Quickly Apply Custom Text And Shape Transformations With InstantReplay!

Getting a picture perfect design on a shape or text can be time consuming. There’s nothing worse than the sinking feeling of realizing your design is great, but now you have to mimic it 100 more times. The InstantReplay function in SignLab, EngraveLab, and ProfileLab lets you take all the custom design work you do on a shape or text and apply it to other shapes and text. The history of these applications is kept in the Storage Bin.

To get started with InstantReplay, you’ll want to have a some text or a shape already in your work space. From there:

1. Select the “View” menu.
2. Click “Show InstantReplay”.

This will bring up the InstantReplay Dialog. Next, select the text or shape you want to edit. If you want to apply transformations, you would select your desired option from the transform menu. Once you are happy with your changes, click outside the text or shape to close the transform controls.

You’ll now notice that your transformations have are visible in the Operations area of the InstantReplay dialog. If you can’t see anything in the Operations area, click on your text or shape directly, or select it in the “Screen” area of the InstantReplay Dialog. Once you’re happy with the transformations you have applied, you can begin getting them ready for InstantReplay.

To do so:

1. Select the “View” menu.
2. Click “Show Storage Bin”.
3. From the “Operations” area of the InstantReplay dialog, ctrl+click the operations you want to add to InstantReplay.
4. Click “Copy to Clipboard” which will move these Operations to your Storage Bin.
5. You can now close the InstantReplay Dialog.
6. From your Storage Bin, highlight the Operations you want to apply, and drag and drop them on to the text or shapes you want to have changed.

To enable or disable InstantReplay, go to Options > Use InstantReplay.

To see InstantReplay and the Storage Bin, go to View > Show InstantReplay and Show Storage Bin.

The InstantReplay UI Explained

Using InstantReplay

InstantReplay uses drag-and-drop functionality for ordering operations and applying operations to objects (from the Operations section or the Storage Bin). The Original section shows original objects created, Intermediate refers to objects that can be accessed but are not visible, and Screen refers to objects currently on the screen.

•  Copy to clipboard (stored in the Storage Bin)
•  Paste from clipboard (from the Storage Bin)
•  Show clipboard (show Storage Bin)
•  Simplify (incorporates all actions into object and erases operation history)
•  Edit (edit selected object)

The Storage Bin

The Storage Bin shows operations copied to the clipboard.

Using the Storage Bin

•  Open file (open stored operations)
•  Save file (save operations)
•  Copy to clipboard (stored in the Storage Bin)
•  Paste from clipboard (from the Storage Bin)
•  Clear clipboard (delete the contents of the clipboard)
• Combine operations (combine multiple operations into one)

With these steps, you can now drag these Operations to other shapes or text in your workspace, providing an InstantReplay of the applied Operations!