10 replies to this topic

[ELeFevre]

I just made the leap from Adobe Illustrator CS3 to CS5 and was wondering what the general consensus was so far. I haven't been able dig too deep but my first impressions are positive. I've found multiple art-boards useful for cropping and exporting multiple insets at the same time. I also like that you can now make changes directly in the appearance palette. The Perspective Grid tool seems interesting even though I don't have an immediate cartographic application. I also noticed that when you search the Help files relevant posts from the Adobe forums are returned. That seems like a thoughtful addition as long as the content doesn't get out of control and stays relevant. I've always thought Adobe needs to spend some serious time improving their Help system.

Is there anything new in CS5 that's made your cartographic life better?

[David Medeiros]

I'm still on CS4, but I understand that CS5 allows you to create a true tapered brushes or lines allowing for easy river tapers.

[Adam Wilbert]

My favorite: 9 slice scaling for symbols. One of those obscure things that makes a huge difference, once you start using it.
Lynda.com videos on CS5's new features, with a freebie 9-slice scaling under heading #5

The other thing that I really like is the way Illy CS5 handles going to raster formats for the web. The new controls over pixel-perfect line and aliasing placement is really nice.

Oh, and the adjustable width strokes is handy. I still like the way Inkscape handles variable strokes better, but this is an improvement.

Finally, I do have to say the perspective grids are really a pain to use. They'll be handy in two revisions, but as is, consider it a beta feature.

[rudy]

We've been using CS5 for about 6 months when we upgraded from CS3. We like it. It seems to handle most things better. We particularly like it because it imports and converts Freehand files much easier and much better than CS3 ever did. A big plus for us considering about 1/3 of our files are still in Freehand.

[Jimbo]

Up for consideration is the fact if you intend to use any updated version of Avenza's products you absolutely need at least CS4 because if you intend to keep using CS3 & have a maintenance contract then you are wasting your money.

[kay]

I like CS5 with controlling the registration point of the symbol.
In addition to the 9 slice scaling for symbols Adam mentioned, go to the isolation mode for a symbol. You can place the registration at the position you want. That will be the "centre" of point when rotating symbols.

[Adam Wilbert]

I like CS5 with controlling the registration point of the symbol.
In addition to the 9 slice scaling for symbols Adam mentioned, go to the isolation mode for a symbol. You can place the registration at the position you want. That will be the "centre" of point when rotating symbols.

Wow, how did I not know about that one? Thanks!

[kay]

Wow, how did I not know about that one? Thanks!

If you use symbols a lot with Ai, you will find it very powerful and useful That is my favourite about CS5.

[ELeFevre]

My favorite: 9 slice scaling for symbols. One of those obscure things that makes a huge difference, once you start using it.
Lynda.com videos on CS5's new features, with a freebie 9-slice scaling under heading #5

The other thing that I really like is the way Illy CS5 handles going to raster formats for the web. The new controls over pixel-perfect line and aliasing placement is really nice.

Oh, and the adjustable width strokes is handy. I still like the way Inkscape handles variable strokes better, but this is an improvement.

Finally, I do have to say the perspective grids are really a pain to use. They'll be handy in two revisions, but as is, consider it a beta feature.

I see your point about 9 slice scaling making a big difference. Very cool. The new adjustable width tool looks promising as well. I just noticed they made some changes to the gradient tool. Check it out.

[kay]

Erin. The stroke panel is different, too. You can now set the arrow heads from the stroke panel

- kay

[Brian Moran]

This may be old news, but the Object>Join function works better now in CS5 (or CS4? I skipped that release). You no longer have to select individual endpoints on paths to join. Selecting multiple paths and joining now results in all paths being joined at the closest endpoints. A step towards being as good as Concatenate, but the distance tolerance is not there yet. As far as I know Concatenate does not yet work with CS5, so I still join my roads and streams in CS3/Concatenate.