The Xara Trompe L'Oeil Room Page 1
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As always, we will be using Pixels as our units of measure. Right click on the screen and select Page Options... from the pop up menu. In the Units tabbed section, select Pixels for the Units and 0-255 for the Color Units. In the Grid and Ruler tabbed section set the Major Spacing to 100pix (key it in exactly like this please) and the Number of Subdivisions to 10. Press OK to close the dialog and apply the changes.

NOTE: You will notice from time to time I apply arbitrary colors to objects. I do this to make the objects easier to see. If I do not specify a fill for an object, you do not have to apply a fill or outline color.

When I show an ellipse or rectangle that has just been created, that has no fill, it is because I have set the fill to none before I exported the illustration. By default, all ellipses, rectangles and Quick Shapes have a black outline and a black fill. There is nothing wrong with your copy of Xara.

Using the Rectangle Tool, create two large rectangles and two small rectangles to the sizes shown. It is very important that the rectangles be drawn pretty close to the actual size without resizing them with the Selector Tool (the arrow cursor).

Use the Height and Width text entry boxes on the Infobar at the top of the screen to modify the height and width. Center the two largest rectangles using the Object Alignment menu (Arrange > Alignment). Place the two smaller rectangles in the upper portion as shown. We will position them more precisely a little bit later.

Select the largest rectangle with the Rectangle Tool. Click the Curved Corners icon (the arc) on the Infobar.

From the drop down list, select Curvature. Use the arrow buttons to change the Curvature amount to 0.15 in the text entry box (to the right of the drop down list). Select the next largest rectangle and using the same procedure, change the Curvature to 0.1.

NOTE: When I refer to a specific tool or visible command, I will bold face the word (Curvature). When I refer to an unnamed icon on the Infobar, or main toolbar, I will use Italics ( Curved Corners). To see an icon's name, let the cursor rest over it for a few moments and a tool tip will appear with the name.