# RStone and DrawStone



## lauriekaye (Jul 27, 2007)

I am trying to understand the features of RStone and DrawStone. I can't find very much information on DrawStone. Can someone guide me to information and tutorials on DrawStone?
Thank you,
Laurie


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## jasmynn (Sep 16, 2011)

I have both. Personally, I like rsrones better, however you canmodify the preset stone sizes in Drawstone. I dont think there's much support for Drawstone. I emailed them with a couple fill problems I was having a couple weeks ago, but have yet to hear from them.
For example, when I go to do a fill, instead of it filling an area, it puts all the stones for the fill in one spot piled on top of each other. So it looks likeit placed one stone for the fill, but if you delete the stone, there's 50 more stones beneath it! Im still having thesame problem, still waiting for support too!


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## lauriekaye (Jul 27, 2007)

Jasmynn,
Do RStone and DrawStone have the same features?


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## jasmynn (Sep 16, 2011)

For the most part, yes.


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## lauriekaye (Jul 27, 2007)

Can you modify the preset stone size in RStone?


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## jasmynn (Sep 16, 2011)

No, but I've never needed to.


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

jasmynn said:


> No, but I've never needed to.


Actually you can and you do need to IMHO... It's a very convoluted method in rStones to change the library though...

That said if I had to pick one or the other... rStones would be the one.. 

I have lots of tutorials if you are interested?...

Rhinestoning with CorelDRAW - YouTube

CorelDRAW Rhinestone - DST - YouTube

Kevin


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## taricp35 (Dec 10, 2008)

lauriekaye said:


> Can you modify the preset stone size in RStone?


Yes you can change the size, rStones has a stone editor that you can go in and change the sizes of the stones to fit your needs.


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## lauriekaye (Jul 27, 2007)

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. Kevin your tutorials are very helpful! Your tutorials on EasyStone are also very interesting where can that product be purchased?
Thank you,
Laurie


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

lauriekaye said:


> Your tutorials on EasyStone are also very interesting where can that product be purchased?
> Thank you,
> Laurie


It can't (for now)... LOL It has all my trade secrets in it!... You have to be a member of my exclusive club and it comes free with membership but membership is $7,999.00. We realize this membership is not for everyone... LOL

Seriously though... rStones is a great Macro but I didn't care for the licensing restrictions and while the features it has are good there are many features it doesn't have...

So I created Easy Stone... It sounded better then Kevin's Wonder Box... LOL

So now I use "Easy Stone"... All the things I wished were in rStones... I just made and put into Easy Stone....


Kevin


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## speshl (Jul 10, 2008)

@ Kevin, what is this easy stones? I just started playing with the draw stones, you are right there is not a whole lot of help with questions. I also have rstones, I like it but with the trial version you can't do some of the things you can do with the draw stones trial. So with that, do you have the paid for rstones? If so what do the differences compare like?
I am new to this so anything is something for me,


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## fedoraoriginali (Aug 30, 2010)

I have both Rstone & Drawstone. I use both depending on my needs. If I have some tweaking to do I use Drawstone only because it has a button for Vertical and Horizontal spacing 

The REAL Dora the explorer!


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

fedoraoriginali said:


> I have both Rstone & Drawstone. I use both depending on my needs. If I have some tweaking to do I use Drawstone only because it has a button for Vertical and Horizontal spacing
> 
> The REAL Dora the explorer!


Just a heads up for Dora and others that may not know... DRAWStone does have the vertical and horizontal buttons for spacing but you have that in CorelDRAW too...

SHIFT+P for horizontal spacing of objects... SHIFT+A for vertical spacing of objects...

There are dozens of keyboard shortcuts in CorelDRAW but these are two I find particularly useful in my design work. I like that DRAWStone has the button too... But the keyboard shortcut is nice to know too...

Kevin


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

speshl said:


> @ Kevin, what is this easy stones? I just started playing with the draw stones, you are right there is not a whole lot of help with questions. I also have rstones, I like it but with the trial version you can't do some of the things you can do with the draw stones trial. So with that, do you have the paid for rstones? If so what do the differences compare like?
> I am new to this so anything is something for me,


rStones and DRAWStone are both nice products for the money... Honestly you need both... LOL... If I had to choose one or the other personally I would choose rStones...

DRAWStone you get to use on two computers rStones you don't so that is a bit of a drag... 

Both basically have very similar functions... There are many reasons I give rStones the edge.

The biggest reason for me... rStones is light years faster than DRAWStone... That's the biggest negative on DRAWStone for me... 

rStones has an island fill function where DRAWStone does not that is probably the standard fill in the industry that I use a ton and DRAWStone does not have it?...

rStones has a Stone Intersection function after the stones are placed where DRAWStone does only when initially placing the stones.

rStones has a make center line tool... I don't know how useful that is because to me like other similar tools in other programs it doesn't yield the greatest results....

rStones has an Import T-Shirt Model for showcasing a design on a finished shirt... Not bad... I don't use it but it's usable for sure...

rStones has a pricing function... I don't know anyone that actually uses it though... 

DRAWStone is not without it's cool features... The AutoMatching Fill... Very nice... Takes a long time to execute but the results are very nice...

DRAWStone has a select under shape function which is usefull.

DRAWStone has a Convert Circles to Stones function... very, very useful...

DRAWStone has a select stones by size and color... rStone does not in the build I'm using but they may have added that?... Very important feature though if you ask me.

DRAWStone you can EASILY edit the stone library... rStones not so much.

DRAWStone has a Random Fill function which could be REALLY cool... Sadly it doesn't work like it should.

Otherwise feature for feature they are pretty similar...

One thing that does drive me a little batty though with DRAWStone... The numeric fields are all in inches! rStones values are all millimeters... Now I'm here in the US but when it comes to Rhinestone design I would rather be entering millimeter values because they better relate to rhinestone sizes... REALLY I should have a choice but don't in both programs...

Sadly however these two programs still only get us about a 1/3 of the way of what we really need if you ask me...

Successful rhinestone design in CorelDRAW I think comes from 1/3rd the CorelDRAW user... You just need some Corel smarts but really that is with any program... then 2/3 rds the software we are using and it's tools... These two Macros give us only 1/3rd the tools we need... So now we need 2/3rds the smarts in CorelDRAW!

That's where Easy Stone came to be... It's a personal set of Macros that I use to help with automating various editing tasks I do as I go about designing... I'm slowly building my set of tools for the missing 1/3rd of tools we are lacing in DRAWStone and rStones. 

These are all functions I wish these other Macros had but don't... Easy Stone does one thing special though... And that is it applies the stones to a path... You modify the path the stones go with it... They way I design that is critical... rStones and DRAWStone do not... They are all loose stone placement...

So if you want to design in CorelDRAW... Honestly you need both Macros... They are both very good... If you really have to pick only one... I would go with rStones mainly because DRAWStone is so dang slow! 

That said my videos on CorelDRAW with rStones are pretty universal if you want to watch them for use with DRAWStone?...

Rhinestoning with CorelDRAW - YouTube

If you have more specific questions on either Macro I would be happy to assist further...

Kevin


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## fedoraoriginali (Aug 30, 2010)

Thanks Kevin,
I use Corel Draw, WinpcsignPro 2012. OoblingPro (not so much as I haven't had time to really get into it properly) Rstones and Drawstone.

Depending on the design is what program I use. Corel is always in there though!! I love your videos as they explain the thought process behind the method. This helps me tremendously in the more complicated projects! I am using your approach in Winpc as well with much success!!

Don't forget to add a lasso tool in your macro. A very important and useful feature that not even Corel has!


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

fedoraoriginali said:


> Don't forget to add a lasso tool in your macro. A very important and useful feature that not even Corel has!


The lasso tool in WinPC Sign is pretty sweet... Sadly we are somewhat limited in CorelDRAW but I did find a workaround that is actually pretty good and it gives lots of options not found in WinPC Sign...

For the "lasso" tool in CorelDRAW we either select a closed shape as the boundary or we can create a closed shape with the pen tool... This becomes our boundary... Then depending on the options we choose... We can select everything inside the boundary, outside the boundary and on the boundary line or path... Or any combination there of... We can even go further and select by size, color, name, outline color and outline width even while using the boundary/lasso... So if I want to pick up all red stones that are 6ss within the boundary It's very easy to do... Lots more options this way...


Kevin


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## idelements (Feb 3, 2009)

> DRAWStone has a select under shape function which is usefull.


Rstones now has this too...."Select Underlying" under Tools




> DRAWStone has a Convert Circles to Stones function... very, very useful...


definitely wish rstones had this!!!



> DRAWStone has a select stones by size and color... rStone does not in the build I'm using but they may have added that?... Very important feature though if you ask me.


they have had this feature in every release that I have used in rstones. you can select same stones, same color, same size...you can find it on the last tab right under the Intersections function.



> One thing that does drive me a little batty though with DRAWStone... The numeric fields are all in inches! rStones values are all millimeters...


you can change rstones to either mm or inches. you can select from the drop down menu right under the Stone Editor button. 



> That's where Easy Stone came to be... It's a personal set of Macros that I use to help with automating various editing tasks I do as I go about designing... I'm slowly building my set of tools for the missing 1/3rd of tools we are lacing in DRAWStone and rStones.


come on Kevin..stop teasing us with talk of your macro....get it out there for sale


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

idelements said:


> they have had this feature in every release that I have used in rstones. you can select same stones, same color, same size...you can find it on the last tab right under the Intersections function.


Just to be clear, What I was saying with rStones is being able to select by stone size and color at the same time... You can select by color OR size... But I can't select by size AND color...

So say I had a design with red ss10 and red ss6 stones... 

I can't select by color because I get both sized stones... I only want to adjust one or the other... I can't select by size as I would get all ss10 or ss6 stones in the design... That's why it would be nice to be able to select by size and by color at the same time..... The other thing that would be nice is only make those selections with the stones currently selected... Lots of times I have duplicates of the same design on one sheet but only want to deal with one of the designs and when you use the selection tools it's document wide... Not just the selected area...




idelements said:


> you can change rstones to either mm or inches. you can select from the drop down menu right under the Stone Editor button.


That's good to know... I never needed to change it as it's in mm by default... Good to know it's there though if someone wanted to change it...[/quote]

Kevin


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## idelements (Feb 3, 2009)

> Just to be clear, What I was saying with rStones is being able to select by stone size and color at the same time... You can select by color OR size... But I can't select by size AND color...


you can select by same size and same color at the same time...just select "same stones" from the drop down.


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## fedoraoriginali (Aug 30, 2010)

One thing I don't like about both Rstones and Drawstones is that they don't have a "check for new updates" button. For example, they don't work for Corel X6 yet. Actually, not many of my favorite macros do !


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

idelements said:


> you can select by same size and same color at the same time...just select "same stones" from the drop down.


Well there you go... I learned something and it was right there all the time... LOL

I still don't like that it's document wide though.... 

Kevin


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

fedoraoriginali said:


> One thing I don't like about both Rstones and Drawstones is that they don't have a "check for new updates" button. For example, they don't work for Corel X6 yet. Actually, not many of my favorite macros do !


DrawStone is being advertised that it works with CorelDRAW X6 64bit...

Kevin


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

fedoraoriginali said:


> One thing I don't like about both Rstones and Drawstones is that they don't have a "check for new updates" button. For example, they don't work for Corel X6 yet. Actually, not many of my favorite macros do !



What are some of your favorite macros? Maybe I'm missing out?

Kevin


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## fedoraoriginali (Aug 30, 2010)

You see! That's what I mean by and update button! Looks like I cannot update it to a new Corel Version. Bad PR in my opinion.
My favorite macros Besides Rstones and Drawstone are
Expand/Reduce
GD chopper
GDG selection buddy
Remove underlying duplicates

I want to get Dizzy Shaping x 3 but they haven't updated it yet for 64 bit


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## scuba_steve2699 (Nov 15, 2006)

katruax said:


> The lasso tool in WinPC Sign is pretty sweet... Sadly we are somewhat limited in CorelDRAW but I did find a workaround that is actually pretty good and it gives lots of options not found in WinPC Sign...
> 
> Kevin


Corel X6 has a lasso selection tool now.


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## scuba_steve2699 (Nov 15, 2006)

fedoraoriginali said:


> One thing I don't like about both Rstones and Drawstones is that they don't have a "check for new updates" button. For example, they don't work for Corel X6 yet. Actually, not many of my favorite macros do !


RStones is now compatible with Corel X6 32 bit - Saw the update earlier today on their webpage.


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## brndagayle (Oct 29, 2009)

fedoraoriginali said:


> One thing I don't like about both Rstones and Drawstones is that they don't have a "check for new updates" button. For example, they don't work for Corel X6 yet. Actually, not many of my favorite macros do !


Drawstones works with Corel X6 - I'm using it and that' the version I use -- well the 64-bit version anyway.


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## idelements (Feb 3, 2009)

if you upgrade Corel from X5 to X6...do you need to re-buy Drawstones or RStones? or can you just do the upgrade?


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## scuba_steve2699 (Nov 15, 2006)

idelements said:


> if you upgrade Corel from X5 to X6...do you need to re-buy Drawstones or RStones? or can you just do the upgrade?


From what I could tell you do not need to re purchase the software.


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## idelements (Feb 3, 2009)

> Expand/Reduce
> GD chopper
> GDG selection buddy
> Remove underlying duplicates


Dora
Where did you find the Expand/Reduce macro and the Remove Underlying Duplicates macro? 

Thanks


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## fedoraoriginali (Aug 30, 2010)

Christine, I got the free macro to remove duplicates here:

http://woxxom.vbabyexample.com/

The expand/ reduce macro eludes me! Sorry, got it a long time ago. I don't think I paid for it though!


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## rcmsellers (Aug 20, 2010)

Kevin, where can we get the easy stone macro.


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## Jeff Harrison (Oct 23, 2009)

katruax said:


> rStones has a make center line tool... I don't know how useful that is because to me like other similar tools in other programs it doesn't yield the greatest results....


make sure you use the ecut "method" in rStones. FWIW, the other "coredraw method" in drop down uses corel powertrace behind the scenes.



katruax said:


> DRAWStone has a select under shape function which is useful.


Rstones has this too... check tools menu.



katruax said:


> Otherwise feature for feature rStones and DRAWStone are pretty similar...


unfortunately, I know why. But I won't get into the drama behind that here, since I've worked with both of these macromonster team members for many years.



katruax said:


> Sadly however these two programs still only get us about a 1/3 of the way of what we really need if you ask me...


I'd say more than that... ;-) The biggest issue I find is people who are totally new to CorelDRAW, and even don't know what copying and pasting is, or how to navigate through folders on their systems. 

This issue relates to more than rhinestoning; I find the same thing in the web design, sign, and offset print industries (embroidery too I suspect).

Learning how to do things properly in this business is like learning how to be a carpenter, pilot, martial artist, nurse, musician... anything worthwhile takes time.


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Jeff Harrison said:


> Learning how to do things properly in this business is like learning how to be a carpenter, pilot, martial artist, nurse, musician... anything worthwhile takes time.


Very good point, Jeff.."learning how to do things properly"

Also, for those reading this post remember these are "macro" programs and a very reasonably priced macros. 
A plug-in program that goes up against other programs that can range from $300-$1000+ in price. I wouldn't consider it a "starter" program in the slightest because it does have excellent features. 

But, as Jeff mentioned learning Corel Draw will be extremely helpful. Not every program is gonna be perfect, not every program is going to do what you want it to.. many RhineStoners have 1-2 programs or even more. Its not illegal or against the law, its like have Illustrator and Corel both have different features that go hand and hand.


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

dazzabling said:


> Its like have Illustrator and Corel both have different features that go hand and hand.


It's funny you should say this... I know lots and lots of CorelDRAW users... I don't know but rare few who use both CorelDRAW and Illustrator... I don't know anyone who uses Illustrator that also uses CorelDRAW... You're not a real Illustrator user if you dare come over to the dark side and use CorelDRAW... LOL

I was just talking with someone the other day about this very thing about Rhinestone programs...

I have lots of software on my computer... But Rhinestone software is the only software I have duplicates of...

I have one cad program... One vector program. One word processor, One FTP client, One Web Design Program, One Image Editing Program, One Embroidery software...

But 5 Rhinestone Programs... LOL But I only use one...

Kevin


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## katruax (Sep 30, 2010)

Jeff Harrison said:


> Rstones has this too... check tools menu.


I totally forgot that was a new feature added in one of the most recent updates a couple months ago...

Kevin


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

katruax said:


> It's funny you should say this... I know lots and lots of CorelDRAW users... I don't know but rare few who use both CorelDRAW and Illustrator... I don't know anyone who uses Illustrator that also uses CorelDRAW... You're not a real Illustrator user if you dare come over to the dark side and use CorelDRAW... LOL


I must be the rare few, laugh all you want but being well versed in both programs surely helps you not look like an idiot to your customer..lol

When you have the ability to open up any vector file from a customer surely helps. 

Dark side or whatever, it surely isn't a crime to have both programs like having many rhinestone programs. 

I know and use Corel Draw, but I don't need to have a customer worry about sending over their artwork if they prefer illy or Corel. 

don't need instructions on how to tell my customer either..just put me in with the rare few.


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