[No BUG] Joining Contours | Union--a bug?

D_Spider · Post by **D_Spider** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 9:58 am

I'm not succeeding at joining some pairs of contours, and my computer is getting stressed by the activity; I need to learn what I'm doing wrong--posted a question in the support forum--but Font Creator may be misbehaving as well. In the (false-color) screenshot, the blue is the stem of a capital I, and the pink is the shape I want to put on top and bottom of it, and the area with stripes is the overlap of the two shapes. Both blue and pink are selected; then I right-click and choose "join contours | union." Nothing happens immediately but two-and-a-half seconds later one of the shapes disappears (that--the computer's working at it for 2.5 seconds--is what I mean about "stress"). It doesn't matter which shape I select first, or how I select them, and if I use the Edit|Join Contours|union way to join them instead of the context-menu way the same thing happens. This occurred (for the picture) when Windows had been running not quite two hours.

Then I rebooted, started FC right away, tried to join the shapes, and the 2.5-second wait was eliminated; first time I tried joining the contours, it worked; 2nd time, the smaller shape disappeared; 3rd time (w same way of selecting as 2nd time) the two shapes remained but were not joined. The same problem has occurred before; once, trying to join shapes locked up Windows with the "busy" icon-cursor showing until I 'killed' FC. (I tried to 'close' FC with EndItAll--application that shuts down other applications; its 'close' option gives the app opportunity to save its settings before closing--but 'closing' did not work.)

This is everything I know. Is what I describe a "bug"? I'm fairly sure my computer is okay (short boot time, easy multi-tasking, proper file maintenance, registry maintenance, anti-virus & anti-malware, etc).* Is what I describe simply a limitation of my system and FC (i.e., it's a fact that graphics editors place big demands on system resources)? Am I trying to join contours incorrectly or in a less than optimal way?

Re system resources, I've noticed that the little 'minimize-maximize-close' boxes in upper right of the main window start duplicating themselves when it's time to reboot, usually after Windows has been running for 8 hours or more (with my audio editor, the symptom is the buttons in the interface that disappear; with PaintShopPro the buttons on the layers palette get lines through them). With my joining-contours problem there are no little warnings, no long uptimes; hence my concern.

*[Computer has an Intel Mboard & 2.4 GHz CPU, integrated Graphics module with its own 64-MB memory; 1 Gig RAM; 2 Maxtor 7200-rpm hard drives with 90+ GB free; up-to-date Intel graphics driver & application accelerator; 550-watt PS; WinXPpro installed on re-formatted hard drive in early March.]

The one main impression I get from using Font Creator is that it is an extraordinarily well-written application. Even the shortcut keys seem to have been chosen with consummate care. It does everything it's supposed to, easily. Since I have been using it I find "This a pleasure to use" just popping up in my mind from time to time. I shall be registering (the full version, not just Home) not because I have any great ideas for new fonts but because using Font Creator is so enjoyable.

D_Spider

Bhikkhu Pesala · Post by **Bhikkhu Pesala** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 11:25 am

The Get Union of Contours feature is not 100% perfect, but in most cases it will work just fine. All you need to do is resize your rectangle so that the overlap is much less and it will probalby work.

If one gets a long delay on trying to join just two simple shapes it is a clear indication that Font Creator is having trouble deciding how to join them. If you turn on "show intersecting contours and warning points" it will be easier to make sure that the contours do overlap. If they don't, there won't be any problem — but they won't be joined either.

I was able to create this eight-spoked Wheel of Dharm symbol by joining many pieces together, usiing the Get Union of Contours feature, but not without a little trial and error.

Dick Pape · Post by **Dick Pape** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 1:15 am

Hello D_Spider

For what it's worth I tried to reconstruct your seriffed I, but had no problems with the Join Contours.

As Bhikkhu Pesala says Join Contours Union works fine most of the time. In my experience when this happens I have to "help it along" by reducing the number of joins it has to make. I've never had one take such a long time to complete except when it has stopped trying. Definitely, I've never had one take so long on such a simple glyph.

It would seem, from your discussion that the reboot has something to do with it, and therefore it's not FC's fault, but MICROSOFT!... Seriously, if FC always has the problem it's likely FC, but an intermittent problem probably lies elsewhere. Are there other things running that could interfer? Does it happen in other character combinations? Do you have this type of problem in other programs?

Normally I'd recommend you need more free disk space, a faster cpu &/or more memory ...

Dick

D_Spider · Post by **D_Spider** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 9:44 am

Thank you both!

I'll be just a bit more conservative when joining. As I said, I know graphics programs make computers and their OSs work hard sometimes. And I can say, too, that joining works just fine "most of the time." I wanted to be certain that I wasn't doing something at cross purposes with the program.

D_Spider

Thapper · Post by **Thapper** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:18 pm

Hi,

I've seen similar things to this occuring also in FCP5.5. It is very hard to say exactly what causes it but it has to do with cases where points from the two contours to be joined have the same coordinates and when off-curve points from one contour is situated exactly along a line in the other contour.

Erwin, I'll prepare a small font with a couple of examples and send to you.

cheers,

Anders Thapper

Erwin Denissen · Post by **Erwin Denissen** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:19 pm

When a selection of contours is too complex (I can't define that though!), a join contours will fail. So there is always room for improvements here. Looking forward to the font with the examples.

Chris Hutchinson · Post by **Chris Hutchinson** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 3:17 pm

I've hit similar problems to the ones described above.

I have a sample font, which I'll e-mail separately to Erwin (I assume this is the correct way to provide examples).

The sample font contains just two problem characters (apart from the four 'standard' glyphs):

0x31
~~~

Digit 1 and a set of horizontal lines, made up first as a composite, then turned into a simple glyph.
Attempts to use Join Contours|Union results in the application looping.
Can circumvent by moving two points, as follows:
contour index 0 point index 1 up by 25 units
contour index 0 point index 2 up by 25 units

0x32
~~~

Digit 2 and a set of horizontal lines, made up first as a composite, then turned into a simple glyph.
Attempts to use Join Contours|Union results in the contours of the '2' disappearing!
Have not yet worked out how to circumvent

Dave Crosby · Post by **Dave Crosby** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:33 pm

Any glyph error will cause failure in joining contours.

This is such a useful tool it would be a shame not to be able to use it.

Check to make sure there are no incorrect contours, knots, or extreme off curve points before attempting it.

A few times when I could not find any problems I have used the knife to remove unneeded parts of overlapping contours to simplify and the problem went away.