WireframeSketcher Blog

Hi everyone!

Today’s release adds rotation property to icons and SVG images, brings Shapes and Annotations assets to Mockups Gallery, enables multiple windows in WireframeSketcher Studio, adds Ubuntu/Debian packages, and fixes a few issues. Read on for more details.

Rotating icons and SVG images

Using SVG images is a great way to enhance WireframeSketcher with custom assets. This version adds a new rotation property that lets you rotate SVGs in 90° increments and makes SVGs even more useful. Since we are here, icons can now be rotated too.

Geometric Shapes and Annotations assets

I added two new assets to Mockups Gallery that make extensive use of SVG images. One is Geometric Shapes that can be used to draw simple diagrams, and the other is Annotations that adds extra callouts and markups to the palette.

These assets use some extra attributes in SVG files to control how images behave on resize. These attributes are not documented yet, but you can download the assets and look around to get an idea on how they work. Specifically, look for “ws-layout” attribute in .svg files.

Working with Multiple Monitors

This version also enables a new menu entry under Window > New Window. Eclipse users may know this option already, but it’s now also available in WireframeSketcher Studio. What it does, it lets you open a second window which then can be moved to another monitor. So if you have multiple monitors (which I assume many of you do) you can make a better use of them by editing and viewing multiple mockups at once.

I added a Working with Multiple Monitors section to the User Guide that gives more tips on how to exploit a multi-monitor desktop setup.

Ubuntu and Debian packages

Starting from today you can download Debian packages for Ubuntu and Debian-based systems. With these packages you get a smooth installation experience add a nice menu entry in “Applications > Graphics”.

Other changes

• Fixed broken links issue when moving multiple files. Probably many of you have thought that broken links are normal when re-organizing screens. Well, I assure it’s not, and hopefully from now on you won’t see this issue again. When files are moved or renamed in Package Explorer view, WireframeSketcher automatically kicks in and updates links, image paths and screen references, so that everything continues to work.
• Fixed an issue with icons auto-completion in Tree widget

Updating

To update to the latest version of WireframeSketcher go to the Help menu and select Check for Updates.

The version number of this release is 3.3.0.

Enjoy!

Hi everyone!

Today’s release brings new assets for Android and iPhone wireframes, improves support for SVG images and adds several new icons. Read on for more details.

Assets for Android and iPhone wireframes

We are continuously tweaking our support for SVG images and this makes it much easier to add custom user assets. Most notably, SVG assets automatically inherit current theme, sketchy or clean, and are drawn appropriately. We’ve published new assets for Android and iPhone wireframes that make use of SVG images to provide much nicer templates.

These new assets also show how to use zip archives to package multiple files together. The built-in Mockups Gallery wizard downloads and installs packaged assets automatically. Go to Help > Add Assets from Mockups Gallery to launch it.

Improved SVG support

In this release SVG images gained background and foreground properties. Note that these properties only work for black & white images. Black color is converted to foreground and white color – to background. Additionally you can change the opacity of the background color.

Another change is better support for SVG images produced by Adobe Illustrator. Notably, SVG symbols are now properly loaded and displayed.

This update also adds support for 9-slice scaling that is very popular with Adobe products. This works by specifying extra information in SVG files. 9-slice scaling gives more control over how SVG images behave when resized. In the next few days we’ll be publishing a new Shapes stencil that will show how exactly this works.

New icons

This release adds several new icons. An icon for indeterminate checkbox state, simple arrow icons as found in GMail, and “more” (3 dots) icon for iPhone and iPad wireframes.

Updating

To update to the latest version of WireframeSketcher go to the Help menu and select Check for Updates.

The version number of this release is 3.2.0.

Enjoy!

Hi everyone!

Today’s release is just a quick update that fixes a few bugs and adds/changes several icons. I would also like to announce pricing changes that are to come.

Pricing changes

Just a month ago WireframeSketcher celebrated 3 years since its first release. In these 3 years the product has matured a lot and formed a small user community around it. All this time we were encouraging early adopters by keeping our prices low and updates free. Now we’d like to move to a more sustainable business model.

Starting from January 2012, the price of a single license will be $99 and it will include 12 months of free updates. After 1 year you’ll be able to buy another 12 months of updates at a fraction of the initial price. This change will allow us to concentrate more on our existing customers and on satisfying better their needs.

This goes without saying that our existing customers won’t be affected but this change and will continue to receive free updates. You are our early adopters and this is our way to thank you.

You can still buy WireframeSketcher using old prices until the end of this year. Consider this as a gift from Santa Claus :)

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Updating

To update to the latest version of WireframeSketcher go to the Help menu and select Check for Updates.

The version number of this release is 3.1.1.

Enjoy!

Hi everyone!

I am happy to bring you a quick update. The new version migrates all icons to vector format. There is also a new Windows installer for standalone version. Read on for more details.

Vector icons

All icons now use SVG vector format. To you this means that:

• There is no quality loss on zoom and you get top-notch, high-quality PDF documents.
• Icons can be resized to any size so you can use them as clipart
• Icons get sketchy when sketch theme is used

There are also 30+ new icons and all icons were tweaked for better contrast. Icons are more solid which gives them a better visibility when used in wireframes:

This is a big change so please let me know how it works for you.

Windows installer

There is now a new Windows installer for standalone version. This solves the troubles some of you had with zip archives. Please let me know if you encounter any issues with it.

Updating

To update to the latest version of WireframeSketcher go to the Help menu and select Check for Updates.

The version number of this release is 3.1.0.

Enjoy!

Hi everyone!

I am excited to bring you a new release! A huge news in this version is the new support for SVG vector graphic images. There is also a new rotation property for Labels and a close integration with Mockups Gallery website. Read on for more details.

SVG images

This version adds a new SVG Image widget that can be used to load and display SVG images. I believe this opens up a lot of new possibilities and makes WireframeSketcher a much more flexible tool.

Unlike regular images, SVG images can be resized to any size without loosing the clarity of the image. SVG images also adapt to the current theme and render in sketchy style. When exporting to PDF, SVG images stay clear and you get high-quality documents with an excellent readability.

With a bit of work you can extend WireframeSketcher with custom shapes and clipart. There are a lot of excellent free resources that you can use to get new assets for your wireframes. For example you can add Iconic icons and Gesture symbols from Some Random Dude blog:

You can also use Inkscape, an open source vector graphics editor, to create your own shapes and clipart. I encourage you to share your assets with other users via Mockups Gallery.

Please note that some SVG images may not load or not render correctly. Please send them to me and I’ll test them and add the necessary corrections. Generally I designed the SVG renderer to handle a basic subset of SVG standard and ignore the rest. For example text won’t work. To add text to your images just convert it to path. Another example are gradients which are automatically converted to a solid color.

I think the addition of SVG images is a huge improvement and I’d love to have your feedback on it. I think there is a lot of potential here and I’d love to hear your ideas.

Label rotation

There is a new Rotation property that solves a long requested demand for vertical text. It’s available for Label widget and lets you rotate it in 90 degrees increments:

Mockups Gallery integration

Mockups Gallery can now be accessed directly from application by selecting Help > Add Assets from Mockups Gallery…. This launches the website in a separate tab and lets you browse available components. Clicking a download link launches the Mockups Gallery wizard that lets you select a project and then downloads and installs the asset in the “asset” folder.

Updating

To update to the latest version of WireframeSketcher go to the Help menu and select Check for Updates.

The version number of this release is 3.0.0.

Enjoy!