talk more about this in a moment.

To the right of the Preview is a framed box titled Disposition of Rotation.  In this box are two toggle buttons, one labeled New Layer and one labeled Anchor To Original.  Right before a rotation is performed a floating selection is created.  These toggles determine the disposition of that floating layer after the rotation has completed.

Below these toggles is a button labeled Smooth Jagged Edges.  If selected this will cause the rotated floating selection to have its edges smoothed (also known as anti-aliased).  The effect of this smoothing is not obvious in all rotations so you may need to experiment with it to find out if its needed or not.

Following the Smooth button are two options:  a blend mode menu and an opacity slider with text input field.  The menu, slider and text field are only applicable if the New Layer toggle is currently set.  If the Anchor to Original toggle is set then these features become unselectable.  If a new layer is chosen then its initial blend mode and opacity level are set according to the option menu and slider setting, respectively.

Underneath the Preview is a text input field with two arrow buttons.  The text input field shows the current rotation angle, from -359 to +359 degrees.  When you rotate the box in the preview window this field is automatically updated.  Alternatively, you can type the angle directly into this field.  The arrow buttons allow adjustments of 1/1000 of a degree.

Finally, the layer to use as the source for your rotation can be selected from the Layer menu below the arrow buttons.

Interactively changing the rotation angle

The Preview window can be modified by clicking inside the frame and dragging the mouse in any direction.  As you drag the white box will rotate within the black circular outline, with the dotted line always pointing to where the current selection's/layer's upper right corner will be after the rotation.

When the left moues button is clicked and held, mouse drag operations cause large changes in the angle of rotation.  You can modify this by using the Shift and CTRL keys.  Holding the Shift key down while you drag will decrease the angle rotation by 1/3rd, the CTRL key will decrease it by 1/6th and holding both down will decrease it by 1/10th.  This should provide fairly reasonable levels of granularity in the rotation, with even finer levels achieved by using the arrow buttons.

Dialog Buttons

Along the bottom of the dialog are 5 buttons: OK, Cancel, Reset, Show Status, and Help.  The Help button opens the Help dialog and displays this text.  The Show Status button will open a window similar to the Help window that shows the current status of the TransGFX plug-in as it performs its rotation of a layer or selection.  Both the Help and Show Status windows can be closed by clicking on the same dialog button again or by clicking on those dialogs Close buttons.

Resetting the dialog

All fields and original settings of the dialog can be reset with the Reset button.  Clicking on this button also will refresh the Layer menu to show all the layers in the current image (the image from which the TransGFX dialog was opened).  This is useful for doing rotations of layers that have just been created by TransGFX.

Performing the rotation and closing the dialog

To perform a rotation simply click on the OK button.  You need not make any changes to any other part of the dialog before doing so.  In this case, you will simply get a new layer that contains either the current selection or a copy of the active layer.

The TransGFX dialog does not close automatically.  It will remain open so you can peform multiple rotations if you desire.  To close the dialog, simply click on the Cancel button.

Undoing the rotation

TransGFX will add either 3 or 4 operations to the Undo stack.  To get back to where you where prior to the rotation you can type CTRL-Z three times (if a selection was already present previously) or 4 times (if no selection was present).