trouble with Paint tool

[illusory]

Every time I try to use the Paint tool in DFX 5, I have trouble. Much of the time, I cannot get the paint cursor active in the window. I choose the stroke icon, but when I try to drag in the window, I just get a selection rectangle. Occasionally I get the small circle under cursor, and I can therefore paint a stroke. But then I try another one and I get the selection rectangle when I drag in the window again! Under the same conditions! This is really frustrating.

Does anyone know why this happens and what I could be doing wrong???

thanks for any help,
NJ

[ShadowMaker SdR]

Are you viewing the paint tool after you add it to the comp? If not, that would be one reason why you wouldn't see a stroke.

[illusory]

yeah, I'm being very careful about the obvious things like that, so it's maddening. I have discovered one thing, which may be a bug. If I ever display the paint tool in the view area on the right, i get this problem. Even if I then display it on the left. It seems to only want to draw on the left display! I have to delete the tool and use another, and be careful to only display it on the left. Very wierd ...

thanks,
NJ

[ShadowMaker SdR]

If you can really reproduce this make sure to send it to eyeon's bug report service (it's built-in in 5 and up) - they love to hear reproducable bugs like that. It means that they can actually start fixing them.

[DanielKoch]

To use the paint tool, it should not only be viewed, but selected as well, so that you can see the brush cursor.

Also, check that the view isn't set to to hide all controls, as that will likewise prevent the paint tool from displaying its cursor or recognising strokes.

Finally, the paint toolbar should have the stroke tool selected, not the selection arrow. If need be, try switching back to the selection arrow, then to the stroke tool again.

If pain still persists, then please do contact tech support, or at least send us the comp with the bug report form, and we'll take a look at it.

[illusory]

Well, I'm certain of all the things you mention except maybe the point about enabling the controls. It's suspicious because I sometimes enable them on one screen and not the other, so...I'll take special notice of that. Hard to believe that's been the case though every time.

Many thanks for the suggestions,
NJ