SketchBook Pro 2010 - 4.0

What's New
The following improvements and enhancements have been made to Autodesk SketchBook Pro:
Lagoon preferences
Preferences for changing not only the lagoon, but also marking menus have been added. Create your own marking menus; populate the lagoon with the options you use most frequently. If you never use a tool, take it out and replace it with one you do. This tab gives you complete control over these domains.

In addition to all this, now when you’re working, you can right-click to access virtual floating lagoon. It uses the setting from the Lagoon Preferences.

These setting are saved to an .xml file, so you can save them to a portable hard drive, take them with you to use on any machine, and always have your custom setup.
Custom marking menus
The next thing you can do is customize the marking menu with an icon in the lagoon, adding tools that you commonly use. Once done, you can use clutch keys or right-click to access these custom marking menus without visiting the lagoon.

Lagoon position
Mouse
Stylus
Hub menu
Right-click and press 1
Press-hold 1 and pen-down
Tools
Right-click and press 2
Press-hold 2 and pen-down
Brushes
Right-click and press 3
Press-hold 3 and pen-down
Colors
Right-click and press 4
Press-hold 4 and pen-down
Edit
Right-click and press 5
Press-hold 5 and pen-down
File
Right-click and press 6
Press-hold 6 and pen-down

In the Lagoon Preferences, at the bottom of the Default SketchBook Tools list, any Do-It-Yourself brushes created are listed. Now, you can add them to any custom marking menu.
Rulers
Two rulers have been introduced, a straight edge (hotkey R) and an elliptical (hotkey E).
Only one of them can be used at a time. They can be accessed through hotkeys, which are used to show and hide the rulers. Before painting, the rulers will display guidelines; however, once you start painting, they disappear. Once you finish painting, they reappear. The last location of a ruler is saved, so that the next time you access a ruler it appears at the same place.
When a ruler is activated, at the top of the canvas, a hub appears. It provides the X and Y positional coordinates, along with the angle of rotation. The elliptical ruler contains additional A and B coordinates for the distance of each side from the center of the ellipse. As changes are made to the rulers, these values update.
NOTE For optimal results, use a stylus. With the mouse, the results may not be as accurate. If using a mouse, drawing slowly will reduce problems.
Pencil
The maximum size of the pencil increased from 2B to 14B for ease of use with images that have a large dpi.
Blur
The Blur brush softens the areas it’s used on, making it appear out of focus. Open the Brush Palette and select the Blur brush. Paint over an area to blur it.
Sharpen
The Sharpen brush makes an image look crisper; sharpening the areas it’s used on. Open the Brush Palette and select the Sharpen brush. Paint over an area to sharpen it.
Brush Manager
Use the Brush Manager to organize and manage your Do-It-Yourself brushes. Click-drag to move a brush and change its position in the palette.
Texture Brush
Once a Do-It-Yourself brush is created, a texture can be added to it, creating a texture brush. You can set the shape and/or color and make a texture from a rotated stroke or capture something on your canvas to use as a texture. See Create a Do-It-Yourself brush.
Create a texture brush
In the Brush Properties of a Do-It-Yourself brush, you can create a texture brush by sketching a design and capturing it. The captured texture can also be rotated. When capturing a texture, one of the following Custom Texture settings can be selected:

• Shape + Colors – Uses the current paint color, as well as the selected shape, to create your texture. Whenever the texture brush is used, it uses the color set during creation.

• Shape – Creates a texture brush with no assigned color. Each time the texture brush is used, a different color can be set.

• Rotate to Stroke – Dynamically rotates the texture in the direction of the stoke.

NOTE When capturing the texture shape, SketchBook uses the current size of the Do-It-Yourself brush. If the complete shape is not captured, resize the Do-It-Yourself brush, then capture the shape again.
Do-It-Yourself Brush
Now, you can export and import Do-It-Yourself brushes. They can be shared and taken with you to use on other machines. Email brushes to friends to try. You created a brush on a Mac and want to use it on Windows – no problem! Export the brush, save it on a jump drive, then on the other machine, import it.
Export a Do-It-Yourself brush
After a Do-It-Yourself brush has been made, you may want to save it to use again or share with colleagues. The Export button, in Brush Properties, allows people working on different platforms to share brushes. You can also bring these brushes to a client or use when working on another machine.
1. Create a Do-It-Yourself brush.
2. Either double-click the Do-It-Yourself brush in the Brush Palette or select Show Brush Properties.
3. At the bottom of Brush Properties, click Export. This opens Save As.
4. Name the file and click Save. By default, the file will be saved in the CustomBrushes folder in SketchBook Pro; however, you can change this.
Import a Do-It-Yourself brush
After a Do-It-Yourself brush has been exported, you can import one of your own it to use again or try one created by a colleague. It doesn’t matter what the platform was that the brush was created on.
1. Select any brush, other than a Do-It-Yourself brush.
2. Open the Brush Palette by clicking the brush in the Lagoon.
3. In the Brush Palette, click New Do-It-Yourself Brush. This opens the Create Do-It-Yourself Brush dialog.
4. Click Import. This opens Open. By default, it opens to CustomBrushes folder in SketchBook Pro.
5. If the brush is not in the SketchBook Pro CustomBrushes folder, you will not be able to import it. Move the file to this folder and try again.
6. Select a custom brush file and click Open. The brush will appear in the Brush Palette.
Symmetry
The Symmetry tool enables you to turn symmetry on and off as you sketch, using hotkeys. The X hotkey displays a vertical axis of symmetry and Y a horizontal axis. Anything drawn on one side of the axis will be mirrored. The axis of symmetry will always appear at the center of the canvas. Rotating, scaling, and panning within the canvas alter where the axis is placed.
NOTE If you move the canvas or the contents of the canvas within the pane, the axis of symmetry remain in the center of the canvas.
Add Image: import into a new layer
If you have an image you would like to add that needs to be imported to a new layer, in the general preferences, check Add Image: import into a new layer.
Add an image to a new layer
1. Select Edit > Preferences to open the Preferences window.
2. In the General tab, ensure there is a check next to Add Image: import into a new layer.
3. Click OK. Now, when you use File > Add Image..., the image that is imported appears on a new layer.
Non-proportional scale
Layers and selected items can both be non-proportionally scaled. You can scale in one direction, instead of uniformly.
To non-proportionately scale the layer, in the Transform Layer puck highlight the top of the middle circle, then do one of the following motions:
• Drag up to stretch the layer length.
• Drag down to squish the layer length.
• Drag to the right to stretch the layer width.
• Drag to the left to squish the layer width.
For selected items, in the Transform Layer puck highlight the top of the middle circle, then do one of the following motions:
• Drag up to stretch the item.
• Drag down to squish the item’s length.
• Drag to the right to stretch the item’s width.
• Drag to the left to squish the item’s width.
Rotate canvas
When drawing, use this to reposition or rotate your sketch to create a more comfortable brush stroking angle. Think of this as rotating your paper when drawing. Use either of the following rotate canvas functions to change the orientation of the image.
Rotate your canvas
Hold down the Spacebar, mouse over the rotate ring of the puck that appears, then right-click and drag to freely pivot the canvas.
Autodesk Area
This new feature, found in the Help menu, takes you to Area (http://area.autodesk.com/sketchbook), a place where you can link to SketchBook Pro and other Autodesk communities.
Buy SketchBook Pro
This new feature, also found in the Help menu, takes you to our e-store, where you can purchase SketchBook Pro, from anywhere in the world.

Improvements
• Editable RGB fields have been added to the Color Palette. They allow you to edit the individual RGB values.
• Nine shades of gray have been added as default colors. The 20% and 60% grays can be found in Colors on the Lagoon. To add others to Colors, go to the Lagoon Preferences. They will be listed in the Colors section of the Default SketchBook Tools list.