202
•
If the shape is made up of straight line segments, versus curves, you can also drag the segments with your
mouse instead of using the keyboard arrows. Note that it can be a bit tricky getting the cursor in the perfect
spot to start dragging. However, you won’t have the same control if you wish to keep the paths perfectly
horizontal or vertical:
•
Some practical examples of moving paths include resizing boxes and envelopes where you need the overall
dimensions of the final project to be different but you do not want to change the size/thickness of the flaps.
8.10.2 Reshaping a Path
•
With the
Shape Tool
selected,
you’ll observe four icons in the
Tool Options.
The purpose of each option is
to convert one or more selected nodes to that type of node:
•
One or more nodes are highlighted and then the appropriate icon selected. These same four functions can
also be accessed by right-clicking and selecting
Path>Convert Node to
.
•
To illustrate each one of these options, a simple path with a sharp corner will be used. This shape is already
in
Corner Node
mode. To change to a different mode (in the examples that follow the first one), the top
node is selected and then the option is clicked from the
Tool Options
or using the right-click and
Path>Convert Node to
menu option.
Corner Nodes:
These are the nodes that make up straight-line shapes such as rectangles,
squares, triangles, stars, etc. Once selected, the shape will appear as below and either path can be
moved as was demonstrated in the prior
Section 8.10.1
.
Cusp Nodes:
In this mode the Bézier control points appear and can be moved independently.
First note how the paths appear when in this mode, depending on how many of the adjacent nodes are
selected:
You can use your mouse
to drag the path anywhere
Convert Node to Corner
Convert Node to
Cusp
Convert Node
to
Symmetric
Convert Node to
Smooth
Right side dragged
Right side dragged
Left side dragged
Summary of Contents for KNK Force
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